Monday dawned with a full-blown anxiety attack hovering. Seeking just an hour of quiet, an hour or solace, an hour of something other than work or worry, I headed out to the greenhouse. Big mistake. An unsupervised and steroid-fueled Lilly helped herself to a non-food snack. There went my day.
Lilly sleeps a bit better these days — often only waking us 1-2 times a night. Tom took over most night duty because there are fewer stumbles down the hall to help Lilly and because he is MUCH better at going back to sleep than I am. I lie awake and worry … a lot. There are several reasons things might have improved overnight, including the addition of the latest CD from our friends at Through a Dog’s Ear called Music to Comfort Your Elderly Canine.
Early in this unexpected and unwelcome journey, I began having heart-to-heart conversations with Lilly. These days, those conversations are a little different.
I’ve always taken a lot of photos of Lilly, but now that I accept that our time may be short, I feel more pressure to capture her essence and read the messages in her eyes. Here are a few recent favorite photos of our intrepid canine heroine.
Today is World Rabies Day, which is meant to “raise awareness about the impact of human and animal rabies, how easy it is to prevent it, and how to eliminate the main global sources.” Nine months into a life / death struggle following Lilly’s severe adverse rabies vaccine reaction, I look at things a bit differently.
While we use cytarabine — a chemo drug with good anti-inflammatory properties for our needs — at lower doses than would be required for cancer treatment, Lilly still suffers from a dry mouth after her injections every 3 weeks. Her nose is also CRAZY dry (more from the steroids than the chemo), but not nearly as bad as in February, when she developed massive nosebleeds. Here is a recap of our solutions.
Living with incontinent dogs is NOT easy. I find myself surprised how frustrating, time-consuming, and icky having a totally incontinent dog (for months on end, with no resolution in sight) can be. I wish I could only focus on Lilly’s strength and recovery, but I cannot. Here is a recap of the diaper options we’ve tried, including links to specific products.
You have our apologies for the lack of blog posts this week. Just too-too-too much going on with Lilly, with work, with my mom (who is terminally ill). Here is a little VIDEO recap of Lilly’s recovery so far.
I am humbled and honored by your continued devotion to our troubled journey. Thanks to YOU and your chip-in help, we’ve been able to pay our bills this month. In a way, we’re starting with a cleaner slate. Not much money, but not much debt.
Taking care of Lilly now that the vaccine-induced meningoencephalomyelitis has reared its ugly head again means noticing what she can and cannot do. Here are a few examples you might find interesting.
