What were the skies like when you were young?[link]
Bank of America HQ from Belo Garden Park
Dallas, TX
Author: Matt (Page 6 of 41)
Morning breaks on Main St from Belo Garden Park
Random Dude: Is that a Boston?
Me: No, French Bulldog.
Random Dude: Oh, Frenchie? [long pause] You know they can’t swim right? [longer awkwarder pause] Their head is too big.
Me: That’s why he has a life jacket.
Random Dude: I’m not the fucking ASPCA, man!
Pegasus Plaza, Main St Dallas
More good news today with Monty’s March checkup with the neurologist, and after nearly eight months today is officially his last dose of Prednisone. We had planned on one final chemo treatment with Cytosar, but the CBC again came back with a slightly below normal white count so we felt it best to forgo this in favor of dropping the Prednisone to continue stepping him down off the medications. This leaves 10mg Omeprazole (Prylosec) and 2.5ml Omega-3 Fish Oil daily, and 50mg Cyclosporine every other day as the only ongoing treatment.
Monty seems happy, and his activity level and interaction is nearly on par with his pre-diagnosis self. He’s one of the lucky ones, and we couldn’t be happier.
Not to be overshadowed by Monty, it was Bailey’s turn at the vet today for his first senior checkup. Yup, our big kitty is now a card carrying member of the AARC at 12! He’s had on-again off-again digestive and GI issues over the years, so fortunately this trip was preventative in nature and not an emergency. Even so, with the sounds he was making during the 10 minute drive to and from the office the ride was excruciating. Dr Naugler ran a full gamut of tests including physical, blood profile, urinalysis, and fecal review, in addition to updating his rabies vaccination.
Many of you may know of the tummy troubles Bailey endures from time to time, be it the constipation, picky eating habits, or vomiting if you look at him funny. He’s always been that way and we’ve learned how to deal with it. We’ve tried good food, bad food, canned food, dry food, raw food, baby food, and even stranger things like boiled pumpkin without much luck in either getting him to eat anything other than certain Friskies and Fancy Feast varieties. He eats and seems happy, but I’ve never been overly excited about what I give him. He also has a bit of an OCD streak when it comes to cleaning himself and has several bald spots because of this. Past vets tried to treat this as a psychological issue with steroids, but this was probably the worst thing we ever did for him as he was MISERABLE and did not last very long. So the news today that the recommendation going forward would be to transition to a special hypoallergenic diet did not come as a complete surprise, but the reasoning for it caught me off guard for what I have been overlooking all this time. The OCD cleaning could be caused by abdominal irritation due to food or food allergy and probably has nothing to do with boredom or psychosis, so I’m either the worst pet parent ever or, well I couldn’t think of anything else because I felt like the worst pet parent ever.
So changes are afoot for Bailey’s diet, and this could get “fun”. First up to taste test are the deliciously named canned foods “Intestinal Low Residue Pate” and “Hypoallergenic Senior Feline”, so wish us luck!
The city is a giant canvas used by the sun as it splashes light throughout the mirrored canyons. Somehow I managed to catch some pretty spectacular views two out of the last three nights…
Every day I grapple with the anxiety of living with a dog diagnosed with GME, and I’ve found the uncertainty to be the most difficult for me to manage. Monty is one of the lucky ones to have made it nearly 7 months without any symptom relapse and for that we are thankful beyond belief. There is however a constant cloud of doubt, suspicion, and fear hanging over our daily life. Seemingly insignificant events end up being run through a litany of logic and tests to the point of where I struggle to just let go and relish the moment or time for what it is. Case in point: today on our morning walk Monty ran full steam into a sidewalk patio chair seemingly oblivious to its existence. If you’ll remember back in July this was one of the initial symptoms which alerted us that something was very wrong, so this set me off on the crazy brain train for the rest of the morning trying to make connections and justifications that may or may not even exist; was this just a simple accident because of the partial blindness, or is this the start of a full on relapse? I’m not sure it’s possible to monitor his behavior any more closely, but you can be sure I’m keeping my eyes on him…
So if you have found this site because you are going through something similar, remind yourself you are doing the best you can for your companion. Be vigilant, but do not allow the fear and guilt to consume the precious gift of more time you have received.
Today was the February checkup with the neurologist and it was for the most part OK, however here was some concern about his CBC results in that the white count was below normal for the first time ever. The doc made a comment that his white count has always been on the lowish side of normal, but never below normal like today, so it was decided not to make any changes to the current treatment regimen and skip chemo just to be on the safe side. I still haven’t seen any physical or behavioral changes that have raised any relapse flags and this is only precautionary to protect his immune system from becoming too weak. Overall he continues to respond and improve but has started to shed an insane amount which is probably due to the combined long term prednisone/chemo. We’re trying to address this by adding an Omega-3/fish oil supplement daily to his meals, so if you enjoyed his bulldog gaseousness before I invite you to stop by again soon… =)