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an unexpected twist... (off to the vet we go... again)
So... I came off to Capricon in Chicago, with the youngsters in boarding and Chase (who loves to travel) with me.
Thursday afternoon, things were fine, but by late Thursday night it was obvious that Chase was distressed about something, but I couldn't figure out what. He kept![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sweetmusic_27 and I awake most of the night, pacing and fussing and pacing and fussing. I'd take him outside, and we'd come back up and he'd drink more water and in awhile we'd go outside again. He finally let me get a little sleep about 5:30 a.m., but I never got more than about an hour at a stretch without him waking me up again.
During the day on Friday, he seemed to be doing okay, 'til afternoon when he started having trouble standing up (he'd been having trouble on the slippery tile in the bathroom all weekend, but that wasn't terribly surprising). I called my vet and they had me go get a thermometer since I'd forgotten to pack one. He didn't have a fever, which was actually scarier than if he did, since he has a history of not wanting to walk if he's feverish. Called the vet back and got the prompt response of "get him to a vet".
By the time I got back downstairsbillroper had the number of the emergency clinic they'd used when Fuzz was ill, I called for directions and the fannish support machinery when into overdrive. exapno went to get the car, while tigertoy went to the room with me and carried Chase back downstairs. sweetmusic_27 had been keeping watch in the room, so she became the point of contact for keeping folks up-to-date on what was going on.
(Oh, and did I mention that all this was happening starting after my concert and before Wild Mercy's concert?)
I called Sally and told her where my stuff was and what needed to go to the gig space and what just needed to get collected to make sure it didn't get lost. We got to the Care Animal ER in Arlington and they got us right into a room. The staff and vet were all very nice and the tentative diagnosis was myasthenia gravls, which explains the recent onset of megaesophagus. Primary symptom? Muscle weakness. Thankfully, there are meds which have at least a chance of getting it under control if it's caught before the damage is permanent, so they prescribed the meds (which they didn't have in stock) and I decided to leave Chase with them overnight. Between his not walking and my torn shoulder, combined with a packed solid hotel with r-e-a-l-l-y slow elevators, bringing him back to the hotel didn't seem like a good scenario. In the middle of all this, Xap realized I hadn't eaten all day, so while I was waiting for the test results, she went to Burger King. Before she got back, they brought Chase back out to the lobby to hang out with me (the regular clinic was closed by this point, so I had the lobby to myself), so when she walked in with my dinner, we saw the most animation we'd seen in several hours... he smelled french fries. (And yes, he got hand-fed most of my order of fries... at that point, anything that made him happy and got calories into him was A Good Thing.)
Xap and I were both wearing our Capricon badges, and the staff had asked about them (we're piratical this weekend, so the skull and crossbones drew attention :-) ) and we'd explained what we were up to, and had mentioned (in all the discussion about whether to take Chase or leave him there) that I was in a band that had a concert that night. They jokingly said that I should come back in my pirate gear later, and we all kinda laughed and let it go.
Fast forward a bit... we left the clinic, dropped the scrip at Walgreens, and headed back to the hotel. Xap offered to take the meds back to the vet, but I didn't want her to miss the concert and we didn't think an hour would make a difference, so we raced back to the hotel and she dropped me at the front door about 20 minutes before we were due to go onstage. I raced to the room where Amy had my garb laid out and waiting for me. She got me laced into my just-delivered-that-day bodice and made sure that everything was in place and I ran downstairs and walked into the concert space just asfilkertom sang the last two bars of his last chorus. Timing is everything. My bandmates had all my gear set up, so I checked connections and we did a quick sound check and dove into our first "Dream of a Far Light" concert. Not the whole cycle this time... that's waiting for Marcon... but a good chunk, including Space Child Lullabye and Lightsailor. It was a kick-ass set, to excellent crowd response, which provided a good energy boost for me, which I desperately needed at that point.
So now it's the end of the concert, I'm in brown pseudo-leather bodice, black harem pants with a black handkerchief skirt over them, and black cavalier hat with requisite jaunty black feather. And we need to go pick up meds and take them to the clinic... where they'd jokingly said I should come back in garb. You saw this one coming, right?
Hmmm... it's 12 degrees outside and I'm in a bodice w/ no shirt underneath (I generate heat during performances... my friendkestrels_nest made this bodice to my measurements and cut it so that it's decent worn over just skin... I have the best friends... I do!). I commented "I need something with sleeves" and Moonwulf (who is nolj) dropped a heavy velvet pirate coat over my shoulders. It's possibly the heaviest thing I've ever worn... turns out it was made of repurposed theatre curtains from Purdue... periodically the fireproofing on the curtains expires and they have to be retired... voila... miles and miles of heavy black velvet.
Off we went to Walgreens, where the pharmacist, to his credit, neither blinked nor questioned the arrival of a pirate wench picking up a prescription for Chase (Dog) Gates. I suppose he's seen stranger at the all-night pharmacy, but still...
Next up, the ER, where Xap went ahead and rang the bell to get the tech's attention. She showed up at the door laughing and amazed... yes, I'd really come in full pirate regalia to drop off Chase's meds. It's good when you can entertain the people responsible for the health and safety of your sick critter. Sometimes the small things count.
Word today is that he's feeling better... when I called this morning he was standing up and barking at them. This is a good sign. This afternoon, they said he's eaten and been outside and he's seeming pretty recovered from yesterday's muscle weakness. I'm hoping this means he's going to be responsive to the meds and this thing will be manageable. We shall see. In the meantime, he's spending another night at the vet, and I'm back to running sound in the Internet Cafe.
Thursday afternoon, things were fine, but by late Thursday night it was obvious that Chase was distressed about something, but I couldn't figure out what. He kept
sweetmusic_27 and I awake most of the night, pacing and fussing and pacing and fussing. I'd take him outside, and we'd come back up and he'd drink more water and in awhile we'd go outside again. He finally let me get a little sleep about 5:30 a.m., but I never got more than about an hour at a stretch without him waking me up again.During the day on Friday, he seemed to be doing okay, 'til afternoon when he started having trouble standing up (he'd been having trouble on the slippery tile in the bathroom all weekend, but that wasn't terribly surprising). I called my vet and they had me go get a thermometer since I'd forgotten to pack one. He didn't have a fever, which was actually scarier than if he did, since he has a history of not wanting to walk if he's feverish. Called the vet back and got the prompt response of "get him to a vet".
By the time I got back downstairs
billroper had the number of the emergency clinic they'd used when Fuzz was ill, I called for directions and the fannish support machinery when into overdrive. exapno went to get the car, while tigertoy went to the room with me and carried Chase back downstairs. sweetmusic_27 had been keeping watch in the room, so she became the point of contact for keeping folks up-to-date on what was going on.(Oh, and did I mention that all this was happening starting after my concert and before Wild Mercy's concert?)
I called Sally and told her where my stuff was and what needed to go to the gig space and what just needed to get collected to make sure it didn't get lost. We got to the Care Animal ER in Arlington and they got us right into a room. The staff and vet were all very nice and the tentative diagnosis was myasthenia gravls, which explains the recent onset of megaesophagus. Primary symptom? Muscle weakness. Thankfully, there are meds which have at least a chance of getting it under control if it's caught before the damage is permanent, so they prescribed the meds (which they didn't have in stock) and I decided to leave Chase with them overnight. Between his not walking and my torn shoulder, combined with a packed solid hotel with r-e-a-l-l-y slow elevators, bringing him back to the hotel didn't seem like a good scenario. In the middle of all this, Xap realized I hadn't eaten all day, so while I was waiting for the test results, she went to Burger King. Before she got back, they brought Chase back out to the lobby to hang out with me (the regular clinic was closed by this point, so I had the lobby to myself), so when she walked in with my dinner, we saw the most animation we'd seen in several hours... he smelled french fries. (And yes, he got hand-fed most of my order of fries... at that point, anything that made him happy and got calories into him was A Good Thing.)
Xap and I were both wearing our Capricon badges, and the staff had asked about them (we're piratical this weekend, so the skull and crossbones drew attention :-) ) and we'd explained what we were up to, and had mentioned (in all the discussion about whether to take Chase or leave him there) that I was in a band that had a concert that night. They jokingly said that I should come back in my pirate gear later, and we all kinda laughed and let it go.
Fast forward a bit... we left the clinic, dropped the scrip at Walgreens, and headed back to the hotel. Xap offered to take the meds back to the vet, but I didn't want her to miss the concert and we didn't think an hour would make a difference, so we raced back to the hotel and she dropped me at the front door about 20 minutes before we were due to go onstage. I raced to the room where Amy had my garb laid out and waiting for me. She got me laced into my just-delivered-that-day bodice and made sure that everything was in place and I ran downstairs and walked into the concert space just as
filkertom sang the last two bars of his last chorus. Timing is everything. My bandmates had all my gear set up, so I checked connections and we did a quick sound check and dove into our first "Dream of a Far Light" concert. Not the whole cycle this time... that's waiting for Marcon... but a good chunk, including Space Child Lullabye and Lightsailor. It was a kick-ass set, to excellent crowd response, which provided a good energy boost for me, which I desperately needed at that point.So now it's the end of the concert, I'm in brown pseudo-leather bodice, black harem pants with a black handkerchief skirt over them, and black cavalier hat with requisite jaunty black feather. And we need to go pick up meds and take them to the clinic... where they'd jokingly said I should come back in garb. You saw this one coming, right?
Hmmm... it's 12 degrees outside and I'm in a bodice w/ no shirt underneath (I generate heat during performances... my friend
kestrels_nest made this bodice to my measurements and cut it so that it's decent worn over just skin... I have the best friends... I do!). I commented "I need something with sleeves" and Moonwulf (who is nolj) dropped a heavy velvet pirate coat over my shoulders. It's possibly the heaviest thing I've ever worn... turns out it was made of repurposed theatre curtains from Purdue... periodically the fireproofing on the curtains expires and they have to be retired... voila... miles and miles of heavy black velvet.Off we went to Walgreens, where the pharmacist, to his credit, neither blinked nor questioned the arrival of a pirate wench picking up a prescription for Chase (Dog) Gates. I suppose he's seen stranger at the all-night pharmacy, but still...
Next up, the ER, where Xap went ahead and rang the bell to get the tech's attention. She showed up at the door laughing and amazed... yes, I'd really come in full pirate regalia to drop off Chase's meds. It's good when you can entertain the people responsible for the health and safety of your sick critter. Sometimes the small things count.
Word today is that he's feeling better... when I called this morning he was standing up and barking at them. This is a good sign. This afternoon, they said he's eaten and been outside and he's seeming pretty recovered from yesterday's muscle weakness. I'm hoping this means he's going to be responsive to the meds and this thing will be manageable. We shall see. In the meantime, he's spending another night at the vet, and I'm back to running sound in the Internet Cafe.
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I'm glad to hear Chase is doing better! What a crazy day you've both had. Myas gravis drugs are pretty specific to well, myasthenia gravis, so if they're helping at all, that's probably what it is and there's a good chance that this improvement can be maintained for a while.
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Him: "Address?"
Me: "*gave address* ... I should be in the system."
Him: "Yeah, but we have to set the cat up separately."
Me: "Dog"
Him: "Huh?"
Me: "Dog... not cat... and he should be in the system too... I had to buy him a nebulizer last month."
Him: *blink blink*
Then he went back to typing. Apparently he really didn't find Chase in the system... perhaps because he was still looking for a cat? :-)
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Glad to hear Chase is more his old self!
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It's been a roller coaster weekend, for sure!
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http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1544&S=1
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And actually, MG wasn't on my list of things to think about (I've not knowingly seen a case)
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*hugs*
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Your pirate gear probably made that vet tech's day!
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I was more than happy to indulge the vet techs. I figure they deal with enough stress, working in an emergency practice. Brightening their evening was fun (and brightened _my_ evening, too!), and it may have explained why I got the "Oh, I've heard about _you_!" reaction every time I called back to check on my boy. :-)
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Now I'm gonna give him his evening meds and I'm going to bed!
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Very very glad Chase seems to be doing better, and so responsive to meds.
Also very glad the bodice fits and works well for its intended purpose as gig-wear!
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Realistically... I realize he's a 14-yr-old dog and I may not have him for much longer. But part of me keeps remembering that his parents and grandparents all made it to 15 or 16, and I really want that last year or two, dammit!
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The bodice was really comfortable and got lots of compliments both days (I reversed it and wore it again last night). Lots of folks were taking pictures at the concert and at open filk, so there should be pictures surfacing soon!
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Titering how much is enough and settling on a normal dose would take some close observation, and perhaps some journal-keeping
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For now, he's on a quarter of a pill, twice a day. Of course, with the megaesophagus complicating things, the trick is to make sure the pill is actually getting/staying down. *sigh*
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