No real changes in Lilly’s overall condition to report, but here are just a few news items.
Bladder infection update
Lilly finished antibiotics earlier this week for back-to-back infection #3. Our veterinary team drew another urine culture last Friday (5/24). We’re awaiting test results. Her urine still reeks, so I worry.
June marks one full year of total incontinence for Lilly. Thank goodness she is good about wearing diapers and letting me express her.
Bath mat bummer
We got 4 huge / great bath mats at a garage sale for $10 a couple weeks ago. We use them as flooring in Lilly’s x-pen bedroom (great footing, very absorbent), but even 1 is WAY to heavy when wet for our washing machine, so I’ll need to hose them off somehow outside, wring them well, and hang them on the clotheslines for however long it takes for them to dry.
Liver support supplement
We’re adding a veterinary-specific liver support supplement called denamarin (essentially milk thistle and sam-e) to try and combat the toll on Lilly’s liver from all the other meds she needs.
Losing / gaining veterinary acupuncturist
Our current veterinary acupuncturist is going to be gone for the summer. That’s the bad news. The good news, though, is that the veterinarian who recently joined our main veterinary hospital JUST got certified in acupuncture. She even does weekend appointments.
Veterinary neurologist off for a while too
Our veterinary neurologist is studying 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, in preparation for sitting for his board exams in several weeks. We’ll keep doing everything we’re doing, but we won’t have access to him until he returns / recovers from the stress and strain of this major academic hurdle.
Tremendous toll
I haven’t done a good job of late expressing the true financial and emotional toll of taking care of Lilly. Even though she is doing relatively well and is pretty stable, I’m exhausted on a level that words cannot even touch.
For a while, Lilly was waking us up 15 minutes earlier each day. Pretty soon we feared we wouldn’t even be able to go to bed in the first place.
Still, our goal was to get Lilly into summer, and we’ve done that. Now the trick is making the most of it — for her and for us.
I did take 4 whole days “off” (if you don’t count veterinary appointments and eldercare stuff) for the recent holiday weekend. Here are a few pix:
We have another little adventure planned for this coming weekend. It’s completely stressing me out, but it might make for some fun pix. Stay tuned.
Happy summer! Thanks for your continued interest in our saga.
Milk Thistle and SAMe are certainly great. (careful, SAMe can sometimes upset the system; stomach. Jasmine never had an issue with it, though)
I so know how you feel (((hugs))) Sadly, now, when I “don’t have to worry any more,” I’m neither feeling any better or getting any more sleep …
Thanks for the update, Rox. Thinking of you guys.
Maybe you could put out a call for more mats and try to rotate them, so you’d always have at least a couple in useable mode.
I love that photo of Lilly smiling – so cute! <3
Lilly is so lucky to have you – wishing you all the best!
Those pictures of her are FANTASTIC!
At least bath mats will dry pretty quickly? I’ve actually been afraid to put them in the dryer, so post-washer, I’ve hung them and they seemed to be ready fast.
Really, I think about you pretty often, and how emotionally (and financially) rough all of this must be.
Alas, these bath mats DO NOT dry quickly. They are sort of a microfiber shag carpet style, and they hold an absurd amount of water. The one I did try to wash in the washer (ended up taking it out sopping wet before it killed my machine … for the 3rd time from Lilly laundry) took THREE days outside in the sun & wind to dry. Oy!
One day at a time…. and don’t forget to breathe!! I wish things were getting better, but glad they are not worse!!