[Dailydrool] Gracie and Elmo updates

[Donna Lindy]

Gracie continues to do well. This morning she got to eat a little more  
food at one time and she was happy about that.  I'll be feeding her  
again in a few minutes.  My vet that I saw earlier today with Elmo  
told me that it was a miracle that Gracie survived. I guess this is a  
reminder that we may not be out of the woods yet.  She will have her  
albumin tested on Friday morning at my vet's.  If her protein hasn't  
come up, then she is still in trouble.  But she's acting more and more  
herself and I have to believe she is getting that level up.

Elmo, unfortunately, is following the same path that Gracie did with  
the vomiting and diarrhea.  His situation is complicated by congestive  
heart failure. There has been a change in his heart in the last 24  
hours.  Fluids for him are tricky but he did get some sub-q fluids  
this  morning along with several injections for nausea and pain as  
well as a high powered antibiotic and lasix. He does take lasix and  
another medication for fluid orally but we can't be sure he's keeping  
them down.  I have syringes to give him additional meds at home  
tonight if needed.

If Elmo doesn't improve by tomorrow morning, the proverbial  
handwriting is pretty much on the wall for him.  His lungs will fill  
with fluid and his heart cannot handle that.  So we'll be watching him  
24/7 and then do what we need to do.  If Gracie got a miracle, I want  
my boy to have one, too.  But I know that at 13 1/2 yrs. old the  
miracles don't always happen and perhaps rightly so.  Still, I hope my  
sweet old lumpy man can beat the odds.

And so we're still on the roller coaster here at the Lindy house.  
Thankfully, a friend offered to take Bill to be disconnected from his  
chemo pump and that leaves me free to do what needs to be done with my  
little patients.  You'd think we'd be drowning in drool already, but  
we still need that healing power that drool has so please keep it  
coming . . .

Again, thanks so much for the phenomenal support, care and concern.   
I'm not sure how we'd get through all of this without it.

Donna