Disneyland

So Regina, you managed to empty the entire dishwasher in one day. What are you going to do next?
"I'm goin' to Disneyland!
See you all again Wednesday!

365 Again?

So per Sister Sonja's challenge, I finished a 365 for 2009. You can see the photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tlcbull/sets/72157612444883128/

She asked me if I was going to do one for 2010. My response was "No way!" I was tired of having to find a photo for every day, felt terrible about missing 2 weeks of shots when I was in and out of the hospital with the kidney stuff, I was glad to be rid of the project. But.... You can't go an entire year doing something and then just drop it. True, the first few weeks of 2010 I was happy just being and didn't even try with my camera. It sat idle and I didn't care, but here we are at the end of January, and I find myself looking at the fog on the trees, or the neighbors cat sitting in the snow and I am actually planning in my head how to take the shot. I do admit I like going back and looking at where/what I was doing a year ago. Looks like I'm in the habit, and habits are hard to break. Looks like Sonja was right. Again.

That's What I Thought!

So vet 2 calls bright and early this morning, returning my phone call, and she said:
1. There are A LOT of transitional cells in the urine. Often transistional cells come from the bladder, and a huge amount of them can be indicative of a tumor.
2. Rosie's  bladder wall was about 3/4 inch thick (normal is about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick) so that tells her the stones have been in there a while rolling around and getting bigger, and callousing the bladder causing it to thicken.
3. The ENTIRE bladder was thick. Not just a section of it. So if there was a tumor, it would be the only one of it's kind that she has seen in 20+ years of being a vet. Usually tumors grow in one spot and get bigger, they don't grow evenly throughout the entire muscle. She felt around in there, looked in there, flushed it all out with water, did NOT see a tumor.
4. If it was a tumor, Rosie should still be peeing blood (she isn't) She should be getting weaker (she isn't) She should be refusing to eat (she isn't)....
 so bottom line.... yes there were transitional cells in the urine, and NO (cue your inner arnold swartzenagger)
"It's not a tumor!"

Pain control

So, when we got home from the surgery, Fatdog was in a lot of pain, so I gave her the narcotic, a little bit of puppy morphine, she didn't puke, and all was great. TOO GREAT!  Now she thinks she is all better, wants to jump on the bed, wants to jump on the couch, wants to jump into her rocking chair (photo taken in November) you get the idea. She doesn't seem to realize that she has a 4 inch long slice down her fat little belly. So today I didn't give her the puppy morphine, just Rimadyl (puppy tylenol) and she is kind of whiney, and I can tell she hurts, but she is lying quietly and not jumping around everywhere. It kind of makes my heart hurt a little to know I could ease her pain, but I think it would be better if I didn't. Wonder if God ever feels like that?

Really?

So, Vet 1 called me this afternoon to tell me (and I quote) " The urine tested positive for antigens consistent with a bladder tumor." (end quote) She then recommended me to a vet in SLC who is a surgical specialist in bladder tumors. I feel like rosie when she tips her head and TRIES so hard to understand what people are saying. But what I am hearing is
1. I checked real good and there are no bladder stones, so therefore it must be a tumor.
2. I don't want to deal with you anymore, so go to SLC to this expensive doctor and he will operate and remove said tumor.
What I learned yesterday was:
1. There were a LOT of bladder stones.
2. Bladder tumors are mostly inoperable.
So now my response is REALLY? Are you for real? I of course put in a call to vet2 to see if the presence of bladderstones could cause a positive antigen report, and she is of course having a day off until Thursday. So I guess it is possible that Fatdog may still have cancer.  Unlike last time though I am refusing to go into panic mode until I talk to Vet2 because quite honestly I think Vet1 is an idiot.
p.s. rosie is doing well. :-]

Bladderstones

Well the surgery went well. Vet2 only used the minimal amount of anesthetic and Fatdog woke up quickly and was very responsive. This is what they found:

Really that is only half of what they found. The other half they sent to the lab. So really this is what they found:

Question: How in theeeeee hell did Vet1 miss it? I am so glad that Clint told me to get a second opinion, or I would be thinking it was a tumor, and Fatdog would STILL be trying to pee around these boulders. Had Vet1 diagnosed properly, she could have had the surgery last week! AAAARGH!

Thank you all for the notes and prayers. Fatdog is recovering well, I got her home at 6:00 p.m and she had to pee every 10 minutes. They told me not to give her a pain pill until she ate something because she might puke. So I didn't. But she refused to eat. FATDOG refused to eat. (Shocking I know, this is the dog who tries to eat orange peels because she thinks she's starving, and now the one time in her whole life I WANT her to eat and she won't. Go figure. ) She cried, and whined, and had to pee every ten minutes, would pace, flop, pee, pace, flop, pee...Finally at 8:00 I gave her a pain pill anyway. I figured if she puked it would at least alter the pace, flop, pee routine. Finally about 9:00 she flopped, then started to snore. (BEST sound ever!) She slept until 9:30, and we started the routine again, but this time in half hour increments. Slowly through out the night she began resting more and peeing less. Finally ate some food around 2:30 am and began drinking water around 6:00 am. She never did puke. So that's it for now. I'm going to go try and rest when she does (Sounds like a new baby huh). Now I have to decide if I want to write a letter of complaint to Vet1. Do I still pay the 100+ bucks due for the labwork on the urine culture? (they are looking for a tumor) I mean they are doing the work so they should get paid, but had Vet1 made a proper diagnosis we probably wouldn't have needed to send the stuff off to begin with.... Anyway, I do know I am too tired to make a decision right now. Oh, and by the way, I'm supposed to go to CA on Friday. Pretty weird sensation for me because for the first time ever, I have an anuual pass, but I don't really want to go to Disneyland.

Prayers for FatDog

Monday January 25, 2010
I take Fatdog to Vet2 for xrays and ultrasound. I am silently praying in my heart for a kidney tumor. Kidney tumors can be removed. How sick is that? To be PRAYING for a KIDNEY TUMOR? Vet tech comes in and takes Rosie away for xrays. 10 minutes later brings her back. We wait. I can hear the Docotor talking, but only muffled voices. I pick out the words "bladder", "white cells", "tumor." I begin to hyperventilate just a little. The docotor comes in and asks for me to go with her back into the surgery area to look at the x-rays. Says she doesn't need to do the ultrasound because she can see what's wrong already. I must have turned grey because she said, "It's bladder stones. LOTS AND LOTS of bladder stones." Bladder stones? I about jumped for joy! Bladder stones, I had been praying for a kidney tumor! (How sick is that?) Anyway, it is good news, but not great news. Rosie is still deep in the dark woods. There are about 10 to 15 massive  bladder stones that are filling more than 1/2 of her bladder. She must have surgery. ASAP. Which means today. TODAY.  Right now. Bulldogs don't do well with surgery. They can't breathe, then they die. This is not the first time I have taken a dog in for surgery and left with nothing but the bill. Remember my sweet Tie-Tie? But, I did it again. I left her at the vet's office, and can pick her up at 6:00 p.m. I left her. She looked back at me, so sad and confused as to why she wan't coming with me. I pray now that she will be ok in surgery. 6:00 p.m. can't come fast enough.

FatDog

 Well, my FatDog is sick. Really sick. Here's where we are so far:

Thursday January 14, 2010: On our walk, I notice that when Rosie pees in the snow, there is a trace of blood. Red snow is not a good thing. I am sure she has a bladder infection, so I call the vet while we are walking to schedule an appointment for the next day.

Friday January 15, 2010: Weight 47.7 lbs. The vet takes a urine sample. Says she sees bacteria cocci in the urine, puts Rosie on amoxicillin.

Saturday 16/Sunday 17: I am not noticing a change yet. Urine is still really red. I start sleeping on the couch pull out in the library with Rosie because she has to get up to pee every 2 hours or more.

Monday January 18: I still don't see much improvement, and call the vet. They say she has not been on the antibiotic long enough and to give it more time. I wait.

Wednesday January 20: Weight 47.1 lbs. I call and insist on Rosie being seen. They take another urine sample. Vet says she still sees cocci bacteria, she will culture the sample and get it to grow, then find a medicine to kill it. She does an ultrasound to look for bladder stones and/or bladder tumors. Ultrasound looks clear. We don't see anything at all out of line. She put Rosie on ciprofloxacin. (sound familiar?) Yeah it's the EXACT same drug that I was on during all my kidney battles. In fact, the vet didn't have any in her stock, and sent me to my pharmacy to get it filled. You should have seen the look on the pharamacist's face when I handed her the RX for MY DOG! It was pretty funny!

Thursday 21: Still waiting to see if the cipro works. So far not impressed.

Friday 22: I call vet office because I am still not seeing any change, and I wondered how long it takes to grow the urine culture. Vet says she will call me tomorrow with results.

Saturday 23:
2:00 a.m.: Rosie has an accident in the house. She just couldn't make it to the door in time. Lots of red in the urine. LOTS.
8:00 a.m.: Vet calls. She says there is NO BACTERIA on the petri dish. None. This means there is not a bladder infection at all. Asks me to bring in a urine sample to be sent away to a lab. Lab can determine if there are tumor cells in the urine. Tumor = cancer.
11:00 a.m. I take in pee sample.
12:00 p.m. Clint advises that I get a second opinion. I call another vet. Explain that I want a second opinion etc. They say come now.
1:00 p.m.: Weight 47.0 lbs.Vet 2 takes a blood sample. Most of the numbers are in normal range. One of the kidney numbers should be 25, Rosie's is 28. Vet2 says it is not a cause for concern. Vet2 takes a urine sample. Checks for bacteria. Result: None. Red blood cells are high. White blood cells are high. Protein in the urine is high. She also sees clumps of "transitionsal and cuboidal cells" These cells are present sometimes in the bladder anyway, but she is not sure why they are clumping together. She can't tell if there is more of one kind than the other. Transistional cells come from the bladder. Cuboidal cells come from the kidney. She is very frank with me and explains that Rosie most likely has either a bladder tumor or a kidney tumor. Tumor = cancer.
If it is a kidney tumor, the kidney can be removed, and the dog usually does very well. (I don't know how well 8 1/2 year old bulldogs do though.) If it is a bladder tumor, then they are usually in operable. "With bladder tumors the prognosis is not very good."  We will have Vet2 do an ultrasound/xray on Monday to try and pin point the problem. we wait for Vet1 to get in the lab results. I know now that the lab is looking to isolate the transitional cells from the cuboidal cells. They are looking for a tumor.
Tumor = cancer. Yup. My FatDog is sick. Really sick.