Molly, 13 yr, shih tzu - lhasa aspo - Molly has passed

Wow, Sharlene -- you must be exhausted! Somewhere in between everyone else, you seriously do need to take care of yourself.

That's great that Molly is so relaxed with her doctors -- I think Abbie would prefer that I sedate her. I will have to look up "UPC" as I am not familiar with that test. I wonder if Molly would do better with a change in medication even if it is similar to the benazepril. I think that our pups sometimes build up a resistance to a med if they have been on it for a while.

(((((SHARLENE)))))
Sending you a big hug today. I know this roller coaster is wearing you out. I'm glad Molly is feeling good. I smile everytime I see that perfectly precious little face on your avatar.
:p

You just move Molly over and curl up in that window with her and rest yourself a bit, sweetie. You have a great deal going on right now so please remember Sharlene from time to time when you are handing out your special brand of TLC.

lots of strenght for next week for all of you.
but i am glad molly is feeling fine!

OK, the workday is almost at an end, so here's hoping you and Daniel and Molly can have a peaceful weekend in advance of the busy week ahead. Also surely hoping that there is nothing serious going on with his mom!

A glass of wine, a nice hot bath, some Cool jazz, and take-out dinner (or even better, delivered-in dinner!). Yep, that's your prescription, Sharlene. ;)

Sending you warm thoughts and big hugs.

Hoping for the best for you on all fronts, Sharlene. I sure can imagine how exhausted you must be. At my place, because I've been stressed out lately, my dogs have had to put up with an excessive amount of hugs and kisses from me. Thankfully they are tolerant of me :) You should definitely put Molly to work on snuggle duty to help you all through this.

Hope you got that nap:)

Sharlene,
Just getting caught up on you, Molly, and hubs. Wishing him all the best for his surgery and hospital stay, I know it will go perfectly well, but it is stressful nonetheless. Also hoping things are okay with your MIL.

As far as Molly, I sure am hoping that the increase in the Benazepril makes a difference with her BP. You know I'm kind of worried about you checking the UPC again so soon. How long ago was it checked last? I know my vet way back told me that checking it too frequently is often times cause for false alarm, because it takes time for the medication to work and for results to be seen. I know she isn't keen on checking it any more often than every three months or so, especially after any kind of change. But maybe your doc is doing that because of Molly's blood pressure? I just don't want you to have to worry unnecessarily about anything Sharlene, you have so much on your plate right now.

I hope you are able to get some rest and do a little relaxing this weekend. Thinking about you guys.

Big hugs,
Tina and Jasper xo

I think they are checking the UPC more frequently because of the blood pressure like you said and they want to get that down without BP meds if possible. The Bp is of course a concern because of the retinal bleeds. And now we have the ionized calcium which was a bit elevated but we all know that an elevation in ionized calcium is not a good sign.
I've done some reading and yea not great.
So on top of everything else my brother in law is now in the hospital after a fall. We are waiting on cat scan results of lower back and head. Hoping that comes back good. Nothing broken so that is good.
On that note hubby and I have decided we need a date night so off to the movies to see Interstellar.
Hugs all

Hopefully heading to one of those new fancy theaters where you can stretch out in a recliner seat and order a cocktail to go along with your popcorn and Junior Mints!!

Just catching up and sorry to hear you have so much on your plate at the moment. I hope you have a lovely evening at the movies, and that everything goes well with hubby's surgery next week.

I've not had any experience of vets taking BP, but have to say I'm surprised to hear that they don't all have BP monitors. It sounds like the best course of action is to keep your vet because she knows Molly's history, then go elsewhere for the BP readings.

yep, one of those fancy dancy theaters is exactly what we went to and the first thing I did was order a fancy drink with umbrella and puree and rum in it. Then was ready to settle in for the movie.

Looks like until I can get molly at least sort of stabilized I'll be going to the IMS. There are just too many variables currently to add anything else to the mix. It isn't going to be easy, as my ability to keep taking time of work ends with molly's next visit. I've been taking vacation time. Plus the expense is more at the IMS, but I don't know of any other option to get all this straightened out. So, for now, saving every penny possible for molly's appointments and hoping we can get this figured out.
As my husband said, this isn't sustainable to being paying out thousands every month.
Still nothing on my brother in law, so maybe they didn't do the cat scan today. I should hear something over night from my sister though. The 3 hour time difference means I'm often in bed when she emails.

Thanks for hanging in there with us gals.

hugs

Just wanted to drop in and surround you with love and healing energy. You most certainly have your hands full my dear.:o

Regarding Molly's bills...I can sympathize totally with your situation. I I was still paying off Buddy's vet bills long after he flew free. I managed without asking for any help, but it was difficult there for a while. The vets can pretty much charge whatever they want and we're stuck.

Please let Daniel know that he's family too. He has now been surrounded by a flock of busybody angels who will make sure he gets the best care possible. Sending tons of healing energy his way.

Of course, we are always here for you too Sharlene.:p

Hugs to all of you!!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by molly muffin

He goes in on the 18th. Surgery is on the 19th and 20th. (it's a double hernia so they do one side each day) He's doing it under a local instead of general anesthesia. I feel nauseous just thinking about it.

The hospital said today he will be in till Monday the 24th. So, it's a fairly long stay. 6 nights. Everyone says they have good results though with healing and want to make sure there are no complications going forward. He'll have mentors that are going through the same thing before he goes in and then he will mentor others until his release. Interesting eh. They are up on their feet 4 hours after surgery. My neighbors dad had his hernia surgery at the same hospital and said it's more like a 5 star resort, with their entire focus being on the patients well being and whole health recovery. This should be interesting.

Molly is still doing good. I have a couple things that have to be worked out in that I can't keep going to the IMS for the BP readings every week or other week. It's too far and I'm running out of vacation to take doing all these tests and being there all the time. My vet however, does not have a BP machine. *sigh*

I can find another vet, but none of the other vets do boarding and after some not so great experience with boarding her at other places, the vets is the only one I currently trust. My current vet though is the only one who does dog boarding and doggie day care when needed.
So, what to do about all this. Do I see if I just get a vet to do the BP readings and stick with my current vet which is what I'd like to do? Or do I have to switch because my vet doesn't have a BP machine and then what do I do about boarding.

I feel like I'm stuck in a hard place with no good solutions. I've been trying to figure this out since September, with no real answers.

I need to make sure my vet can do the ACTH and send to the lab that the IMS wants used also. IDEXX. She wants consistency with the testing since molly is not symptomatic and harder to determine what is happening without the tests being done in the same lab so we can see the drops or increases without any other factors (lab factors). I'm pretty sure that my vet can send to IDEXX lab, but need to verify. Also that she will order the trilostane compounded from same place my IMS orders it.

My head hurts just thinking about it.

hugs all
Sharlene and molly muffin

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Hi Sharlene I am still catching up on your thread. My prayers for Daniel on his surgery so sorry he has to go through this.

I am not fully caught up with Molly yet but if you recall I bought a vet bp machine for Snuggles months ago due to his pheo, it works great and comes with 3 sized cuffs infant child and adult and it is a vet bp machine, so gives the HR BP and MAP. Most are very expensive but this one was reasonable about 100.00 or maybe less I don't recall exactly. If you are interested I can find where I purchased it, I don't recall atm..will be reading the rest of Mollys posts HUGS and prayers!

finished catching up and so so sorry to hear about Molly's eyesight, renal issues and high bp. You have so much to deal with. HUGS! I hope and prayer you get these issues resolved and stabilized. praying hard!

this is thr bp monitor I bought and use for Snuggles

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I spoke too soon, that one doesn't ship to Canada. I'll look for one on amazon.ca. Sometimes I can find amazon.com that ships to canada but for a lot of things they won't ship outside the U.S. *sigh*

Song gave me a different link, but not sure if it will ship to Canada or not.

hugs

Hmmmmmm..... Doesn't your sister live in California? Maybe she'd order one to be shipped to her, then she could mail it to you.:confused:

Quote:

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Doesn't your sister live in California? Maybe she'd order one to be shipped to her, then she could mail it to you

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Maybe. It's a thought.

Have you tried eBay as some sellers there will ship internationally. Argh - medical stuff seems particularly difficult to buy cross border.

Yep I looked on ebay, looks like the only ones that will ship here is from china. Of course.

Well I spoke too soon about my BIL. Turns out when the specialist reviewed xrays and cat scan, 2 vertebrae are broke, so he goes in to surgery tomorrow for repair and fusions. L2 and L3 are broke, so L1 and L4 will be fused.

Of course weather has turned crappy too, and we are expecting snow. I know I live in Canada, but frankly I am not a snow driver and the battery of course is kaput in the jeep that I would drive in the winter. So, not sure how this is going to work in regards to getting across toronto to the hospital. I've looked into subway/taxi combination and that would be doable. Hubby says he absolutely doesn't want to be worrying about me driving on hwy's to get over to him in bad weather. He'd rather facetime and know I am safe. He's a sweetheart. We'll see what I can manage.

In addition I have have been called in by my GP over an xray I had taken for my lower back bothering me, and he wants to send me to a specialist. I have to go see him Tuesday evening, since I said no way could I go earlier but he is leaving on vacation on Wed, so I have to get in this week.

Really, can I not go back to bed and wake up in maybe January or say spring even and everything just be fine with everyone?

I am going to either not have a lot of chance to be on the computer this week, or I'm going to have so much time I won't know what to do with it. LOL

hugs all

Sharlene,
I just heard about this service, for shipping from the US, from some other Brits. I've never used it myself so you might want to see if you can find reviews to see if they are reliable.
http://www.shipito.com/

((((((((((hugs))))))))))

OMG SHARLENE!! Enough already! Praying for you and your entire family. I think you need an exorcist to rid your family of these disasters. You are overdue for good news, or at least a break from the doom and gloom.

LOL Kathy. I know what you mean, I sort of feel the same way. This has to all get better soon, things do tend to get better after the bad stuff is out of the way.

If they don't better call the priest about that exorcism.

hugs and thanks for the smile

wow Sharlene you are sure getting more than your fair share, so sorry!
I saw the ones on ebay too but searched for USA shipping. I did not realize you are in CA. I would be happy to order it and ship it to you if you would like.

Sharlene I looked at the companies shipping polices
EastShore Shipping Policies

Where to ship:
We ship to almost anywhere as long as Amazon.com taking your order . However we do not ship to certain South American countries because local custom laws restriction on importing medical device.

seems like they do ship to CA

and its a different compamy but same model

http://www.amazon.com/CMS-08A-Profes...6258083&sr=1-3
and cheaper! $78.95 & FREE SHIPPING

Sharlene, I just wanted to tell you I'll be thinking of you and Daniel this week and the tough week ahead. Pop in when you get time and let us know how things are going. I hate you have to deal with nasty weather on top of everything else. Please stay safe! Hugs!

Vicki,

FYI...Sharlene lives in Canada. Her sister lives in CA.;)

Poor Sharlene, I'm sending you tons of prayers and good luck as you do need both, a lot of them. :eek: driving in the snow for how many hours? I think I'm with your husband on this one if snow is in the play. I will also pray that this week goes by in a blink so everything will be done and over with when you open your eyes. Hugs, Song.

hehe thanks but CA is Canada, at least that what I meant :)

It's both Canada and California. :)

Thanks Vicki. I might take you up on that. My vet is making some calls to other vets to see what the possibilities are here too.

I'll get back to you later after this week is over with. :)

Kathy you are such a sweetheart! I actually kind of love that you know where my sister lives. LOL Isn't that weird.

Thanks and hugs!

Okay, Duh, I'm bad. I probably should have known that.:o

It's not all that weird to me Sharlene, but I do work in Jr. High after all. I could definitely freak you out with weird!:D:D We get to know each other's families through association because we care about our family members here. AWWWW!:p

Just head from my sister. Is it spring yet?

It's too risky to surgery at any of the hospitals in their area it was decided, so an ambulance picked my brother in law up at 4pm today to take him to Stanford University Hospital. I think I forgot to mention that yesterday they found bleeding in the spinal chord and his ECG is abnormal, so risky to do surgery, but they have to stop the bleeding. Stanford does have a good reputation.

So, good news is snow didn't really stick to the roads today and hopefully there will be none till Wednesday, so it should be fine getting him to the hospital and then I won't go up if the roads are bad on Wed.

oh Kathy, I work with nerds, we can Do weird. LOL but only in a nerdy way. hahaha

You are right, we are all family here.

Vicki, just told hubs about your idea for the BP machine and that you are already using the model so we know it is good one. He thinks it's a good idea to get it and says thank you from both of us.

I'll PM you after this week over and done with and work out the details.

hugs

In junior high we do weird in a raging hormonal teenage kind of way. You don't want to go there. I don't either but I'm already there! Lol :D

Oh Sharlene, so hoping all goes well with your brother-in-law's surgery. And good luck to Daniel heading in today! What a load you are carrying this week. We are all there with you in spirit, don't ever forget that!

Hi Sharlene-
I'm hangin' here as well, hoping all goes well for Daniel....and BIL. He really must have taken quite a tumble.

I'm really hoping that the surgeries for Daniel and BIL go well this week - I'll be thinking about them and you.
Take Care x

Sending healing energy to Daniel and your BIL. Stanford University has a great reputation. You BIL is in the best possible hands. Daniel has you watching out for him, so I'm sure he will breeze through. You may need a lullaby with a glass of wine later. Stay tuned. ;)

Big soothing hugs my friend,

My goodness, I hope your BIL is ok. Let us know when you can and tell your sister your "other family" is praying for all.

Be careful today and the very best to Daniel. Waiting anxiously to hear back when you can, sweetie.