Another Sophie Update....
Well, if you have been keeping up with the updates, you allready know that we left her at the Vet ER for overnight care and monitoring. When we took her in, her platelettes were at 13, which meant her cells were now dying and starting to attack vital organs, (namely, her lungs, which is why she was having breathing difficulties.) We decided to hand over our credit cards and pay to keep her there. She was given a blood transfusion last night along with another couple doses of heavy duty steriods, hoping that it would shut down her immune system, despite the low rate of success, we had to give her the chance.
They gave her the transfusion shortly before we decided to go home and get some sleep, and they said they'd call us in a few hours to let us know of the progress, (because, c'mon, it's not like either of us were going to sleep anyway. I just had nightmares about her dying all night.) I finally got frustrated about 1 a.m. and came downstairs to see if mom had gotten a progress report while I was "asleep." She said she hadn't because they had had a lot of emergencies that night, so she called THEM and here is the news that followed...
The steroids and single transfusion, (though the doctor gave us an estimate for both, just in case...) had so far SUCCESSFULLY stopped her immune system. Her blood platelette count was up to 25, which is up near a normal range for a dog her size in a sick condition, (if that makes sense.) In other words, she's nowhere near where she NEEDS to be YET, BUT... nothing is being destroyed inside her body, either. She basically has the platelettes of a dog who has the flu right now, which means her body is stabilizing and it will most likely go up to normal range in time. They said that this was only temporary condition and they'd keep doing blood pulls and monitoring her and give us a call in the morning.
Well, we just recieved that call... and her platelettes have stabilized the entire night between 23 and 25 with only one transfusion. My baby is such a trooper. She's putting her all into fighting this. She's taking the 15% chance, and making it a reality. I love my dog. If she hadn't stabilized by the first transfusion or steroid dose, they were going to try another. If she hadn't stabilized after that, we had made the family decision that we were going to have to put her to sleep. She's fighting it, though. My baby girl is literally exhausted from fighting this off, so they gave her an IV of more fluids and some pain meds, and she is feeling a lot better.
So what does this mean? This means they are going to give her one more shot of steroids and wait a few hours to see what her platelettes are doing, then we will go from there. I really hope I will get to bring her home. I want to hug her and kiss her and play with her. I feel like I have taken her for granted. I could have played with her more, we could have gone on longer walks... ect. Mom says that she thinks this has just bought her some time, but with that time I plan on spending a good chunk of my free time with HER.
Thank you thank you THANK YOU to everyone at Central Valley Animal Hospital who worked with Sophie over the night.
She's not out of the woods yet, though. I know I am getting my hopes up, but why SHOULDN'T I hope? Everyone, please keep praying for her...
I'm going back to bed. I'm exhausted. Maybe I can actually get a few hours, and maybe I will go to work today... maybe...
They gave her the transfusion shortly before we decided to go home and get some sleep, and they said they'd call us in a few hours to let us know of the progress, (because, c'mon, it's not like either of us were going to sleep anyway. I just had nightmares about her dying all night.) I finally got frustrated about 1 a.m. and came downstairs to see if mom had gotten a progress report while I was "asleep." She said she hadn't because they had had a lot of emergencies that night, so she called THEM and here is the news that followed...
The steroids and single transfusion, (though the doctor gave us an estimate for both, just in case...) had so far SUCCESSFULLY stopped her immune system. Her blood platelette count was up to 25, which is up near a normal range for a dog her size in a sick condition, (if that makes sense.) In other words, she's nowhere near where she NEEDS to be YET, BUT... nothing is being destroyed inside her body, either. She basically has the platelettes of a dog who has the flu right now, which means her body is stabilizing and it will most likely go up to normal range in time. They said that this was only temporary condition and they'd keep doing blood pulls and monitoring her and give us a call in the morning.
Well, we just recieved that call... and her platelettes have stabilized the entire night between 23 and 25 with only one transfusion. My baby is such a trooper. She's putting her all into fighting this. She's taking the 15% chance, and making it a reality. I love my dog. If she hadn't stabilized by the first transfusion or steroid dose, they were going to try another. If she hadn't stabilized after that, we had made the family decision that we were going to have to put her to sleep. She's fighting it, though. My baby girl is literally exhausted from fighting this off, so they gave her an IV of more fluids and some pain meds, and she is feeling a lot better.
So what does this mean? This means they are going to give her one more shot of steroids and wait a few hours to see what her platelettes are doing, then we will go from there. I really hope I will get to bring her home. I want to hug her and kiss her and play with her. I feel like I have taken her for granted. I could have played with her more, we could have gone on longer walks... ect. Mom says that she thinks this has just bought her some time, but with that time I plan on spending a good chunk of my free time with HER.
Thank you thank you THANK YOU to everyone at Central Valley Animal Hospital who worked with Sophie over the night.
She's not out of the woods yet, though. I know I am getting my hopes up, but why SHOULDN'T I hope? Everyone, please keep praying for her...
I'm going back to bed. I'm exhausted. Maybe I can actually get a few hours, and maybe I will go to work today... maybe...