Sunday

Little Miss Muppet had a rough day yesterday - not really feeling up to par all day - her jaundice really flared up making the whites of her eyes very yellow as well as her soft little belly. Then - this morning at 1 she had a seizure. It didn't last very long but it concerned me because she has been getting her meds right on time so her body must be seizing due to the stress of her illness. I put her in the kitchen to let her wander and I moved out to the couch to sleep so I could hear her if anything happened. She is now sleeping on the couch next to me while I watch the hockey game. She hasn't eaten much today - just her pill pockets when she took her meds.

Yesterday L came over to do some laundry and while she had a couple loads going we went to the movies. We saw Shutter Island! Not at all what I was expecting after seeing the commercials. It was good - a little confusing - lots of twists to try and follow. Had a lot of fun spending the day with L! I don't think we have laughed so much together in a long time!

On my way home after dropping her back off at the apartment I was listening to talk radio - 97.3 FM - and they were talking to this guy who has just filed a law suit against Sea World Orlando because they closed down the Killer Whale show the day he was supposed to go - he had brought the whole family to Orlando for vacation. The show was closed because of the drowning death of one of the trainers by one of the whales. This guy was an absolute idiot - thinking that his loss of being able to see the whales is on the same par as the family who lost their child due to the drowning. He kept saying that so what if she was eaten by the whale - no reason to close down the exhibit - he had paid for it. He is suing for pain and suffering and claiming that his "relations" with his wife have suffered because of this. I was just listening to this in amazement that someone could be so shallow and/or money grubbing! Unbelievable! I just can't wrap my brain around how people can think like this.

End of Period 1 in the Hockey game - I'm gonna go throw a load of laundry in - empty the dishwasher and then get back to watching the game. Or - I'm going to play some WWF - make some toast - go back to watching the game.

De

Cautiosly Optomistic

Today has been a good day with Mup - although I find myself holding back on being ecstatic. I don't want to think that all is well only to find out that I have to make a tough decision.

Mup did well last night and woke up this morning a little peppier than she had been. She wouldn't eat this morning but she wasn't all listless and lethargic. We met up with Dr Brar at 1230 - on his day off I might add - and she got a good hours worth of fluids as well as an antibiotic and something to stimulate her appetite. When I went to get her after the hour she was a different pup - she was wagging her tail - trying to get out of the cage - licking my hand - definitely not the same pup from a few days ago. When we got home she ate! She had 2 crunchy cookies - half a can of dog food - and a few bites of her dry food! She jumped off the couch to get herself water! She did still sleep a lot but I am sure her body is exhausted.

Tomorrow she will spend the whole day at the vets again getting fluids, antibiotics, and having her blood drawn in order to run the Billirubin tests and to see where her liver enzymes are. I am cautiously optomistic - I worry that the fluids and the appetite stimulant are just masking her still being sick. I don't want to get my hopes up only to find out that her enzyme levels haven't gone down enough.

My sister Colleen and Niece Krystina may not know this but they helped me get through this weekend - we had multiple games of Words With Friends going on through my iPod and their iPhones - I was busy trying to find words and didn't have lots of time to worry about Mup being at the vets. It was a great and fun way of keeping my mind off things. Thank You!

Mup and I are going to try sleeping in the bed tonight instead of on the couch.

De

Choices

I ended up spending the whole day on the couch. Shortly after posting this morning the phone did ring and I went to the vets to get her results. It's not looking good - the enzyme that was at 8K Thursday was at 12K today - that is a fast deterioration in 2 days. Dr Brar and I discussed my choices -

• Go to a Specialist - with her enzyme counts a specialist may not even try with her and if they did it would be lots of tests - possibly have a feeding tube put down her throat.
• Dr Brar could do an ultrasound and/or a biopsy of the liver - although he said that is a surgical procedure and he doesn't think she would survive the anesthesia.
• We could do fluids today, tomorrow, and Monday and then on Monday run her labs again to see if there has been any improvement.
• We could just say good bye today.

After discussing it with Dr Brar I decided to go with the third choice. Dr Brar says he has seen a few cases where the dog turns around and makes a recovery - they are rare but it has happened. My thoughts were - why shouldn't I give Muppet that same chance. So we are going to give her meds - fluids - food and the rest is up to Muppet and God.

De

Long Night

Muppet and I moved form the couch to the bedroom around 1130 pm - she was getting twitchy and I figured she might be more comfortable on the pillows. We had just gotten settled in when she lost control of her bladder - she was on a pillow so that is what mostly got soaked. I wrapped her in a towel to dry her off - stripped the bed - and we moved back out to the couch. I didn't turn on the TV I just sat there and held her. She started shaking - I couldn't tell if she was having mini seizures, shaking from cold, or stress. I just held her close - she gave a big shudder and was quiet - I thought she had died in my arms but then she took a breath. This went on for an hour - her shaking and me thinking that this was it. I finally fell asleep - waking up off and on during the night. At 400 am I took her outside to go potty - she is peeing a lot - she left a small lake outside! Came back inside - turned on curling - and just snuggled with her.

This morning she was back to not wanting anything to do with her pill pockets or her food. I tried to tempt her - force her - I left her locked in the kitchen while I went to wash my face and stuff. When I came back out she was just curled up in her bed - looking so very sad. When I had tried to get her to take her meds I noticed that her eyes were more yellow this morning than they were last night. So it seems that being on an IV all day helps her to eat at night but by the next morning she is going back down hill. I took her to the vets this morning - let them know what was going on - she was shaking really bad again.

I went to Starbucks - got a drink - and sat outside in the February Spring weather. I called Lydia - my bff - talked about Mup and talked about her cute little boy Hoyt. I just wasn't ready to go home yet. I am home now though - watching Curling and waiting to hear form the vet office - they are supposed to get blood work results back today. I need to get my new Credit Card in the mail today so I can take care of her bill.

I think I will go clean my kitchen and then maybe make some Banana Bread to get my mind off things. Sitting on the couch waiting for the phone to ring isn't going to make it ring any faster.

Oh - on a silly funny note - L's Cat Niki is a very very strange cat! She has been jumping into my tub in the middle of the night and chasing imaginary things! I went in there yesterday morning and this black head pops up over the edge of the tub - looks at me - then starts chasing things! So So Weird!

De

Muppet News

Muppet is home with me tonight after spending the whole day at the vets. There she got fluids, antibiotics, and they force fed her to get her some nutrition and to see if she could keep the food down. When Dr Brar saw her this morning he found that she was jaundiced - the whites of her eyes are yellow and they shave away a spot on her chest which revealed that her skin is yellow. This is a sign of liver failure. He didn't run the test for Cushing's disease because he said she's not going to die from Cushing's - they need to see whether or not her liver is functioning at all. So they drew some blood - forced her to have some food - then drew more blood. He was sending those out to the lab tonight and he should have results tomorrow. I have to bring her back tomorrow at 8 so they can give her more fluids and antibiotics. The change in her just over the 2 days since she had been at the vets before has been drastic - which is why he drew more blood today in order to recheck the enzymes - if her enzyme count has elevated more then her liver is shutting down. Dr Brar said that depending on what the tests come back as Muppet may need to go see a specialist - but I asked him if it would really be worth it to go to a specialist - I want her to have quality of life and not keep her alive just because I will miss her - that's not fair to her. He said he would be direct with me and tell me exactly what's going on and what the chances are for any kind of recovery or life.

After have been on an IV all day she is acting a little better than this morning - she was a limp rag doll this morning - tonight she sat up for a bit and I was able to get her to eat some food. I got her the fancy food I fed her when I first got her - flavor of the night Grammy's Pot Pie. She really liked it. She is now sleeping at the end of the couch - I am about to pick her up and just rock her for a bit.

I will keep everyone posted.

De

Little Miss Muppet

Little Miss Muppet is not doing well - the test results came back today. The vet assistant called me to let me know that the results were in and that the vet wanted to see me to go over them - never a good sign. The blood work came back a lot worse than we thought it would - the one enzyme that was at 2K on their machine yesterday actually registered as 8.5K at the lab. The other 2 that didn't register at all yesterday came back very elevated also. The full blood work up also showed another item that was way too low. What we know from all this is that Muppets liver is damaged - really damaged - but we don't know why. So - tomorrow, Saturday, and Monday I have to drop Mup off at 8am and leave her there all day and then pick her back up in the evening so they can run more tests. Tomorrow they will run tests to see if she has Cushing's Disease. This is one we are hoping she doesn't have as it will make things very complicated - she would need to be taken off the phenobarbital that keeps her seizures away. Then Saturday and Monday will be to get her system full of fluids, antibiotics, and to run tests to see if her enzyme counts come down. Dr Brar was going to also call the lab tonight and have them run another test to see if she has Hypothyroidism. One of the symptoms for this disease is thinning of the hair on the back - she has had thinning hair for awhile now. This is one that it wouldn't be too bad for her to have - it's manageable and we could still keep her on the meds for the seizures. Which ever it ends up being there may be too much damage to her liver to reverse. She is on a liver supplement right now which helps it to regenerate but her enzyme count shows sever damage.

For those of you that know me you know that Mup is like a child to me - a member of my family. I am stressed worrying about what might happen to her.

De

Money Money Money

Just a fun couple of days here in good old Washington . . . . . . Not!!!!! Woke up yesterday morning to a phone call from Apple Computer - my first thought . . . WTH are they doing making Telemarketing Calls at 630 in the morning. Not what they were calling about. They were double checking to see if I had made a purchase at Apple Online with my card ending in 9730 . . . the purchase was for a Mac Book Pro at around $4K! . . . . Uh No . . . Not me! The gal said I needed to call my bank because someone had gotten a hold of my information . . see . . . they not only had my credit card number but they also had my name and address! Lucky for me I have made purchases from them before so they had my phone number on file and it didn't match what the thieves had entered!! So for the third time in the past year I had to cancel my credit card and have a new one issued. It will take 5 - 7 business days for the new card to arrive . . they offered to overnight it for $15 . . Nah . . I can make it a week without a credit card. Famous last words!! You see . . . even as I said it I had this thought run through my head . . . as long as the pet flu doesn't turn out to be anything more serious! I think I have the ability of premonition! Yup . . . Muppet was doing worse this morning so I had to take her to the vets.

Took her to the vet at 10 this morning where she ended up needing to stay for the day - needed to run some tests and give her fluids. Not a good sign when you go to pick your animal up and they put you in a room for the Dr to talk to you first. Dr Brar . . . a new associate at Klahanie Center Vet . . . showed me some blood work results . . . it wasn't Pancreatitis but Mup's Liver enzymes were very elevated. One of them should be between 20 - 200 and hers were at 2000! The other ones didn't even register on the quick test so they are sending her blood out to be tested fully. Then came the xrays . . $$$$ . . . these showed that there was nothing in her tummy but that her liver is inflamed . . . these need to be looked at by a radiologist though to make a more definitive diagnosis. They sent me home with a lot of meds and said if she starts throwing up again to bring her right back in. No food tonight and try bland food tomorrow - one of her meds has to be given 30 - 45 min before eating so I will def have to change my morning routine around a bit. I will see how she is doing in the morning and figure out if I need to work from home or just set up the Muppet Cam so I can keep an eye on her from work.

Right now I am on the couch watching the Olympics and softly rubbing Mups belly. Will head to bed soon - just need to move some washing to the dryer and move the pup to the bed.

De