The Weather We Left Behind

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Friday, February 18, 2011

GRACIE

It's Friday morning of day 58.

Gracie is coming home, at least for the weekend.  We are picking her up at 9:30am.
Talked to the Dr last night and he gave us a not so favorable update.
Gracie really looks and is acting well - outwardly.
It's just her kidneys are not functioning properly.

The initial treatment on Monday resulted in great improvement by Tuesday morning. She held her food down all day (although they did not feed her much), but further treatment Tues, Wed, and Thu indicated no further change (and she vomited once Wed and once again yesterday).  Dr says all signs point to chronic kidney failure.
So at this time - ???

She has been on an I.V. all week.  Today it is being removed.  We will be giving her a special diet and lots of liquid.  Monday morning we take her back for one more blood test.  If she is stable or improving we will just keep her and ride it out for awhile and hopefully get her knee repaired.  Dr said he can do the surgury even with the kidney issue as long as he is aware of her condition (and he obviously is).

A positive for us, with this wait and see stance, is that there has been a no-show here at the RV park we are presently located.  We are first in line to get it and are going to do so when the office opens at 8:00am.  It's a 30 day opening in an otherwise full park.  And everything else in the area is basically full as well - it's prime season!  We were going to have to leave the area Sunday but now we are here to stay.

So we will be close to the vet/surgeon and play out our options. One of which is the knee repair if the Dr thinks it wise to do so in a week or two assuming Gracie improves or at least stabilizes.  Then with a required two week follow-up after surgery for stitch removal we will still be here. 

But the ultimate question will be - should we repair our girl's knee and put her through such a long physical recovery if she may not even survive the kidney issue?  We just don't know.  She could live two weeks or two years or more with the kidney problem depending on if she declines, stabilizes, or improves.

At this point, it's just one day at a time.  We are very happy just to be getting her home today and will hope for the best.

I'll take pictures of her homecoming and post them later.

Thank you all for your concern for our girl.