Diary Entry #3 - 11/18/2009 - Sammie Crashes Again

I have not mentioned that our other Scottie, Fergie, who is 11 years old was recently diagnosed with bone cancer in her front right shoulder. It is untreatable and we just trying to buy her a few months so we can spoil her rotten, which of course we are doing.

This has not been a good month for dogs. Sammie has been having terrible nights with vomiting all night long. Last night was especially bad so I checked her in again. She again had a high fever. We learned about a disease called Myasthenia Gravis. Dr. Crumley has suspected this all along. There is a single test that must be conducted at UCSD that determines if she has the disease. He has explained to me that if she does not test positive, it is considered "Idiopathic". That is worse than having the disease because it is untreatable and most dogs die from complications sooner rather than later. The test takes about 2 weeks and we will know if she has MG the day after Thanksgiving.

Because this is pretty much the last chance for Sammie, we have put her on the medication Pyrodistigmine Bromoid which treats MG. Even though we don't have a positive test result the medication will not hurt her. In the event she does have MG, this will help her.

Fast Forward: 3 days before Thanksgiving, Sammie is back home and doing much better. Fergie was very happy to see her and was running around like a puppy despite her cancerous shoulder. We have now targeted feeding and picked up the bowls. We used to just leave the food and water bowls full and the dogs would eat and drink when they felt like it. Now we have to put the water down for Fergie, but make sure that it is up for Sammie as she must eat and drink in an elevated position.

Fast Forward 11/25/2009 - Pretty much the worst day of my kid's lives. Fergie must have aggravated something in her shoulder. She was in a tremendous amount of pain and whimpering regularly. I increased her pain meds, but nothing seemed to work. At 1:00 am I took her to the all night clinic and had her put to sleep the pain had gone on too long and it was time. Fergie was 11. Ironically it was Sammie's birthday. My two youngest children (12 and 8) have never known life without Fergie and were devastated. On top of that the clock is ticking for Sammie. Friday we find out about the MG test.