OK, so you know how I was bragging about the beautiful day in my last blog entry? Well I'm afraid I must retract that. It was nice that morning until about 10:00, then it started pouring. It's been raining ever since. In fact, it's been since January. December maybe. Who knows. It's been raining forever.
I took Hoppsy to an orthopedic dude over in Kona on Wednesday. Coincidentally, he once worked at the clinic in Englewood, Colo. where Doc the Doctor Dog had his shoulder fixed. Besides the trauma of a three-hour car ride, she did pretty well. I was fully prepared for her to undergo what's called a myelogram, a procedure that requires general anesthesia, in which die is injected into the spinal chord, then X-rayed to see where there might be a blockage of neural transmission. After examining her, however, the vet decided that the procedure would not likely show us anything definitive. What we really need is a CT scan. He's trying to get one of the local hospitals to let him use theirs. Meanwhile, he's doubled her dosage of prednisone and prescribed a pain med compatible with steroids. The higher dose makes her insatiably thirsty. This in turn generates an excess and urgent need to pee. It's called polyuresis, or something like that. The drugs also make her a bit spacey, so she gets up, drinks gobs of water, walks a few wobbly steps, then pees wherever, thinking she's gone far enough to be outside. Needless to say, we're doing lots of laundry, washing rags and rugs and towels. The vet wants to keep her on the high dose for three days, then taper off. He says these are common side effects of the medicine and we just have to tolerate it for a few days. No biggie. After what we went through with Crawford, I'm not a bit squeamish about any canine excretions or fluids. Poop? Pee? Drool? Bring it on!
Today is her second on the high-powered anti-inflammatory and she is actually doing a little better. I would have been happy to report that she was no worse, since every day for the past week she's gotten tippier. Today, she's actually gone down the back steps several times on her own to pee outside and is better able to get herself both down and up from the floor. Still, she's panting, unsettled, somewhat spacey. I get that, having spent four icky days on prednisone myself last fall for asthma. One more day at full strength, then we can back off a bit to a dosage with fewer, or weaker, side effects. Poor baby girl. She is frustrated with all this. It's come on so suddenly and she has always been such a busy, active girl.
It rained all day. Now, the wind has stalled and the vog has quickly settled in. While the nasty air bothers me, Abner here remains unfazed. 
Ron says it's survival of the fittest. I say the fittest are those with enough cash to get the hell out of here. He actually laughed. That's progress.
Ron says it's survival of the fittest. I say the fittest are those with enough cash to get the hell out of here. He actually laughed. That's progress. A hui hou (hack, hack, choke, caugh, gag). Aloha!
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