very rough weekend!
Posted by Nina on Dec 14, 2006
I don’t even know where to begin with how horrible this past weekend had been… We have a little Yorkie at my parents that had gotten sick… he wouldn’t lift his head up to look at you, he wouldn’t move, he wouldn’t eat, and he wouldn’t drink… well Mum took him to the Emergency Vet.. they ran X-rays and blood tests (both viral and bacterial), checked all of his vitals and found nothing wrong except that he was slightly dehydrated.. his hydration was a 57/50 so it wasn’t enough to be concerned.. they gave her antibiotics just in case and said to take the X-rays and papers to his usual Vet if he didn’t improve..
Well.. he wasn’t feeling any better by morning.. so Mum took him in straight away and they told her they wanted to keep him for a few days because their tests came back showing nothing wrong also but he still wouldn’t eat or drink… so on Saturday we went in to see him and we had to force feed him some canned food and the entire time he was petrified because he has NEVER spent the night away from home before.. He ate about a pouch of food and they agreed that he could come home the next morning.. Well…………….. we went to pick him up and the vet told us the bill came to nearly $200 more than Mum agreed to pay and she had already left them a $200 check the night she left him there.. but they couldn’t find any receipt, they didn’t have the check, and were threatening to hold Ruff if she didn’t pay the $200 again! This is a Vet she has gone to for over 30 years! I WAS FURIOUS! They eventually found they credited someone else’s account with her $200, apologized, and gave us Ruff..
When he got home he ate his treats like usual but wouldn’t touch food.. he kept jumping and looking at his side and crying and we assumed it was the pain patch bothering him that they had placed there.. so we took it off.. then he started crying and whining so we went back for pain meds… then we (Sergey and I) had to make our 3hr drive home… Mum called later and said he actually ate a little and was drinking too! and was resting comfortably………. We were thinking at that point that it had probably been stress since he had NEVER spent the night in a kennel or vets office so this was all quite traumatic for him. The next morning he was 200% better and didn’t need any pain meds and hasn’t since. He is still taking both viral and bacterial antibiotics as a precautionary measure.. however we now think we know whats caused it.. pancreatitis. His symptoms are exactly the same as my cousins dog who had it and wasn’t diagnosed for 10 days in this kind of condition! We have since changed his food and his treats and he gets better each day..
As if that wasn’t enough.. we have a pet fish who has been with our family for 12yrs! Sunday morning he was flipping belly up.. we did everything that I knew how to do.. we changed his water, gave him intestinal parasite medicine, medicated his water under a ‘general cure’, added a new filter, and then placed him back in the tank… at that point we were thinking it was the end for him.. he was swimming about 50/50 right side up / tipping to his side when we left but he was still alive when we got home… the next morning Mum called me to say “you will never believe what happened this morning?” — what? I asked thinking she was telling me about the burial of my fish Moses… instead she gasped.. “That fish splashed me!! he came up begging like crazy for food and hasn’t stopped swimming since!”………….
2 sickly pets in our loving home cured from HORRIBLE illnesses… and for that I am so grateful and thankful!
Hospitals Suck Part 2
Posted by Nina on Sep 21, 2006
I got a call from my dad this afternoon. Apparently some of the medication the doctors had prescribed for him to take for headaches and sleeping aids were probably the cause of his liver failing to release toxins into the intestines. He is off all of his medications with the exception of his hunger pill (marinol), and they have increased its strength to help him have a larger appetite. Apparently its working much better. He was able to eat his entire breakfast and lunch this afternoon!
Better news is that his shaking has decreased and he is able to write his name now with no trouble. He knows the day of the week, can tell you the date, his addresses he still gets confused on sometimes but knows when he says it wrong it will sound wrong to him and he will say “no thats not right…” so his cloudiness is lifting. Doctors also say that is may be able to come home on Friday afternoon! I will see him on Saturday probably.
They have decided to take monthly blood tests to insure that he has no more problems like this. He hates to give blood but I think he understands just how serious this was and how lucky he is to be able to recover.. so he isn’t complaining. Why wouldn’t they be checking for this kind of thing all along?! Grandma says he looks 100% better today than he did yesterday.. and he told me on the phone he feels “almost as good as new”. We’re very lucky.
Hospitals Suck
Posted by Nina on Sep 21, 2006
Some of you know that my father is ill, but very few will know why or how severe it is.. in fact I am not even sure I have written about this before? Dad was diagnosed with 2 types of terminal cancer (pancreas & liver) 4 years ago. The kind of cancer he has is an extremely rare and very slow growing cancer. Dad has been having treatments in the form of hormone shots and an embolism chemo seed surgery.. however on Tuesday morning, dad became so disoriented he didn’t know where he was, what year this is, who the president was, and had to be rushed to the emergency room. I spent the better part of the evening running back and forth on the phone with grandma and trying to find out when we could drive to the hospital. We left our place around 8:30pm and got in sometime around 11pm. Apparently dad’s liver has failed to release toxins from his body and its effected his thought process. We saw him today.. I spent the day in his room. He’s pretty cloudy today but NOTHING like he was on Tuesday. He has trouble remembering things with numbers.. If you would ask him what the date is quite often tonight his response was February 21st. We were trying to tell him Wednesday, September 20th, 2006.. but then if you asked him how old he was he would answer “21″.. Dad is 52. One minute he knows the date and can repeat it and the next he forgets and knows he is wrong when he answers and gets frustrated at himself for not knowing.. and along with this, he is having involuntary jerking of his hands and he can barely write his name.. that worries him.. but the Dr’s do not seem to be too concerned about this and keep reminding him “one thing at a time”..
The doctors say his cloudiness will improve and eventually go away once his liver is cleaned of toxins and then we will work on another course in his cancer treatment. It’s been an extremely emotionally exhausting day both for dad and myself. Sergey and I drove the 3hr drive back home after leaving the hospital.. I plan to go back this weekend and spend as much time with dad as I possibly can. After all… little girls never truly grow up.. they always need their Daddys.
