[Dailydrool] Good news, I suppose

[Nicole Haase]

We rushed my Flash to the emergency vet last night because he was
presenting all the signs of bloat but the distended tummy. He's a bit of a
fluffy guy, so we thought maybe we weren't seeing the stomach well and
didn't want to take chances. It turns out I overreacted, though he clearly
had a cough or something. Knowing he would be fine til the am, we went home
and headed to our regular (read: cheaper) vet in the morning.

Flash is in the 12 year old range. You may remember he went down in the
rear in October of last year and miraculously got up a few days later. We
decided around that time that we would be thankful for any time he had left
and we'd keep him comfortable, but we were going to move into maintenance
mode with him. He's covered in lumps/cysts, he's got cloudy eyes, he
obviously has a bad back, he's a big guy and dang it, he's 12. We knew we
were on borrowed time after he got up from being down and we don't want to
put him through too much to prolong a life that is already near it's end.
He sleep about 18 hours a day and only goes out to do his business. As long
as he's happy and comfortable doing those things, we are too, but I'm not
subjecting him to extraordinary measures to eke out a few more months.

So this am the regular vet takes some chest xrays to see about the cough
and the panting from last night and discovers there's a rather large tumor
in Flash's belly. He says it's not an immediate issue - we still have a bit
more time - but that eventually this tumor will be the end.

And while I knew that we were in maintenance mode and I've been trying to
prepare myself for this (and him going down and last night's scare have
done a lot in terms of my having to deal with the idea of him being gone)
I'm pretty bummed today.

Which, really, is kind of ridiculous. This is twice in just over a year
where I was preparing myself to leave the vet without him and he came home
just find. He's gotten more than a year longer than I thought he would. We
still have a bit more time. The blood tests came out totally normal. Today
was a good news day. I still have my precious hound.

But that reality of seeing that tumor on the screen and now officially
knowing what I was supposed to have "known" all along really has me down.
(That and the $400 in bills to find out my dog is old and has a cough.)

If you all could dangle some turkey bits in front of your hounds this week
and sling the resulting drool in Flash's direction, I'd appreciate it. I'm
certain I'll snap out of this funk and be ready to celebrate what little
time I have left, but if your drool can buy me any additional time, I'll be
glad to take it.

Nicole

-- 
Nicole Haase
nicole.haase at gmail.com
414-708-3542
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.dailydrool.org/pipermail/dailydrool-dailydrool.org/attachments/20121120/7e9bc384/attachment.htm>