Champion of My HeartA real-time memoir about life with a fearful border collie, by Roxanne Hawn

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Not nearly enough chocolate or ice cream in the house for a week like this, but here is a short recap of this week’s (mostly good) news … after Lilly became increasingly wobbly and weak, starting last Sunday.

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We got mostly good news today from Lilly’s blood and basic urine tests. The urine culture takes several more days, but Lilly’s complete blood count (CBC) and senior dog blood chemistry panel look good. So, there is no reason we cannot go ahead with her cytarabine injections (“chemo”) tomorrow and Thursday. As for the sudden wobbly-weakness? Into the unknown we go …

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<insert string of vociferous profanities here> Lilly is having another set-back. Whether the weakness and wobbling we’re seeing is a result of the antibiotic-resistant infection in her bladder and monster antibiotic picked to fight it (cloramphenicol)… or the resurgence of her ongoing brain and spinal cord inflammation … we don’t yet know. Here is how it unfolded (mostly in pictures).

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The good news? A total of 7 weeks of antibiotics (2 different kinds) wiped out Lilly’s e coli bladder infection. The bad news? Now she has an antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection called staph pseudointermedius. People get MRSA infections. Dogs sometimes get MRSP infections, like this one. All of this stems from her treatment for rabies vaccine-induced meningoencephalomyelitis (and the resulting incontinence). The drug chosen for this next canine bladder war is a doozy.

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Another silly week comes to a close. Lilly received 4 more cytarabine injections Tuesday and Wednesday (that’s cycle #11, if you’re keeping tabs). Somehow, I ended up with 7 client conference calls this week, including 5 full hours on the phone Thursday. Sheesh! Just a little news this week.

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Lilly is doing pretty well, if you don’t count the 2 super-soaker / super-messy diaper days in the last week and the renewed urge to eat paper products. Oh, and we even had to break out the dog toy Jaws of Life today. Honestly! Read the rest of this entry »

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The headline is that Lilly is fine, but here is a recap of how she gave me a BIG scare on Wednesday.

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Whew! We’ve been running around like wild monkeys, with as many as 6 veterinary appointments per week. You have our apologies for not posting about every little shift in Lilly’s health. Here are some highlights from recent weeks, as Lilly continues to recover from a terrible bladder infection (caused by immune-suppressing treatment for her adverse rabies vaccine reaction >> brain and spinal cord inflammation).

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Since I just came up with the pennies idea to track Lilly’s survival, I decided to go retro — retroactive, that is. I went to the bank and got rolls and rolls of pennies so that I had 1 penny for every day since Lilly received that fateful rabies vaccine on January 23, 2012, that royally screwed up her brain and spinal cord. Today marks Day 394 of Lilly’s survival. Howz that for positive thinking?

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Since Lilly’s ongoing weird / scary bladder infection was diagnosed a few weeks ago, we’ve added a number of experts to Team Lilly. While focusing on improving her quality of life, we’re still wrestling with medical decisions that will likely dictate the length of that life. Simply put, Lilly remains tenuously perched on a narrow ledge of “remission” from the deadly consequences of brain and spinal cord inflammation. She is NOWHERE near normal neurologically, but she is holding steady … for now.

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It has been a ridiculous week in Lilly Town. Here is a quick recap of our efforts to help Lilly recover from a terrible bladder infection. It stems from her symptoms and treatment for rabies vaccine-induced brain and spinal cord inflammation. We are now 13 months into this saga.

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From sheer exhaustion and worry, I’m a weepy mess right now. I probably shouldn’t even try to write, but I know many of you are worried about Lilly. She is OK. Not great, but OK. Here is the latest news.

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We’ve been busy with “hospitalized at home” protocols for Lilly since she came home Friday evening. Much to do, much to worry about, but here is a quick update from Sunday morning (1-27-13).

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Friday morning (1/25/13) around 6:45 am, Lilly had her first seizure in about a year. Then, we found an absurd amount of blood in her urine, and our veterinary team found AIR inside the walls of Lilly’s bladder. That’s. NOT. Good. Potentially life-threatening, even.

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