When Lilly became so dangerously ill nearly a year ago, we abandoned her anxiety meds because of their dampening effect on her now troubled brain. And, we essentially stopped working on dog training issues. These days, I ask her for very little, and the results are these.
I buy very little music, but I’ve found “Babel,” the recent album from Mumford & Sons, to be an apt soundtrack for my life. While the full context of the songs might not match my life with Lilly, many of the hunks of lyrics do. Here are a few examples.
A blaring alarm jolted me out of bed Monday morning. I squeezed our morning dog-care routine into as little time as possible, before putting on many layers to brave the extreme cold. Alas, I ended up cancelling Lilly’s neurology exam. Here is our frustrating tale.
Depending on where you live and work, my ideas for cutting household expenses to help pay for pet care may not work for you, but here are my Best Budget Squeezing Strategies for Desperate Dog Moms.
As I begin budgeting for 2013, let’s look at just how much it has cost to keep Lilly alive following the onset of vaccine-induced meningoencephalomyelitis (inflammation of the brain, lining of the brain, and spinal cord).
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.
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.
