Last weekend, Lilly got her 3rd cycle of cytarabine injections (4 sub-q injections over 2 days). She handles it like a champ. Honestly, other than the fact that everything about her reeks of medications, you’d never know she was getting pretty aggressive treatment for rabies vaccine-induced meningoencephalomyelitis (brain inflammation). This week, we saw some improvements.
Yes, Lilly is doing well right now. With all the illness / death / destruction in my life in the last 4 years, however, it’s hard not to wither from anticipatory grief — not just for Lilly but others in my life (like my mom, who is terminally ill with a progressive brain disorder). Autumn fills with angst for me anyway. Not my favorite time of year. So, today, some sunrise photos.
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.
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.
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.
Lilly made great gains in her recovery through about Wednesday. She hasn’t been as great since then. She seems weak, tired, wobbly, and droopy. I worry about her gums and tongue being pale. We’re not getting much sleep at night. BUT, Lilly can walk again — not well, but she can walk.
We’re so sorry about not posting Monday. Now that Lilly is home the demands on my time and energy have increased 10 fold, at least. So, that’s the headline … Lilly is home. She is still a neurological wreck, but she is improving.
If Lilly was 5% of herself Friday (Aug 10), we’d say she is 20% of herself today (Saturday, Aug 11). Just talked to our neurologist, though, and he said I’m a “brutal Olympic judge” because he would have given her a much higher score. Some photos from today.
Again, I’m mostly too tired to be coherent, but here is the top news about Lilly’s massive adverse rabies vaccine reaction relapse.
