By late last night, SodaPop began to come around thanks to the drugs she had started. Her fever broke around noon on Friday, and she began eating and drinking. She was still holding everything down as we settled on the sofa to watch a very good movie from 2006, Inside Man. (It's a Spike Lee joint with Denzel Washington, Jody Foster, and who else... Oh, yes, Clive Owen.)
Ginger curled up and went to sleep in her open kennel of her own accord, apparently not a fan, but Soda stayed with me to watch the whole thing. Her eyes closed briefly now and then, but I'm quite certain she was still listening intently.
We all went to bed around 11. I thought we were good. I was wrong.
Soda woke me up this morning with the sound of vomiting. Within an hour she had vomited more than eight times (and I'm still finding locations). First came the food, then water, and in a very frightening new development, all of it contained clotted or liquid blood. She had bad, blood-tinged diarrhea and blood in her urine.
Somehow she managed to remain alert as this was happening, letting Ginger and I handle the alarmed end of things. I called the hospital and we headed in.
A recheck of her bloodwork showed her PCV (red cell volume) to be steady at 28--still low, but no lower than before. Her liver and kidneys showed increased stress, but not alarming levels. But unlike two days before, a test for pancreatitis came up a strong positive. All in all, what the symptoms pointed to was a bleeding ulcer.
This ulcer probably started weeks ago, when I first started noticing her having trouble keeping water down. The sudden barrage of heavy drugs had tipped it over the edge. An ulcer alone is not cause for panic, but an ulcer in a dog we need to treat NOW for hemolytic anemia is grave.
Honestly, as I drove in to the hospital, I didn't think she'd be coming home with me. Of course, I didn't know then it was blood from an ulcer; I thought it was from a complication known as DIC (Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation), a very serious bleeding disorder.
I don't know why I didn't give up today. I'm already re-thinking the decision I made to allow subcutaneous fluids and injectable forms of meds for everything from ulcers to hemolytic anemia. I took home more fluids and more shots to treat and monitor her myself over the next 24-48 hours. Something about watching her nod off in my dad's arms as I discussed treatment plans with the doctor made me unable to cut her short.
After a day or so, it should be clear if we have silenced the ulcer. If we haven't, the doc said we may need to go with a feeding tube, another ultrasound, and possibly even surgery to do a visual check for pancreatic damage and possible underlying causes of these developments. I told her we would not be doing that. By that time, in my opinion, the prognosis for her quality of life alone will have deteriorated enough that it will not be worth putting her through the additonal stress. We are also up to $1300 from the last three days of treatment, and in a sickeningly practical consideration, I won't be able to withstand much more financially.
So whether or not I made the right decision today, we are home and bunkered in for tomorrow's snowstorm. I don't think we'll be able to get out tomorrow even if we need to. I am fairly confident that the medications we were sent home with will keep her relatively comfortable for the next 24-36 hours, at which point we will have to go back and face some tough decisions once again.
Until then, I intend to cherish every minute with both girls. Ginger is staying by Soda's side as much as she can, no doubt easily picking up the scent of blood and illness along with my ever-present anxiety. And I will post more news as it happens.
Soda wishes to thank everyone for the outpouring of sympathy and well-wishes. She has made many friends across the country over the last nine years and they are all following this difficult journey with us.
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