Bumping Along and Awaiting News
No real changes in Lilly’s overall condition to report, but here are just a few news items.
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Adverse Rabies Vaccine Reaction | Dog Life | Dog Photo | Dog Trick Video | Dog Video | Dog Video Gallery
Video Update on Lilly’s Brain Inflammation
I don’t much remember what life with Lilly was like before she got so sick with an adverse rabies vaccine reaction called meningoencephalomyelitis in January 2012. Taking care of her fills my days. Our world has gotten quite small, but we feel joy at even the tiniest “normal” thing — such as playing fetch. Here, friends, is a little video update.
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Feeling Brave-ish 16 Months into Our Canine Brain Saga
It’s official. I’ve fallen out of the habit of blogging. It’s complicated. Today, for example, my plans to finish work early so that I could clean my house (which is getting scary) got slaughtered by imminent, unexpected work demands from 3 different clients. Since it looks like I’ll be cleaning all evening, I’m trying to make some space in my brain to write a real update about Lilly. Let’s see how it goes.
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Quick Update on Lilly
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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Into the Unknown We Go
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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Reeling from Another Setback
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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Canine Bladder Wars and Antibiotic-Resistant Bacterial Infections
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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Fun With Dog Brains, The Latest Lilly News
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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The Agony and Amusement of Canine Brain Issues
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!
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Everything OK After Lilly’s Sudden Collapse
The headline is that Lilly is fine, but here is a recap of how she gave me a BIG scare on Wednesday.
