Dearest Bloggy!!
Happy Queen Vicki's Birthday!!! Hahaha... WHY we still celebrate a long, dead Queen Victoria's birthday is beyond me, although it's great to have a long weekend so any excuse is a good excuse. But what is particularly thrilling about this one is that Vancouver and the surrounding area is FINALLY getting the weather they deserve and is so long overdue!! SUN SUN SUN!!! And warmth, warmth, warmth!!! Temps are going to get up into the high 20Cs (mid - upper 80Fs)!!! Yipppeee!!
Now, the reason I'm running into bloggy for a few seconds on this gorgeous day is to report on my little darling Bridget since folk are sending emails to see how she is doing. I guess, I kind of mislead people into thinking she had a little tummy bug...nothing serious. Well, maybe that's what it appeared to be at the time I wrote the blog entry, but it turned out I had one VERY sick little schnauzer for a 24 hour period. She was violently ill starting at midnight on Wednesday... having already had bouts of diarrhea and vomiting earlier in the day. Our timing was off too because Bridget's Vet, Dr. Joan, was out of town for a few days... but the clinic was fabulous since the girls there all know Bridget. And we got to meet Dr. Dirk (ok, Dirk is his first name, but I can't pronounce his last name, so he is Dr. Dirk) yesterday.
We still don't know what caused her to be so violently ill. If she actually had picked up and ate something on one of the walks, although I didn't see her do that, nor did Jenn or Toby when they took her out. She DOES eat grass a lot but not to make herself sick... but because she loves grass. I did notice Tuesday morning she was eating a lot more grass than normal and I kept making her stop, but she was bound and determined... so whatever this was may have actually started Tuesday.
Anywho... starting at midnight, she was vomiting violently every hour or so, so I was up all night with her, changing towels/bedding, making a huge pile of laundry to do. Hahaha... as I'm typing this, I'm STILL doing laundry, although I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now... one more load and I should be totally caught up with every towel and linens having been cleaned :)
She stopped vomiting yesterday morning at 7:30am, but was one tired puppy. I took her in to the clinic in the morning because she didn't seem to be interested in drinking anything... her poor tummy was just too sore and worn out. Of course, wouldn't you know it.. as soon as we went into the clinic she went right for their water bowl :) Dr. Dirk did a thorough examination of her and he was so gentle and sweet with her. He said that she did appear to be somewhat dehydrated so gave her an injection of 100cc's of saline solution just under the skin (her body would absorb it and this was easier on her than hooking her up to an IV and giving her a saline drip for a couple of hours. That was going to be one of the options... that I leave her there and they do this, but Dr. Dirk didn't seem to think that would be necessary... that she would probably start feeling better very quickly with the 100cc's. He also gave her an anti-nausea injection which would make her feel better that she would not be feeling that sick to the tummy feeling and gave her an injection of antibiotics just to be on the safe side.
By the time we left the office, she was getting back to her little diva self! Of course, she was very tired and sleep is a good thing. I kept her with me all day... we went to the TUTS office in Stanley Park and I had her bed, blanket and packed some chicken and rice for her. I had to slowly introduce her tummy back to food, so chicken and rice is nice and bland, but still appealing to her senses. I gave her a spoonful every hour and her tummy kept it down. When we got home, she got half a cup, and her tummy did well on that and she was quite content with that. I gave her a half cup this morning and will be packing up some to take this afternoon.
Dr. Joan called this morning to see how she's doing... and advised to continue feeding small amounts throughout the day. Even if it means she's getting somewhat less than her normal amount of food, it's better to do it this way in small amounts for the next couple of days.
But I'm pleased to say, she is doing just fine today... and the danger/scare is now over :)
As for me... I don't have a date yet for the surgery, but the admin gal at the surgeon's office said to call back on Tuesday and she will get the information from Dr. Meneghetti (he was in surgery yesterday and today and of course, this is the long weekend)... so hopefully I'll find out on Tuesday when the date will be. I still have a thousand things I want to get done before the surgery date... which I'm sure is going to be that first week in June.
Ok... enough babble!! I am going to get that load of laundry out of the dryer and then Bridget and I are off to enjoy this gorgeous, gorgeous weather!!
Ciao!
Cheryl
Friday, May 16, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 - Sick little Bridget
Hiya Bloggy,
Well, not much to report on my medical update. I did have the pre-surgery assessment on Monday and that went just fine. Basically, what the surgeon was concerned with is, after all is said and done, having gone through 8 months of chemo and 6 weeks of radiation therapy, was my heart strong enough to now undergo 2 surgeries (or even one). So a wonderful doctor, Dr. Kahn, did my assessment, went through my medical history, what kind of symptoms (if any) have I had recently with my heart, etc. The end result being, she had to weigh the risk factors and decide what risk factor I had for having a potential heart attack or stroke while on the operating table. She said that I'd be happy to know she thinks I am a very low risk factor so I have the green light to go ahead with the surgeries. So yayayaya... this is a good thing! I want these tumours OUT OF ME!!
So, next step is for Dr. Meneghetti's office to call with the surgery date and that will be my first surgery... getting rid of the adrenal gland/tumour. So, stay tuned, I will obviously be posting here that date, once I know it. If all goes according to plan, that surgery will be done laparascopically which means the recovery time will be much quicker than if it has to be done with the traditional longer surgical cut.
Now... as for my little darlin'. Oh, what a sad day she had today! This morning, she got sick to her stomach... no major big deal. Sometimes dogs get a funny tummy just like us people and they get sick, bring it up and then feel much better... or so I thought. When I figured she was ok, I then went off to work to meet the gang from work for lunch (thanks, you all... that was great seeing you all again!!! And much thanks for the lunch!!!). When I got home, Toby, my neighbour from across the hall, left a note that she had taken Bridget out... so phew! I didn't need to dash home... Bridget was with the neighbour. Well, the two of them got home about 10 minutes after I got home... and poor Bridget! Toby explained that when she had come over to get Bridget (about 30 minutes before), the poor darlin' had had diarrhea on about 4 different spots on the rug. She (Toby) cleaned it up and cleaned the spots on the rug, then took her out... where she tried to go some more outside but was obviously empty... but was straining to go. She had a little bit more and that's when Toby notice a couple of drops of blood. Ack!! Needless to say, this freaked me out. Being that it's Wednesday, the animal clinic where Bridget goes was open until 8pm... but Dr. Joan had called me on Monday to tell me that she was going to be out of town for about 4 days and did I know yet when I was going to be in the hospital... so I knew she wasn't in. But Char was there and calmed me down. She said it definitely sounded like Bridget had an upset tummy or even a touch of colitis and with having the diarrhea, it is not uncommon that there would be some blood from the straining and irritation. Had she eaten anything today? I said no.. I knew with an upset tummy it was best not to feed her until it calmed down. Good. She suggested giving her some broth, or ice cubes or anything to keep her hydrated since dehydration would be the biggest concern... then in the morning, try her on a teaspoon of rice with some chopped up hardboiled egg. If she keeps that down, try it again in about an hour and see how she tolerates that. If she is having problems with that, then I am to bring her in. But so far, she is doing much better. We've been taking her out every 1 1/2 hours and she is definitely over the diarrhea now... and has been sleeping comfortably this evening.
My goodness, if it's not one thing, it's another!! But I'm certainly relieved to see her resting comfortably. Hehehe... when Jenn and Lexi came down to take her out for a quick, short walk just to do their business about 10:30pm tonight...
... when they got back, Lexi decided to help put Bridget to bed. Here Lexi is getting Bridget's bed ready for her.
And here is Bridget, sound asleep after her friend, Lexi went home. She is definitely resting comfortably.
It is now going on 1am, so I'm about to crawl in bed with her... and hopefully we shall both wake up in the morning and she will be back to her little diva self.
Nitey-nite!
Cheryl
Well, not much to report on my medical update. I did have the pre-surgery assessment on Monday and that went just fine. Basically, what the surgeon was concerned with is, after all is said and done, having gone through 8 months of chemo and 6 weeks of radiation therapy, was my heart strong enough to now undergo 2 surgeries (or even one). So a wonderful doctor, Dr. Kahn, did my assessment, went through my medical history, what kind of symptoms (if any) have I had recently with my heart, etc. The end result being, she had to weigh the risk factors and decide what risk factor I had for having a potential heart attack or stroke while on the operating table. She said that I'd be happy to know she thinks I am a very low risk factor so I have the green light to go ahead with the surgeries. So yayayaya... this is a good thing! I want these tumours OUT OF ME!!
So, next step is for Dr. Meneghetti's office to call with the surgery date and that will be my first surgery... getting rid of the adrenal gland/tumour. So, stay tuned, I will obviously be posting here that date, once I know it. If all goes according to plan, that surgery will be done laparascopically which means the recovery time will be much quicker than if it has to be done with the traditional longer surgical cut.
Now... as for my little darlin'. Oh, what a sad day she had today! This morning, she got sick to her stomach... no major big deal. Sometimes dogs get a funny tummy just like us people and they get sick, bring it up and then feel much better... or so I thought. When I figured she was ok, I then went off to work to meet the gang from work for lunch (thanks, you all... that was great seeing you all again!!! And much thanks for the lunch!!!). When I got home, Toby, my neighbour from across the hall, left a note that she had taken Bridget out... so phew! I didn't need to dash home... Bridget was with the neighbour. Well, the two of them got home about 10 minutes after I got home... and poor Bridget! Toby explained that when she had come over to get Bridget (about 30 minutes before), the poor darlin' had had diarrhea on about 4 different spots on the rug. She (Toby) cleaned it up and cleaned the spots on the rug, then took her out... where she tried to go some more outside but was obviously empty... but was straining to go. She had a little bit more and that's when Toby notice a couple of drops of blood. Ack!! Needless to say, this freaked me out. Being that it's Wednesday, the animal clinic where Bridget goes was open until 8pm... but Dr. Joan had called me on Monday to tell me that she was going to be out of town for about 4 days and did I know yet when I was going to be in the hospital... so I knew she wasn't in. But Char was there and calmed me down. She said it definitely sounded like Bridget had an upset tummy or even a touch of colitis and with having the diarrhea, it is not uncommon that there would be some blood from the straining and irritation. Had she eaten anything today? I said no.. I knew with an upset tummy it was best not to feed her until it calmed down. Good. She suggested giving her some broth, or ice cubes or anything to keep her hydrated since dehydration would be the biggest concern... then in the morning, try her on a teaspoon of rice with some chopped up hardboiled egg. If she keeps that down, try it again in about an hour and see how she tolerates that. If she is having problems with that, then I am to bring her in. But so far, she is doing much better. We've been taking her out every 1 1/2 hours and she is definitely over the diarrhea now... and has been sleeping comfortably this evening.
My goodness, if it's not one thing, it's another!! But I'm certainly relieved to see her resting comfortably. Hehehe... when Jenn and Lexi came down to take her out for a quick, short walk just to do their business about 10:30pm tonight...
... when they got back, Lexi decided to help put Bridget to bed. Here Lexi is getting Bridget's bed ready for her.
And here is Bridget, sound asleep after her friend, Lexi went home. She is definitely resting comfortably.It is now going on 1am, so I'm about to crawl in bed with her... and hopefully we shall both wake up in the morning and she will be back to her little diva self.
Nitey-nite!
Cheryl
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