We have all heard the age old saying “when it rains it pours.”
As I am getting older I am learning that phrase is very true. In the last few months it has seemed to do just that. Let’s start with my sweet boy Chester. What was a normal night turned into one of the scariest in all my years of having a dog.I was scared I was going to loose the most important thing to me. Next to god and my husband…
Chester loves food, he doesn’t have the concept that he needs to chew.He more just inhales. It’s why I have often called him hoover. He had been eating and was getting to the bottom of his bowl when he reached some cheese. He choked on it and did a little of his breathing thing. He regurgitated it and chewed. Swallowed and went back to his bowl. He still wasn’t acting like himself. For the next few hours he was showing signs of some respitory distress. My husband and I grabbed him and hurried into the emergency vet. They took him back and had him on oxygen. I felt like the world was crashing down around me. My heart was racing and my hands were sweating. I felt like I could throw up at any moment. The vet comes in and says they can’t find anything wrong and the test they want to run ,isn’t available there. They don’t have the technology to do it. They gave us some meds, sent us home. They told us what to watch for. Well the signs are all there and he begins to get worse. His breathing is in a very bad place. Worse than the first night.We rush and get Chester in the car. Mind you it also had snowed at this point. We go to one of the only vet clinics they said to have the equipment they’d need. It’s an hour away. Bellingham. Right by the border to Canada. We get there and get our boy checked in. Mind you the whole way there I had to keep jostling him around and shaking him. He was having a hard time staying awake and concinous. The vet comes to talk to us and tells us they also don’t have the equipment for Chester and he’d probably be fine. Take him home. He wasn’t fine at all. And Andrew insisted we kept on and got Chester help. And I am beyond thankful he pushed. I think Chester would have died if he hadn’t.
We knew we had to find another vet, so we begin to head south. I start calling vets on the list Andrew has. I have called probably 5 at this point and we get ahold of one in Kirkland. We give them our information and head in. When we get inside it’s noticeably ver different. They are approaching it differently, they have an open floor plan. They allow you to be as involved in your pets care as you’d like. WE get in and they immediately see Chester. The vet insists on tests and an ultrasound. We agree. We go sit to wait. Trying to keep Chester calm. That’s when an emergency comes in. A beautiful dog needing CPR…Sadly the dog didn’t make it. They had died a very instant death from an unknown cancerous mass. It was gut wrenching to see. Something I will never forget. It made me cry. I pulled Chester in close. After the high pace and energy they got to work on Chester. He again needed oxygen.He loved being in the oxygen space but it was very hard to see him in that…Night stretched onto early morning. We get the results of Chesters X-ray. His stomach is four times the size it should be. He was experiencing serious bloat. This is something that can be extremely deadly in animals and it can kill fast. Especially because it goes unnoticed until it’s too late.They give us the treatment plan and I cry. I feel so bad my poor baby is sick. They try to get the bloat down by inducing vomitting but it doesn’t work.Its horrible to watch I feel so bad for my sweet baby.Luckily the vet had a next step. We had to leave him there overnight. They gave him meds and fluids and helped him pass the food. We got his tummy down to normal size and he was doing really well.
So we got to take him home. I hated seeing my sweet boy in the kennel with an IV in. Chester then got diagnosed with Cushings disease. It was nice to know the cause but sad knowing he has a life long illness ahead of him. As someone with many I felt for him. The disease won’t kill him and shouldn’t shorten his life. It Also shouldnt affect the quality of his life. There are some changes to be made and things to watch for. He is 100% back to himself and very happy. He is running and playing. Eating normal. And with many years expected ahead. We have switched him to new food. At the recommendation from our vet. Chester is now on the Farmers Dog. He seems to love it so far. Our vet said it is the best thing to feed him next to cooking his food myself. Now we manage the symptoms of cushings, we make sure he is comfortable and monitor his food and water intake. Seeing him like this and in the hospital was horrible.It was so hard. I cried leaving him at the vet. I am beyond grateful that he is good and has many years ahead of him. “If love was enough you’d live forever..”
The next weeks are busy. We get Chester into see his regular vet.Everything goes well. We schedule an ultrasound for him to get more in depth ideas of his health. The ultrasound went really well. We got good news and images. We also got a confirmation that it is definitely cushings. We then got him groomed. He needed it desperately.He looks so adorable.
Then it was my turn for everything to go down hill. With all the health conditions I have they can often mimic other things or make me think I am sick when I am not. They also make me more prone other issues. Lately I have had a lot of issues with UTIs. It is a bigger problem for me because I am allergic to most antibiotics. I had just gotten over having a UTI…and the symptoms started to come on again. I took some ago and was drinking lots of fluids. Like water and cranberry juice. I was uncomfortable. But then things improved so I thought It went away on its own. Well a few days later the symptoms come back and they are much stronger. Some of the symptoms, this was the worst I had ever had them. I scheduled an appt with my doctor and kept treating it at home. A few days go by and my mother in law notices I don’t look very good. I had been running a fever and really didn’t look well. I decided to go to urgent care but then the time came around and I decided to wait a few more days for my appointment. My cheeks are so rosy and then flushed. Extreme nausea sets in and aversion to food. Nothing sounded good. I began t have. hard time keeping water down. I could keep juice, popsicles, gatorade and milk down. But for some reason under no circumstance could I keep water down. Andrew brought home the at home UTI tests. I took one. It took no time at all for it to come back positive. I told myself to tough it out. My appointment was tomorrow. I get all the way down to Kirkland the next morning. Only to get there and my doctor have called out sick, but I needed to be seen. So I headed downstairs to the urgent care.. I ws very happy to find out that there was no one else down there.
The nurse comes in to do the triage. I tell her everything and she has a look of concern on her face.A quick second later the doctor comes in. She asks me a ton of questions. I can tell she has an idea what’s going on but I can also tell something bad is wrong. The more I tell her the more concerned she gets…she has her questions of her own.She begins to tell me her diagnosis. I have a UTI, I am extremely dehydrated and unwell. My blood pressure is way too high. She then decides to check my blood sugar. The nurse shows her the result before saying anything to me. I knew it wasn’t good. My blood sugar came back at 349……I earned myself a one way ticket to the ER. There was also protein and sugar in my urine.
I get to the hospital only to have a five and a half hour wait. When they do take me back to the room it’s a literal storage closet. They are old med tools in the room. Even a filing cabinet. Nowhere to hang my IV. Had to use a command hook. They do some tests and the best doctor comes back to see me. He has a plan and something he’s looking for. The tests begin and they start pumping me with fluids. As the tests come back I begin to understand we have a problem. And a big one. The doctor comes back. He’s very kind and understanding.He is extremely compassionate. Not blaming me for anything and acknowledging the hard struggle of both gastroparesis and diabetes. He explains that I am in diabetic ketoacidosis. He expresses to me that it’s very dangerous and I am sitting on the cusp of irreversible damage. I was in a very dangerous position. I had been told I also had ketones in my urine. The treatment decision quickly became me being admitted.
It was becoming late. I was hungry… I hadn’t eaten in hours. So one nurse gave me a half of a sandwich. When I got upstairs to my room to get settled, I had another very nice nurse. She brought me hot Mac and cheese. It was previously a frozen tv dinner but I was so hungry I would have called it Kraft. They started a new IV. The nurse who put it in was awesome. She used a heat pack and the coolest camera specific for seeing veins. She did it in one poke. The next thing was meds and fluids. Now normally when I go to the ER I have my bag with me and it has everything I could need. We are talking phone charger, a few books, kindle, switch, toiletries and essentials pouch, a snack, maybe a color book, always a puzzle book. And I will bring my special blanket and leave it in the car, only to be brought in if I am staying. Well with it being an appointment for a quick UTI check, I figured since we were going straight home after I could go extremely light. So of course I end up staying. I won’t be doing that again. So to really get settled I had to wait for the bag Andrew was bringing. He didn’t stay too long but it was nice they didn’t have a time to Kick him out. Visiting was much easier now that we’ve passed the pandemic. As soon as Andrew left I went to bed. I was very very surprised by the bed It was super comfortable. I slept really well and didn’t even change positions. I had meds constantly it felt, which duh….I am here cause I am sick. I was constantly on fluids. They were diligent on making sure it was never empty. This also led to me needing to use the bathroom all the time. Which was extremely painful. I whimpered,or cried or let out a quiet yell. They then started pain meds which greatly helped. I slept a lot the first day. I was constantly napping. Which again, duh!! Really only up to use the bathroom or eat. Most of the time when they did my medication I was half asleep.
I was pleasantly surprised by the food at the hospital. It was actually really good. The breakfast I had twice was an egg white frittata and a berry yogurt. It also came with French toast. I had French toast with every breakfast while I was there. One morning it was just scrambled eggs and bacon on the side. For dinner one night I had steak and mashed potatoes…It was very good. Lunch was the best grilled cheese of my life with tomato soup. I had the grilled cheese again before I went home. I had the cafeteria Mac and cheese a few times too. It wasn’t bad. I had Alfredo too. I wasn’t a big fan of it and I especially didn’t like that they snuck veggies into it. Other wise I would say I had good food the entire time I was there.
Now, the internist doctor was not good. I really didn’t like how she was doing my care. She was very hard for the nurses to get ahold of. As well as being four hours late to rounds. In the first meeting she didn’t say much, practically nothing…she also didn’t have great bedside manner. I also feel like the issues at hand weren’t as serious to her as they were to us. I also didn’t receive any treatment for my kidneys. The lab results showed they were having a hard time and causing other problems. As well as making the DKA worse. Very concerning to leave that out. She didn’t explain anything or educate me on the issues. I should have also had a visit from endocrinology as well was education. But the internist was very curt too. I have never complained super openly when I don’t like a health care provider. I typically just deal and it put it to the side. Not wanting the hassle. But this was the first time I stood up for myself and my health. I advocated for myself. I kindly told the nurse that I didn’t like the doctor and didn’t feel like I was receiving good care. So I asked for a new doctor. The note was put into my chart. So you can imagine I was thrilled when the next two days she kept rounding on me. My husband and I both agree that I wasn’t ready to be sent home yet, I needed more care. When it came time to discuss my discharge I had mentioned wanting to go home but also understanding that I need more care and that’s more important than going home. I told her I still had major discomfort using the restroom as well as general pain. Still very tired and spending most of the day sleeping. For 24 hours My blood work was also showing electrolyte imbalances. I was needing bags of magnesium and potassium. I had magnesium until I went home. It was added to my last IV bag. They had also tried to cut my IV fluids back and my body started fighting again, so they had to put me back on the fluids. That makes me think I may have needed more and my body still needs serious help. Thoughts that they are stopping too early and no wouldn’t be testing me for it . No way to know if I needed more and If I do, no way to administer it. I also was still on my antibiotics.. which with my allergy to antibiotics could lead to serious problems. I really should be under close eye on the antibiotic. If it didn’t work or made me react then they could change it and treat it. Instead I was home anxious that I would react and have no meds to take, thus making me sicker. My kidney labs were still showing as struggling. None of my tests were normal yet. I also still had ketones in my urine. Plus my body could really use the IV fluids. She didn’t share any of those concerns. My husband even called voicing his concerns and some of the same I had. He told the doctor he doesn’t think I am ready to come home yet. That doing so would be extremely risky. As well as the possibility for a serious reaction to the antibiotics. If he needed to rush me to the hospital it wouldn’t be good. We live about 45 minutes away. Every second counts in an allergic reaction. But I went home anyways…and it hasn’t worked out all that well.
I am so grateful for my husband coming to visit and spending so much time with me. I am also thankful for the surprise visit from my dad and the beautiful tulips he brought. I was lucky to have another visit the next day and have my aunt there. It was nice to have company and all the love and support. I am so thankful for all my friends and other family that text me and called. I didn’t feel alone in the hospital. Thank you!!!
AS far as sending me home, I’m still dealing with a UTI and I did have a few days where I had minor ketones in my urine. But there is so much more to tell in the weeks that followed that hospital stay. So much to lead up to where we are now and the current challenges. I had thought that was the worst of it but nope…I am now seeing there are many other things that are worse or just as bad. The lack of care and trust in the medical system only got worse.I had faced so much medical trauma leading up to this, I began to really wonder if there was any hope to be found. Beginning to worry that there wasn’t anyone I would find and be able to trust in the medical system.
So stay tuned for the next post… grab your popcorn.