AIHA or IMHA

You're doing a ton -- Val, the way you are feeling is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO "normal" for what you and Coop are going thru -- I felt sick to my stomach for 18 months.  I was terrified most of the time because I thot "If he lives thru the IMHA will the DRUGS make him so sick that it's not worth it?"

You are doing all you can.  I wish you could do the TCVM because that helps stimulate the blood production.  They took Billy off Pred pretty danged fast because of the side effects HE was having.  I think you're doing about all you can at this point and if you want to do what we discussed before just let me know, ok??

The pred does funny physical things.  And the cyclosporine does really ODD things to the mucus membranes (things like the jowels, nose) and how they retain fluid.

Remember, cyclosporine is also the same stuff that's in the eyedrops that they give to dogs with "dry eye".  Now -- think how WEIRD that is -- that for some reason cyclosporine in the **eyes** makes the eyes more moist -- and yet it will make the nose dry and almost like hard plastic.  It just plain screws weird with skin and tissue.  And it seems to be different with each dog. 

So just keep noticing things, writing them down and discuss them with your vet.  Or call me -- don't worry, I won't say you're weird, ok?? *hugs*

 You just feel that way because you're a good mommy!  If you step away from our little forum here and look at how most people are with their dogs in the real world you'd know that you have gone above and beyond what most people do for their dogs. 

GratefulDawg

 You just feel that way because you're a good mommy!  If you step away from our little forum here and look at how most people are with their dogs in the real world you'd know that you have gone above and beyond what most people do for their dogs. 

This is so true.  You guys just blow me away with the dedication to your dogs.  The time spent caring for your dogs, the research, the costs, the heartbreak when you have a set back and you just keep going.  I can't tell you, all of you, how truly moved I am when I read this thread. 

IMHA/AIHA sucks!!!  That's really all one can say about it.  I know what your saying about always worrying....I do the same thing all day long.  Always wondering in the back of my head if I'm doing all I can and what else should be done, etc.  Like Gratefuldawg was saying....if you step back and look at how others are with their dogs you'll quickly realize how lucky Cooper is to have you....and everyone else in this forum for that matter.  The fact that we are all on here trying to figure this disease out is a compliment to ourselves.  We are our furkids advocate and we have to do this for them.

I was just telling someone the other day how I almost got in a fight with my neighbor over Tessy.  He said I was stupid for spending all the money I did and the best thing would have been to put her down!  Well....let's just say some choice words were chosen.  Some people just don't have the compassion and will to try and save their pets lives.  ENOUGH

Hope that everybody is doing good today.  Give the furbabies hugs from Tessy and I.

Coopbay

My friends are shocked when they come over and see everything that Cooper takes. It's hard for people to understand what he is going through including me.

No one really "understands" -- and for most people it is so foreign to give a dog meds.  But then most people don't have health challenges and have to take anything for *themselves* either.

I've got three who take meds -- Billy with all his liver, heart, and skin stuff, Tink with all the demodex and liver stuff, and then Kee with all her seizure stuff.  All three take both pills AND powders so I have morning/evening containers for each for pills and morning/evening containers for each for powders.  Just putting up meds takes me way over an hour a week.  That includes taking "inventory" of what I'm low on, so I can get more before I run out.  Trying to race after something takes TOO much time.

Coopbay

I always tell Cooper how many friends are thinking about him each time I read this forum. :)

It's good for them.  Their mental state is VERY important.  I've told before that when Billy was his sickest and having to stay up at ICU at U of FL at Gainesville, I used to copy all his "posts" to Word and then print them out and FAX them up to his student at Gainesville WHO READ THEM TO HIM.

Did he understand every word?  Heck no!!!!  BUT he understood it was attention, and he understood his NAME was in it over and over and over.  And he heard "names" that were familiar (because David and I talk about the posts so like NOW he has seen Cooper's picture and knows who Cloppy and Cooper and Tessy and Gratefuldawg and EVERYONE else is. 

It's interest IN them and they respond well to that.  Many of the dogs who die from IMHA give up.    Keeping them interested and WANTING to get better is huge.

calliecritturs

he heard "names" that were familiar

IN fact - when Pirate was sick he heard me talk about 'Aunt Callie and Uncle David' all the time. He knew his iDog friends too, but 'Aunt Callie' he knew was frequently used ("Aunt Callie SEZ you havesta eat, bub...";) and then we met Callie, David, and her crew at the beach one summer and he got to connect names to people. That was the ONLY time he'd ever met Callie and David, until this winter, when he kept seizing one night with me at work. I couldn't leave so Callie and David came to take him to the e-vet -- I explained to him that they were taking him to SEE THE VET and that Mom would be right HERE waiting for him to come back. Callie swears that Pirate barely fussed - I simply put him on her lap and off they zoomed :) They DO understand so much more than I think we think they do.

I hope you're feeling better today, Coop's mom :)

He had not even ONE problem with it.  He was a tad freaked because he'd just seized, but remember also -- Pirate really doesn't like men all that much and David was driving right next to me.  I sang "Yo Ho" to him and we both talked to him and he was FINE.  In fact, by the time we got to the vet, Pirate jumped up on the bench to be WITH DAVID. 

But yeah -- the recognize names in a big way. 

Confused?  What other parts?  It's all red meat except for perhaps a bit of hard fat that might be on it.??

well, when i ordered it from the butcher, i think they had the whole heart. there are the white parts and there is fat attached to the meat. the white parts i was assuming were the superior vena cava and the arteries? i don't know. its all gross to me.

Coopbay

he white parts i was assuming were the superior vena cava and the arteries?

yeeech!  I think you're turning me into a vegitarian.  I'd feed the meat and throw the heart valves, arteries, aortic chambers and what not (superior vena cava?!) in the trash.

I'm going to eat a veggie burger tonight LOL!

You could take one to school for a science fair project?? Sorry -- I've never seen one like that.  Weird. 

That's funny stuff about the heart.  I know just what your talking about.  I bought a couple beef hearts for Tessy a few weeks ago.  First, I couldn't get over the size of them.  HUGE!  They also had all the weird stuff over them that I had to cut off....really gross!  Anyhow....Tessy LOVES beef heart.  She'll sit near the stove the whole time it's cooking.

Hope everybody and the furkids are doing great today.

Johnny & Tessy