*Progress *Positivity *Exercise *Support - Part 1 - And on the negative side!
This is a two part post. I will start with THE NEGATIVE SIDE OF THINGS!
The last week or so has been a intense. On Monday 9th May evening Cherry had a seizure. She has had a few since January and was medicated for them. She could have a tumour and was scheduled to have an MRI about a week later. Her seizures had, till this point, always been related to food excitement ie if she has a tumor it is positioned in the “mum just threw me a piece of steak” section of her brain. Then at 4.30am, on the bed, she seized again. Full grand mal seizures, foaming at mouth, paddling with legs, all bodily motions instantly. Then again at 7am. This was getting really serious. The vet opened at 8.30am. I had a lung function at 9am. Jason was due to go to work. I couldn’t cancel my appointment as I had to go to St Vincents in a few weeks with the results. We worked out that Jason would stay home with Cherry; I would call the vet when I arrived at the hospital for my appointment and would try and pick up stronger meds on the way home.
I was very stressed, trying to co-ordinate everything. I was also very concerned about my dog. The vet had previously advised that if the seizures were longer than 5 minutes it was serious. Cherry’s were only 1-2 minutes. I just needed to get her stronger meds…. or so I thought. Here is the sequence of events in the last week:
Phoned vet multiple times to get through at around 8.30am. Finally got through and spoke to the nurse about what was happening. At same time received a message from Jason saying Cherry had seized again a little while ago. Was waiting for vet to call me back.
At 8.45am I went in to get lung function. Receptionist said I had the wrong referral from my doctor. My stress was escalating. I quickly phoned up the medical practice and advised that I was at my appointment but the doctor had given me the wrong referral and they would not do the test. They said they would chase the doctor when he arrived at 9am to send a new one. Jason sent another message that Cherry had seized again.
At 9am the doctor called talking about referral (he was faxing it through). At the same time the vet was calling. I may have been rude but quickly tried to get the doctor off the phone so I could talk to the vet.
I then talked to the vet who advised that I should come in to get more meds for Cherry after my appointment. Jason messaged again saying Cherry had seized again. I was about to melt down.
Then, after referral arrived, I was weighed by lung function technician who said I had lost weight. I said “um, no, I think I have put on a fair bit of weight” she had 87kg I believe but my scales said 97kg. I let her know it was wrong but she snapped “your scales are wrong”. Hey, that would be a bonus if it were true (subsequent purchase of new set of scales confirmed that I was right and alas, was not 87kg but 97kg).
Went in to do lung function. It did not go well! My lungs were significantly worse. I don’t have the results yet but it was not good. I had been feeling that they were worse. Things have been getting harder to do ie climbing stairs or walking up a hill takes a while. My mind was racing between sick dog and me having to have a stem cell transplant (which has 7% mortality and would knock me out of life for around 6 months).
Left the hospital and paid for the parking ticket at the machine. At the boom gate, it would not open with my paid ticket, and made me pay again. Just the way my morning was going. I was shaking with stress. My vibration was all over the shop.
Got to the vets around 10am and grabbed the meds and was told to take her to animal emergency if things got worse.
Got home and gave Cherry a pill. About 30 minutes later Cherry coughed up a lot of blood. I was freaking. Called the vet and he said to take her to emergency.
Thinking it was the end of the road for Cherry we all decided to go with her to hospital ie picked my son up from school; my daugher left work… we were all there. Decided to take Cherry to Sydney as she had already seen a dog neurologist there a few weeks ago. Cherry was rushed in, in a bad way, still coughing up blood and struggling to breath. In a nutshell her seizures, even though short, had caused her lungs to fill with blood and she was not oxygenating.
Cherry was in hospital for 3 days costing $7,800. She arrived home on Friday and I was given strict medication instructions - 4 times a day. The meds make her a bit dopey and very hungry. Cherry was wandering around the house looking for food.
At 6pm Friday I was following Cherry’s medication instructions. I counted everything out diligently and placed them on the counter. There were quite a few pills so it required a big spoonful of peanut butter this time. Cherry chomped on the ball of peanut butter with gusto. Unfortunately it stuck to the top of her mouth and she was freaking out trying to remove it. Eventually she got her paw in her mouth and got it out. We then discovered a tablet and peanut butter in between her toes.
At 7pm Cherry was really wonky. She was falling over like a drunk person. Her bladder randomly emptied as she was walking around the lounge room. Her eyes looked really vacant. I was a bit concerned but they did say the meds would make her dopey. Perhaps it would fix shortly.
At 7.30pm Cherry fell over and could not get up. She was looking at me but could not move, her legs didn’t work. I was seriously questioning how she could function on these meds, then I had a thought to look at what I had given her. OMG!!! For valid reasons, a misunderstanding of dosage, I accidentally gave Cherry 4 times the meds she should have had. I was freaking out! Had I killed my dog??? I called the emergency vet immediately and told them what had happened. After some calculations on weight to dosage they confirmed she would be ok but would probably be out of it till the morning. I suppose that is one good reason for Cherry’s chubby physique.
At 8pm Jason and I rolled Cherry into her dog bed, a new one with high sides. Her head was laying on one of the sides but soon after it slid down the inside of the bed sort of how you make yourself look like a pig if you pull your nose up and reveal your teeth. Poor thing couldn’t even control her head. I was wracked with guilt.
About 2am Cherry pee’d herself in her bed, still unable to move. Jason was on watch and sorted out the issue. Rolled Cherry out and back in again when fixed.
At 6am the alarm went off for Cherry’s meds. She got out of bed and all four paws slid in a four different directions. I checked but Vet said she needed to have her meds.
Cherry recovered from her accidental overdose and is now the dopey, food obsessed dog we were promised. The food obsession is pretty extreme. I have found her standing in the dishwasher licking the dirty plates; eating the rabbits food; eating off plates on the coffee table; I have been concerned about how she is looking at her friend Bun Bun (and whether she knows that there is rabbit inside the rabbit). Bun Bun is blissfully unaware.
Today I was waking Tim up and Cherry was in his room as well. I looked over at Cherry who was rummaging around in his bin. I went over to see what she had discovered and saw the sandwich I had made Tim for yesterdays school lunch in there.
The sandwich was the straw the broke the camels back!
Tim had lied to me about eating his sandwich (I had asked him yesterday). Trying to get good food into this child is not easy! I always take the time to make a healthy lunch with additional, not so healthy, snacks. Apparently Tim has only been eating the crap.
With the week I had had, and my frustration at the typical teenager, my anger boiled over and I went psycho mum! I grabbed his bin and told him that I was throwing out all the sandwiches I had made, and frozen and that he could eat whatever crap he wanted. I emptied the freezer and marched to the bin, which was on the street for collection, and added the big bag of food to it.
My rant continued on. I was no longer going to drive him to the bus stop (allowing him to sleep in till 7.15am) now he needed to get up at 6am and had to leave by 6.50am and get the bus. He also had to make his lunch the night before from now on. The steam was billowing out of my ears.
So it has been a crappy week! Starting out with my dog nearly dying from seizures and pulmonary edema. Paying $7,800 in vet bills. Then with me trying to poison my dog with medication. Me wondering how I was going to cope with dog meds 4 times a day with strict hours. My lungs testing very poorly. My feeling that the doctors will be circling like vultures trying to put me on strong immune suppressing drugs or give me a stem cell transplant. Me getting good news about my weight only to have it subsequently cruely ripped away upon purchase of new scales. Me getting ripped off by a parking machine. Me having to constantly watch the dog and keep her away from any food source and being concerned dog will eat rabbit. And finally the great sandwich conspiracy where I was close to stuffing said sandwich into one of various orifices of said 14 year old boy.
Now I have finished with the negative side of the last week my next post will be looking at the positive aspects of the week.