My Courageous Sammy Bear

Though this is posted on February 14, it was all written on the 13th.

I noticed Sammy was bigger, as in she looked pregnant, this weekend. She was also heavier. But Sunday I looked at her and got scared at how large she had become. She looked like a barrel on stilts. I was afraid (unrealistically) that she would pop! We took her to the emergency vet, who took an x-ray and found that her abdomen was full of fluid. She took a blood sample and a sample of the fluid and really was not able to tell us what the issue was. She recommended we see our regular vet and get an ultrasound ASAP. I faxed all the information to Dr. Blount (our regular vet) Sunday. She called Monday at 8:05am to tell us she got Sammy an ultrasound appointment at 8:45am.

These are the email updates that followed…

Sammy's ultrasound revealed that she has a lot of fluid in the sack surrounding her heart and essentially the heart has been pumping this fluid into her abdomen. That's why she was so big.

She is going to have a sonogram of her heart this afternoon to determine the cause of the fluid. It is expected to be one of two things:

1. A tumor on her heart. If this is the case we will have some big choices... We can put her to sleep today, we can take her home and spend some time with her, we can drain the fluid and spend more time with her, or we can surgically remove the tumor and have maybe 3 months with her.

2. a spontaneous and unexplained event in which case we drain the fluid and it is likely she will not have the problem again. As you can imagine, we are hoping for option 'B'. The odds are literally 50/50.

I’ll let you know more when I know more.

UPDATE 1

The vet just called. She does NOT see a tumor on Sammy’s heart at this point or any cancer. She is going to drain the fluid and call us this evening with an update. We are still not out of the woods as this procedure has some serious risk, but this is REALLY great news. Sammy will have to stay overnight at the vet’s office.

I’ll let you know more as I know more. WHEW!

UPDATE 2

The vet called this evening to tell me that they removed 150cc’s of fluid from around Sammy's heart. That's a lot. Dr. Joe says that's almost 2/3 of a normal glass of water. She came through just fine and she enjoyed going for a walk (no great surprise there). She is going to stay overnight at the vet’s office so she remains calm and the doctor will call us in the morning with an update and to discuss the plan for follow up treatment. They are sending a sample of the fluid through various lab tests and we should know the results in the afternoon sometime.

Whew.