This morning Chloe and I took a misty walk around the neighborhood. Not quite ‘rain’ but enough to form beads of moisture on my jacket. We immediately walked back inside to don some rain gear. You can see in the video below, Chloe has a nice water resistant vest (lined with fleece) under her Ruff Wear harness. I just wore my turquoise Marmot shell over my REI fleece. Not sure if either of us would survive a torrential rain storm (I was in cotton pants), but it did the job! Also, this video didn’t quite capture the light ‘mist’ raining down on us…but it did capture her favored tripawd pace 🙂
Chloe just finished a 3 week oral steroid treatment and 1.5 week Prilosec antacid regimen in order to ‘tackle’ her ongoing inflammation/gulping issue (see previous posts Foxtail in the Hound 2 and Part 2 cont). Recap: Chloe had a check up last week (for the gulping) and the vet said that if nothing we did helped to manage the situation, additional and costly diagnostic tests would be encouraged as the next step. Unfortunately with my student budget, I didn’t think I could shell out thousands more than I already had. I was mentally preparing myself for living with her ‘gulping’ as long as it continued at the same rate and her condition didn’t degrade. Today, I am happy to say that she is gulping less and that she is still her happy, bubbly, perky self! I hope that this promising road continues! Be sure to check out my previous post celebrating Chloe’s 2 year ampuversary!!!!
I hope everyone has been enjoying the olympics, I sure have! On my other blog (predominately about running), I have decided to cover the women’s US soccer games (taking screen shots while I watch on nbc live.com) and I am happy to report that they are on their way to the semi-finals! Go team USA!
To check out my other blog, click the link Masters2Marathons. Thanks and have a great weekend everyone!
Hoppy 2yr ampuversary to Chloe! We made it! Even with those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad foxtail adventures!!!!!!!!!! We will be celebrating by spending time at the beach, taking naps, eating treats and snuggling on the couch. I’ve truly been blessed to have her in my life.
I made this video in early June to celebrate Chloe’s 2yr ‘cancer surviving thing’, but the song “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger” by Glee Cast now applies to everything she and I have been through these past few months: the foxtail-in-the-mouth/inflammation debacle, my grandfather and my uncle passing away within 3 weeks of one another, family issues, roommate issues, and thesis issues. Life seemed to happen all at once for us and while it hasn’t been easy, I do have to give myself credit for getting through it. Thank you to those who responded to my forum post regarding these matters, your support is always greatly appreciated.
In celebration of Chloe’s milestone, I only ask that you call, hug, and tell loved ones that you love them. Life is too short.
What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger by Glee Cast (Intro lyrics)
You know the bed feels warmer
Sleepin’ here alone
You know I dream in color
And do the things I want
You think you got the best of me
Think you’ve had the last laugh
Bet you think that everything good is gone
Think you left me broken down
Think that I’d come running back
Baby you don’t know me, cause you’re dead wrong
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn’t mean I’m lonely when I’m alone
What doesn’t kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter
Doesn’t mean I’m over cause you’re gone
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, myself and I
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn’t mean I’m lonely when I’m alone
Today the vet called to tell me the results of Chloe’s internal biopsies from her endoscopy: tonsils, esophagus, stomach, and small intestines. You see, last Friday we went to the vet AGAIN because Chloe was still having gulping issues after a foxtail was removed from beneath her tongue and another from her tonsils. I was worried about what came first, the chicken or the egg, type of scenario. Did she eat the grass that had foxtails in it, causing inflammation and leading to pieces stuck in her mouth or did she have some underlying GI issue/disease that led her to eat the grass and the foxtails in the first place? I was tired of ‘not knowing’, so I wanted to get this issue resolved. So the next step was she endoscopy. This way the vet could see inside her body and take tissue samples for processing. She’s been on broad spectrum medications to cover all these potential issues in the meantime.
Turkeys in our driveway. Cute turkeylings!!!
Back to the biopsy update: no sign of disease, cancer or otherwise. Just inflammation. The vet thinks (and me too) that her internal inflammation (tonsils, esophagus and stomach) are repercussions from ingesting the foxtails. Chloe was given a steroid shot last Friday, and oh my goodness were the side effects terrible. She was pacing, panting, peeing herself and still gulping A LOT. Probably didn’t help that the day before, they stuck a camera down her insides and scraped little bits off along the way. Poor girl. Good thing she has anxiety issues, so I gave her one of her chill pills to calm her down. Sunday she was much better, no steroid side effects.
Chloe is still painfully gulping at least 25x/day, yes I’m keeping track of it since I can do a lot of thesis work from home. I gave this update to her vet and we started the next step: start Chloe on a short course of oral steroids. Pretty much steroids are the only thing that can reduce the inflammation. But we can’t keep her on them forever because there are long term side effects… I think that she’s had this inflammation and gulping for so long, that she needs something more than just one shot to kick the inflammation’s butt. I have no doubt its going to take a while to heal regardless. In the meantime, I’ve been giving her boiled chicken, canned food, brown rice, chicken stock and water in her food. The liquids to help keep up her hydration and the others because they are mushy. Until she no longer gulps, she will be on this ‘mushy baby food-like diet’. The last thing I want is to exacerbate her healing by feeding her dry kibble. And I’m too lazy to let her dry kibble soak for an hour to get mushy enough to eat.
Chloe’s ‘cuffs’: shaved spots from IV insertion areas. L from first procedure, R from most recent.
Fingers crossed, the oral steroids, mushy food and love will help her heal. I guess the good thing is that my dog is literally healthy inside and out apart from the inflammation. But I’ve lost about 10 years of my life between her illness and the 2 deaths in the family. My grandfather’s memorial service will be on Monday and my uncles’ the following Sunday. Please, tell your loved ones that you love them. Give your pooch a huge hug as well. Life is too short.
For your entertainment: Chloe fixated on the turkeys…if we get too close and scare them, Chloe goes NUTS, whining, high pitched barking, falling over trying to ‘sprint’ while I hold her. If I could multitask I would film that to show you how funny she gets. But this will have to do!