Monday, December 14, 2009
Sol has recovered wonderfully from her two cancer surgeries, but the one thing that has plagued her since day one is her cough. It seems we go through a lot of ups and downs where her cough isn't really that bad, to times when it is extremely chronic. Lately, has been an extremely chronic time.
We have been to see the vet a few times trying to do our best to manage what is going on. The verdict is that Sol has a partially collapsed trachea. There is nothing we can really do to fix it at this point either. She could have surgery, but the surgery has plenty of possible complications and at her age she is not an ideal candidate.
So we have been doing our best to manage it using a broncho-dialator. We started her out on an extremley low dose and had only mild success. So we increased her dose and have seen some improvements. The one side effect of the broncho-dialator is that is can cause "jitterness". In Sol's case, when using the new dose, it caused her to stare into space. A lot of times, she is panting while she is day dreaming. Frequently, she is laying on her half of my pillow panting in my hear and staring at the back of my head for hours on end during the night. Which, needless to say, does not make for a very restful night sleep for either one of us.
We gave the new meds a fair chance to see how well they would work before we determined that their effect on Sol's cough did not outweigh the staring side effects. We headed back to the vet to figure out what do do next and decided that we would spread her medicine out during the day. Instead of giving her the medicine two times a day, we changed it to four and cut the dose in half. At the end of the day, she still got the same amount of medicine, but it was just spread out during the day. It is times like these that I am really glad that I work from home so that I can be here to giver Sol her meds during all hours of the day.
Spreading the meds out over the course of the day helped with the staring problem and had about the same effect on Sol's cough as before. However, Sol was still coughing an awful lot so we returned to the vet. This time, we tried a mild steroid to see if this had any effect. Well, we got all the side effects of the steroid without any improvement in Sol's cough. Sol became one insatiable little puggy and would wake up at all hours of the night and whine for food. As soon as we could, we weened her off the steroid. Again, we found ourselves back to square one and back at the vet's office.
Last Friday, we had another chest x-ray done just to make sure Sol's airways looked OK. The vet noticed a tiny bit of congestion, so we will be trying out a diuretic for the next week. That will be fun because it will make Sol have to go potty frequently. Again, another instance where working from home is priceless.
In addition to the the diuretic, Sol is back on a cough suppressant. The cough suppressant worked very well for her back in September when her surgery needed to be cancelled due to her cough. I am hoping it works as well this time around too.
All in all, Sol seems to be taking it very well. She went to the dog park again this weekend and had a great time. It is very odd, but she doesn't cough at the dog park. No one can really explain why because she normally coughs more when she is excited.
Hopefully, the diuretic will clear up the congestion and we can get to a point where her cough isn't too bad again.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Henry had a blast the other day playing tug with one of the throw rugs in the house. A few years ago, he received on of those "rippable" toys that velcro together. His was a beach ball and the ball was divided into four or five slices. When all the slices were velcroed together it formed a beach ball. Henry loved tearing the ball apart and then playing with each of the individual slices. All that remains of the beach ball now is one lone slice. Henry was playing with it the other day and it velcroed itself to the rug and he had a good old time trying to get the slice unstuck.
He shook, he pulled, he gnawed. He had more fun with the slice stuck to the rug then he had ever had with the beach ball itself.
Friday, October 16, 2009
They were just waiting for Solsey to climb on top.
Have a great weekend!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The results of the pathology report came back and unfortunately it is not good news. The tumors sent for testing were malignant. The silver lining to this dark cloud is that there were clean margins. The pathology report also notes "no evidence of lymphatic or vascular invasion is seen." The tumor is what they consider a grade II mammary carcinoma (intermediate grade of malignancy) and the overall prognosis is guarded. The recommended next steps on the pathology report is to have a chest x-ray because this type of tumor has the potential for metastasis and usually does so in the lungs. Luckily, we had a chest x-ray done before she even had surgery and we know the lungs are clear at this time.
Where do we go from here? Well, no where really. We have dealt with things pretty much as best we can. The tumor has been removed and we have clean margins, which is absolutely fantastic. But the reality is that Sol has had two malignant tumors removed in less than a 12 month window.
We are appreciating every day we have with Sol. Each night when that little lady props her butt up on my pillow, I give her a big 'ole kiss and say, "Good night Solsey Baby!" And when I wake up in the morning with a stiff neck from sharing my pillow with her I look forward to all the little things that just make Sol Sol.
I don't know how things are going to play out and I'm not sure if I want to know. I had my day of doom & gloom yesterday, but now I am trying to be more positive. No matter how many tomorrows there are it will never be enough. So I am just hoping that the ups and downs of this roller coaster are all at the beginning and that we can have a smooth ride for a bit.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
I am happy to report that Sol is doing so much better this morning. When we picked her up last night she was completely zoned out. She had no reaction to seeing us, on the ride home she did not move an inch and when you looked into her sweet little eyes she just looked blank. When we got home, we set her up in her favorite puff ball bed and she got some must needed rest.
I would have been happy to let her stay in that bed all night, but I had no idea when the last time she went potty was. So, we let her snooze until about 8pm and at that time we thought we better take her out to try and go potty.
I scooped her up and we took her out front. I walked over to to the edge of the driveway and tried to stand her up in the grass, but she refused to stand up. She would not straighten her back legs, so when I tried to stand her up she would sit and then within 5 seconds she would just fall over. So, I picked her back up and put her in the puff ball bed and she snoozed a bit more.
Around 9pm, I was thinking that she must really need to go potty now, so we went back outside. Same result as when I took her out at 8pm. While she was laying there, we offered her a tiny bit of baby food. The vet said to offer her a tiny bit of food in the evening and see what she does. Plus, we had to give her two pills and hiding them in her food would get that task done quickly.
She was laying there with the food bowl at her feet, looking interested in yummy baby food, but also looking like eating is so much work - "I will need to move my head about 3 inches to get to the bowl." So I grabbed a spoon and that did the trick. So there we were laying in the middle of the driveway and I am feeding her baby food off of a spoon and Benjamin, Henry & Luna are standing at the door feeling ever so neglected because I never spoon feed them in the driveway.
After she ate, she resumed sleeping in the puff ball bed. At 11pm, all the pugs went out for their final potty of the night and once again, Sol would not stand up. So we were headed off to bed and Sol had not gone potty all night. I was a little worried about that and wondered what she was going to do in the middle of the night when she realized she had to go.
We put the puff ball bed in her normal sleeping spot on the bed thinking that if she did have a potty accident that the dog bed would be the only bed affected. Plus, she was very content sleeping in the puffy bed, so we didn't want to change things up.
She fell back asleep fast and about 2:30am I wake up to her panting. When I sit up to get a look at her she squirms to sit up too. At this point, I am thinking she surely has to go potty. So I scoop her up and take her outside and wouldn't you know she can walk! She stumbles around in the grass and finally goes potty. I bring her back in, put her in her bed and pet her a little bit and I can tell by looking at her eyes that she is feeling a ton better. Not a 100%, but much, much, much better. She has that Solsey look in her eyes again.
We all fall back asleep and around 3:30am she is panting again and looking a little restless. I pet her a bit, but she is not settling back down. I offer her some water, but she is not interested. I'm pretty sure at this point she is hungry. So off we go to the kitchen and I sit her down on the rug so I can get everyone's food ready and she comes running over to me doing her feed me now bark. I was so happy to hear that bark. She was tickled pink to be eating and this time no spoon was required.
After she ate, I took her out to try and go potty once again. I took her out front thinking she would go potty at the edge of the driveway and I would be able to see what she was doing better. I didn't put her on a leash because it was 3:30 in the morning and I kind just expected her to sit down or stand at the door to go back in.
Out we go and there goes Sol trotting down the driveway with me right next to her. I am pretty sure I know where she is going, a little spot at the end of the driveway, but she passes right by it and is on her way across the street like she does when she goes on a walk. Here it is at 3:30 in the morning and Sol is feeling like she wants to go on a walk. As tired as I was, I was so very happy because in the few hours since we had gone to bed, Sol was feeling and looking so much better!
Once we all settled in bed again, everyone slept soundly until it was time to get up for work today. Right now, Sol is sleeping in her normal spot in my office and while she is sore & tired, she is doing much better than she was last night. It is amazing what a few hours of sleep can do!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Today, is try number 2 for Sol mammary tumor surgery. I think this time will be a go. It has been days since she has had a coughing fit and she seems to be doing much better.
I will do my best to keep everyone updated. Thanks for all your well wishes!
Update (1:00 PM EST): Sol just went into surgery.
Update (2:45 PM EST): Sol is out of surgery and doing OK. The vet successfully removed the mammary tumors. They refer to them as a "chain" and the whole chain has been sent out for testing. We should get the results back in 7-10 days. The results will tell us the official name of the tumor, the prognosis and if the margins of the tumors are clean. Hoping for the best on that report. We also had Sol's teeth cleaned while she was under. They had to remove her last canine tooth, but in the grand scheme of things that is really nothing. We can pick her up after 5pm today. I will give another update on how she is feeling as soon as we get her back home. Thanks for all your support! We are on the road to recovery now!
Update (7:30 PM EST): Sol is back home and sleeping soundly. She is wiped out. Between the anesthesia, pain meds & the pain she is completely zoned out. The incision on her belly looks very tender, but is no where near as long as I thought it would be (I thought it would go farther up her chest). Right now, she is sleeping on a towel in the puff ball bed and seems very content there. I am going to go lay there with her and just watch some TV for the rest of the night. I will give a more thorough update in the morning. Although, I imagine that tomorrow's blog post will be a little late. Thanks again for all your well wishes. Each day will get better from here.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Yesterday, at the vet, Sol had a shot that would hopefully help her cough and I think it is working so far. She still has a little coughing fit whenever she gets excited (meal time) or when she barks, but she doesn't seem to be coughing as much when she is just resting.
It's progress at least. It will be interesting to see how things play out leading up to Wednesday.
More Sol kisses coming your way for all your support!
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