Back to the unknown....

Well after almost of month of a somewhat "normal" Bailey, she still would only drink out of the bathtub and got sick of food in a week. But she was happy, eating, drinking, etc and we were happy with her progress. But on Monday this week Bailey has gone back to where she was before and this time it seems a bit worse than the first. I think I might have found a connection, since Bailey had been sick in December we started her on a new dog food that my parents dog Kooshy had. This was because Bailey was not eating at home I would take her to the vet near my parents home and then bring her over and tell them the updates. While not eating all day with us she would go to Kooshy's food right away and eat it quick as she could. So she had been eating that food ever since, but over the weekend we had run out and Bailey was doing well, but picky so we got a new Iams food. Bailey had been eating Iams before all this happened so we figured she would like it and eat it. She did like it and she had it for a couple of days then she started throwing up again, then the shakes came back, then she completely stopped eating and drinking again. So the first thing I looked up was Iams dog food, well I found a couple of connections. Iams dog food has been linked to chemical reactions causing renal disease, seizures, etc so we stopped the food, she wasn't eating it anyway and I emailed her doctor. Although the doctor didn't rule out that this could be the problem she didn't believe this would cause the large kidneys that Bailey has, but I am sticking to it for now. But in the days following Bailey has been getting a lot worse than she had been before. She is very lethargic, and throwing up 15 if not more times a day as well as losing more hair. Our bedroom looks absolutely horrible as this stuff stains like crazy. :( She wakes up and throws up through out the night then it continues through out the day, I feel so bad for her and feel there just isn't anything we can do. We had a bag and a half of fluid left for her so I gave her half last night hoping it might help, not sure if it did or not. But I will give her the whole bag today and see if it changes her mood or not. So now we are back to being lost in the Bailey puzzle, the doctor still wants to look for cancer with a biopsy. That biopsy costs $1500 and there could be a chance for the results to come back negative like many of the other tests we have taken have been. To the doctors it's the only option left, they have no answer for us. That's where I feel we have spent over $3000 on tests that have given us no answer, so now they have to pay for the next test. I am thinking it might be a good idea to take Bailey in for a day in the hospital on IV fluids to see if it will help but that will be $700. It's such a lost feeling to have the complete unknown is so hard to make decisions on things when we have so little money to begin with and we have twins on the way we are trying save for. So I have again e-mailed Bailey's doctor I hope to get a response back on some ideas or what she thinks might be best for our situation. I will try my best to keep this updated as this mess continues.

Good news for Bailey...

After over a month of nothing but bad news with Bailey we actually got some good news yesterday. Bailey went in for another blood draw on Monday to see where her kidney levels were and red blood count. The Dr. called and said, "I don't know why but I actually have good news for Bailey today." Some how something we have given Bailey has helped and her kidney level went down from 100 to 71 and her red blood count from 7.0 to 4.0. These are still not normal levels but they are better and we like better, so now we just wait and see. Bailey ends her ulcer medication this week, I wonder if this will affect her in any way. The only part that's hard is we don't know what helped, was it a bacterial infection we fixed? Or did the chemo she received help improve her health, it just took her longer to respond? So we have to wait and see if she stays happy and continues to eat and drink or if she starts to decline again. But we would rather wait and see then put down $1500 to look for cancer that may or may not actually be there. The Dr. has told us many times that's what she wants us to do, I sure it's tough for a Dr. not to know what is wrong with a patient. But she will have to wait as well. We hope and pray for the best with Bailey, she will go in for another blood level check in about two weeks. Maybe the numbers will be even lower then...you never know. :)

Doing well....

Well this last week has been very nice for us, we got to see a "normal" side of Bailey. She has been eating and drinking pretty normally these last couple of days. Although she won't drink from her normal bowl she has to drink from the bath tub or bowls outside. She has been eating right when I put the food in her bowl, treats when we leave the house and it's so wonderful to see and hear. It's so strange we don't what is wrong with her or if we fixed something with the medicine we have given her but we will take it. It's weird that Mike and I got a little excited when Bailey got into the trash the other day or when she steals food from the table. But we are just so excited to see her eating, drinking and not shaking anymore. We will have to go in for another blood draw next week and see where her levels are at. Maybe she can be a miracle dog and her numbers will be down, you never know with Bailey. :)

Hard Times

So this last Friday was Bailey's first day of Chemotherapy, we had a much longer day than anticipated because we also had to do a blood transfer. Bailey's red blood count was up to 80 which in a "normal" would mean they are close to death. But in Bailey's case she is still an active, happy, barking dog. So they do a process of taking out blood until the blood isn't as thick anymore and runs for smoothly, then replace it with IV fluids. So we did that first then the elspar treatment was next, I was most nervous about this and if Bailey might have a reaction or not. So did great, yea! So now we hoped and prayed we would see some drastic changes in Bailey in the next couple of days so we knew were are treating the right thing and can move forward. Well that wasn't the case, even though Bailey had been eating and drinking the days before her first treatment the day right after she stopped. We are on three days now of not eating or drinking much at all and Bailey has also had bouts of vomiting as well. So she did not respond well to her first treatment. This means we will not do elspar again and we need to figure out what the next plan is. Well today Bailey decided to add more stress on to me by vomiting with some blood. I again started to cry this is not what I want to deal with, I wanted her to just be better. I hate that this is all happening while I am pregnant and I am trying my best to take deep breathes and "try" not to stress to much. But it is very hard to do, there is so much up in the air for Bailey so much decisions we have to make for her. Because there was blood in her vomit today the Dr. thinks Bailey might have an ulcer so now we start two more medications, thankfully she is almost done with the other medication she had been on. She is more tired today and doesn't have a lot of energy. Dr. would like us to do another aspirate of her kidney and liver and see if we have more abnormal cells in the kidney and if we find any in the liver. It could come back negative like it had before, but because of today we don't want to try any other chemo that could possibly only make Bailey more sick. So like I said more decisions to make more medications, more of the unknown. I am getting so tired of this and just want one normal day with Bailey again. Will let you know what we decide to do next as we move forward into the next days and see how she does with this new medication.

Decisions Made

Mike and I have decided we are going to have Bailey treated for lymphoma cancer, the other tests just seemed to be tests to look for cancer. We feel if we are spending more money to look for cancer than we need to start treating cancer. So Bailey's first chemotherapy appointment will be Friday at 2pm, she will start with an injectable medication called L-asparaginase, or laspar. If Bailey responses well the this treatment and starts acting like normal Bailey again Dr's were correct and Bailey does have cancer and we will continue treatment. But if Bailey gets real sick from treatment, not fatal sick just sick we know we aren't treating cancer and something else is going on. Which will be more testing, so it's somewhat of a double negative but we feel good about finally starting something with her. We want our Bailey back and we hope and pray this might be the solution for her.

Results

Well we got the newest results for Bailey today, and unfortunately it wasn't much news. She had her urine culture done to check for leptospirosis, a rare disease the many dogs get immunization for. It's rare but some dogs can still sometime catch it if they lick an area outside that has been peed on by a fox, squirrel or raccoon. But that result came back negative, so we also did a blood test for other bacterial infections such as e-coli and other rare but possible infections. But that result also came back negative leaving us at the place we were in before...the unknown. So we were given three options the Dr. would like to do a biopsy of Bailey's kidneys to give her a answer to if this is lymphoma cancer or not but it is expensive. Also because Bailey is having kidney issues a biopsy could be very harmful to her, she has to go under and could lose a lot of blood. She is already pretty week since she hasn't been eating and drinking much so that idea didn't sound wonderful to us. Second option is to do another aspirate but the Dr would extract from her liver this time instead of her kidneys. Again to see if they find the same abnormal cells they saw in the kidneys and try and confirm a cancer diagnoses. Thirdly we could treat lymphoma cancer without a full diagnosis of lymphoma cancer. But to us we feel there isn't anything else they could find, we have looked for everything and Dr's are just trying to find cancer. So it seems to them that cancer is the only option for Bailey being so sick. So now Mike and I decide what we want to do, the Dr can't really tell us what to do because she is at a loss as well. So will chat and decide on what we think is the best option for us and Bailey, we really just want her to get better and hope we can get her better sooner than later.

Little Doggy Steps

Bailey is taking baby steps I feel, hopefully toward the better but she hasn't eaten a regular meal for three days now. But she hasn't been shaking as much today which shaking usually means she is dehydrated, so it's nice to see her not shaking. We haven't done the IV since yesterday morning. But her drinking hasn't been as wonderful today so it's a strange place to be with her. I feel we continue to make a few steps forward then a step back. We should get our blood results and urine culture results back by tomorrow at the latest but I always wish we would hear sooner. I might do a skin IV tonight if Bailey doesn't drink much this evening. Hopefully we are getting better, I do know that the medication Bailey is on usually needs a full belly or it will make her tummy hurt. Because she hasn't been eating much I hope she just doesn't feel wonderful so she doesn't want to eat as much and once we are done with the meds she will get her appetite back. We will see tonight is the last night of the e-coli big pills that she absolutely hates so we are excited to take a break from those. Let's pray for some results and maybe some good news too? We will see.

Good Day

I am so very happy with Bailey today, she has been eating all day today and has also had some water. Not a lot of water but at least she is drinking some, she hasn't been drinking any for the last couple of days. I will still do the IV tonight since she still seems to be getting the shakes but I hope this means she might be turning a corner and getting better? I guess you never know but it makes me happy when she has a good day and I need happy days these days. :)