Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Caption This #138

Looking forward to your captions in the comments.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Luna’s Eye Checkup

Last week Luna went in for her eye checkup. It had been almost a year since her last visit and up until about two weeks ago her eyes were doing great. The last two weeks we noticed that her tear production in her right eye was pretty much nonexistent. When she went in for her checkup, the tear test confirmed what we already knew when it registered a zero for tear production in her right eye. On a good note, the tear production in her left eye was outstanding.

That is pretty much how the visit went. All good news for her left eye, all bad news for her right eye. The one good thing, although this isn't really a good thing, is that she has so much scar tissue built up on her right eye, that it being dry does not cause her much discomfort.

Even though she is not in much discomfort, we switched up her drop schedule for her right eye to see if we can get her back to the point of producing tears. We added two new medicines and completely changed up the schedule for her right eye. Her left eye drop schedule remains the same. Needless to say, I had to create a new spreadsheet to keep it all straight.

We go back in a month to see if the new drops are doing any good.

Luna took it all in stride. I think her biggest gripe is that she got stuck with the cat room again. As you can see, all the pictures in her exam room were of cats. She much prefers the dog room

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Good Reason Needed

Last night it got down around freezing and the pugs were hesitant to go out unless they had a good reason. Benny & Sol went out to go potty and usually Henry would tag along just for the fun of it, but he decided to watch them from a nice warm spot inside. Can't say that I blame him.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Flashback

This week's flashback: Luna vs The Monkey

Apparently this is the first video posted to OBP. Who knew? I love it when I re-read a post and it jogs my memory. Since I started doing the flashbacks, I have read a few posts and had completely forgotten about the event. It's nice to reminisce.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year

This is pretty much how the pugs rang in the new year last night. I guess they wanted to make sure they were well rested for 2010.

So far we are off to a rainy start here in Central Florida. I was hoping to get in a nice walk with the pugs today, but it doesn't look like the weather is going to cooperate. And after it stops raining it is going to be quite chilly here. But, curling up with the pugs on the couch and listening to the rain doesn't sound like a bad idea either.

I hope you had a fun and safe New Year celebration. Happy New Year!

Thursday, December 31, 2009

A Little Bit of Hope

First let me say how very grateful I am for all your support and well wishes. It really means a lot to me and helps me remain positive and keep on keepin' on during the difficult times.

I had a very nice conversation with Sol's specialist at AVS. The results of Sol's cytology and culture came back and showed no signs of cancer/tumor or infection. Meaning the excess mucus is a result of inflammation. Inflammation that can most likely be managed through the right combination of medicine. That was a huge relief! It was actually the first time we got good news from a test like that.

The specialist did caution me that it may take a bit before we discover the perfect combination of medicines and dosages that work best for Sol, but I assured her I was up for the challenge. We have lots of experience in figuring out the perfect treatment with Luna and her eye drops. (More on Luna's eyes is coming soon. She went for a checkup yesterday).

We also talked for a bit about Sol's quality of life and really what we could expect in the future. She explained that as long as Sol is not coughing non stop like before, the cough sounds a lot worse than it really is for Sol. Constant, prolonged coughing obviously takes it toll on her, but a little spell here and there is not terribly uncomfortable for her. Which is good because the cough sounds horrible.

The main warning signs that things are taking a turn for the worse are fainting and bluish coloring of her mucus membranes (tongue, gums, etc). This to me is the scary part. I can't even imagine what I would do if Sol fainted. Fainting and the blue coloring are signs that she is not getting enough oxygen and the airways are completely closing. And then the specialist casually tells me that Sol did better than they expected coming out of her anthseia from her scope because most dogs with a collapse like hers have quite a bit of bluish coloring when they come out of sedation, but she had none. That little tidbit of information simultaneously made me feel better and worse at the same time.

I specifically asked her about life expectancy because at this point I want to sorta have an idea. I have been living the last two weeks as if it is day to day and that is really taking a toll. The specialist confidently said that with the right combination of medicine Sol has a good 6 months to a year. Obviously this is not a guarantee nor is it a cap, but it is a guide. And frankly, even though it isn't a long time, it was longer than I had thought.

So, the main things we will need to be on the lookout for is an increase in the coughing, fainting and bluish coloring. The fainting and bluish coloring scares me. I hope we never get to that point, but I guess it is good to know what to expect.

So for now, I'm going to try not to think about fainting and I am going to focus on what is important. Things like car rides, walks in the pouch and spaghetti.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Trachea Collapse

When we picked Sol up from her scope appointment at AVS we got to see pictures of her airway taken with the scope. I thought I would share the pictures with everyone as I think they give a pretty good idea of what the specialists can see with the scope.

Below is a grouping of three separate pictures taken by the scope. The two pictures on the top are of the area of Sol's airway where it branches off to her lungs. The third picture is from the middle of the trachea. You can see a slight collapse in the third picture, but the first two show just how bad the collapse is by her lungs. The airways around the branch should be circular. I have highlighted the collapsed areas as best as I could in the annotated picture below. Obviously the circles are not drawn to scale, but you get the idea. The airways should have a circular shape rather than an oblong shape.