Sophie - Little Trooper

My poor little Scoo.

Yesterday morning Sophie and I went on our usual 6am walk. Everything was normal, there was absolutely nothing – even looking back – that could be reported as odd. I wasn’t feeling well so I went back to bed for about 90 minutes. When I got up, Sophie was having a tough time walking. Clearly her left front leg was bothering her but it looked like she didn’t really want to walk on either leg. We thought maybe she was stiff from her nap or she jumped of “her” chair and landed funny. I was sufficiently worried to call the vet and get an appointment @ 3pm

We left her to rest while we ran some errands. When we returned, she didn’t meet us at the door, nor had she moved from the spot she was in when we left. I took her outside to relieve herself, which she did, and let her wander around the back yard. Well she limped right into a dark corner, dug a small hole and lay down in it. I called the vet back to say that I didn’t want to wait ‘til 3, they said I could bring her in, drop her off and the doctor would check her in-between her other patients. I was relieved to get Karen Blount’s call saying she saw Sophie and thought she would step in and check her out (the original appointment was with a different doctor). She prepped The Bean for x-rays and called us when they were done.

We have known that Sophie was developing arthritis in her left shoulder for probably 5 years. The x-rays showed that it has progressed. Dr. Blount is sending them to a specialist for further review and it might be that Sophie Ann Marie will have to go to San Mateo to see an orthopedist. We picked her up yesterday with a bottle full of anti-inflammatory and a bottle of pain relief medicine. Right now Sophie is a sad little pup. She is VERY swollen in her left should/elbow and can not walk at all on that leg, nor will she lie down on that side. I finally got her to eat something about 30 minutes ago, which was a huge relief since I didn’t want to continue to give her the medicine on an empty stomach, but she is in so much pain I didn’t want her to NOT have the medicine either.

Dr. Blount said the first 48 hours would be tough, so I’m trying to not freak out completely until tomorrow afternoon. I am worried about the swelling and Sophie doesn’t even want us to lightly touch the fur around the area. I got an appointment for tomorrow morning, just in case the swelling and pain don’t subside – or get worse.

That’s the scoop.

Simmer is Sensational!

Have you ever raved about a club sandwich? How about macaroni and cheese, have you ever considered it to be mind blowing? Probably not, because these are considered "basic" foods - anyone can make them. I do not believe that anymore. Nope.

I had the chicken club sandwich at Simmer. It was so good, I may never again be able to eat a club sandwich again as I will always be longing for the day I can enjoy such a simple yet perfect confulence of tastes. Roy enjoyed the macaroni and cheese. Let me put it this way, once I had my obligatory taste he did not even fake like he would offer me another taste. It was clear he wasn't sharing.

We also enjoyed mimosas which went down like a bubbly glass of juice but had a really nice kick. And if you know us you know we did not pass of dessert. I focused in on the pecan pie and was unable to listen to the rest. The owner was kind enough to bring us a sample of the key lime parfait which was fantastic. As an added touch, on your way out you are gifted a small sack of cookies (also wonderful).

Though the food was phenomenal, the real treat was the time that the owner spent with us.

Sammy Succumbed to Cancer

Sammy's surgery revealed that she had cancer in her abdomen. The cancer was a cluster type that presents as lots and lots of tiny, pinpoint size white "tumors" and they were all over her abdomen - so much so that the surgeon had difficulty identifying the organs. There is no treatment for this type of cancer. Roy and I had discussed prior to Sammy's surgery that if something like this was found we would elect not to wake her from surgery and that is what we did.

Although we are absolutely heartbroken, we know we did everything we could for her, not only in the past three weeks but for the entire 2+ years we lived with her. We miss her deeply. She was an absolute joy to be around and taught me a lesson or two about the effect of a positive attitude. Sammy was one in a million.

We can not thank all of you enough for your support, kind words and high hopes.

Sammy Goes in for Surgery

Roy and I took The Whammer (that is Sammy to those of us in her inner circle) in to consult with the surgeon this morning. We expected that we would hear the pros and cons of the surgery, and what exactly they would be doing while they had her open. We also were prepared that they would take her today and perform the surgery if that is what we decided. Which we did.

They are going to go into her chest to look and feel for things that we can't find in the testing that we have done (which is everything available). They will also remove the pericardial sac or at least create a window in it. Assuming they don't find anything (i.e. a tumor, a foxtail) in the chest to explain her situation they will explore the abdomen in a similar manner. They will take samples of everything that is safe to take samples of and have a pathologist look at them.

Her surgery is roughly 3-5pm today. We will hear from the vet after the procedure unless they find something during surgery that they need to discuss with us. Keep your fingers crossed. We are very nervous for Sammy but feel confident in this surgeon and the vet that has been working on Sammy's case. Sammy will have to stay the night and possibly a 2nd night depending on the speed of her recovery. She is very strong, healthy and brave. AND she is very motivated to get home to be with Sophie.

FilmLoop Version 1.1 on the way

Are you in the Loop? Get the FilmLoop player now and start sharing your photos today. FilmLoop is coming out with version 1.1 soon (no more beta!). You can be sure I will give you a link when it is available. Fee free to click a link below and play with the beta version.


Another Looplet:

Sammy might need surgery

We have an appointment Thursday to find out if Sammy needs surgery. Sammy continues to retain fluid. She has turned from a stuffed sausage to a barrel in the past few days. We called a spoke to the vet about what we should do and she said that exploratory surgery is the next step. We have exhausted all non-invasive methods of diagnosis and if we don't stop the fluid retention she will eventually die.

I'll know more after the appointment Thursday. What I understand right now is that the surgery is exploratory. They will likely remove the pericardial sack, take samples of the lymph nodes, and look for other abnormalities. The two causes they are hoping to find evidence of (either one ofr the other) are constrictive pericarditis and immune mediated vasculitis (article relates to humans but gives you an idea of what vasculitis is).

Poor Sammy. She is so brave.

Sammy seems pretty good

Sammy has decided she has it too good here and she wants to stick around for a while. She still has some abdominal fluid, but we don’t think she is getting larger (or smaller). She has her great Sammy attitude and she loves to track Sophie around. She has bright eyes and is quite enthusiastic. She has also decided that she doesn’t care for dry kibble anymore. She prefers roast chicken, broccoli soup, hamburgers, etc. So we are in discussions on that point. If she would just get rid of the fluid I would swear she faked the whole thing just so she could get more table scraps.

We are hopeful she has turned a corner and is heading towards good health. We'll continue to think that until the vets can diagnose where the fluid is coming from.

The Test Results are in and...

We still know nothing.

Not really, but close. We now know that Sammy does not have a mass in her chest cavity nor her abdomen. Which is great news. She does not have any pericardial fluid around her heart. Also great news. She does seem to have some swelling in the web-like tissue that surrounds her abdominal organs (there is a medical term for this stuff) and that could be from all the fluid in her abdomen or it could be cancer. She still has been accumulating fluid in her abdomen and we don't know why or from where.

Right now the vet says we just wait and watch. When she fills up with fluid we are to take her in to have it drained off and to have another ultrasound to check for pericardial fluid. We are not left with the impression that we can expect to repeat this process for years and years. I'm not sure at what point we move on to other options. We do have the option to do exploratory surgery took look for a cause. For now we will wait and watch.

Roy and I are exhausted. This cyclical life of high anxiety followed by great relief has been taxing. Thanks again for all of your kind words and I'm sorry to keep jerking you all around on the roller coaster too.

CT Scan Done Today

We took Sammy to VMS in Concord today for her CT scan of her chest and abdomin. We won't know any of the results until sometime tomorrow. She is home and she is hungry and thirsty. I imagine she will be napping for a while... her eyes are quite bleary.

We don't know what to expect. The chance that she has a heart base tumor is unchanged from the last time we spoke to a vet. The vet we spoke to today said that her symptoms didn't really add up to one diagnosis or another conclusively. She is considering the possibility that Sammy has pericardioitis (misspelled I'm sure) or inflamation in the pericardial sack. If that is the case then removal of the pericardial sack would be an option. She gave us a small ammount of hope to cling to.

I'll post the study result when we hear.