Dace
Revolution in Progress
I'd love to hear what you are up to!
Miss seeing you
Miss seeing you
BBH's campfire fun~popping in
- Thread starter big brown horse
- Start date
freemotion
Food Guru
BBH, idea! If you already haven't thought of this....type up your long update in Word then copy/paste into a post, so it will only take a few seconds online. We want details of what you are up to and how Sam is doing!
I hope she is up and around and feeling better....I know you likely have a "few" more doctor's visits, but so glad you seem to be on the right track with her health, finally. Whew. It is a good thing you had her body all strong with the fantastic diet you had her on!
I hope she is up and around and feeling better....I know you likely have a "few" more doctor's visits, but so glad you seem to be on the right track with her health, finally. Whew. It is a good thing you had her body all strong with the fantastic diet you had her on!
- Thread starter
- #313
big brown horse
Hoof In Mouth
Good idea Monique!
Sam was released from the hospital on October 5th. (She was admitted Sept. 3rd.) Since then we have been driving over to the next biggest city for a million and a half outpatient visits. On average of 5 different Dr. visits per week.
In the hospital they found a lump in her throat the size of a pecan (in the shell) and she also had a paralyzed vocal chord (probably from her previous heart surgery back in 2000. They had to put a scope or down her throat to do the surgery). The lump is an enlarged lingual (tongue) tonsil.
These two issues have been there for a long time, gone unnoticed by the myriad of TX doctors for most of her life...and they are the reason why she has gotten pneumonia over 14 times. She was silently aspirating due to the wide open vocal chord. The lingual tonsil blocked her airway and mimicked (the sound of) severe asthma. Everytime she got pneumonia the doctors said it was "asthma induced pneumonia".
Well it turns out she NEVER had asthma..that has been 100% confirmed. She spent 12 + years on inhaled steroids, for no reason. I told every doctor that they don't seem to work, no matter how much albuteral and advair I pumped into this poor child, she still couldn't breath. Not getting enough oxygen to her brain explains her dismal grades in the past. A much better diet with healthy fats and probiotics etc. did make a difference, thank you so much freemotion. (Plus I took her off of the steroids last year too.)
Since the operation that almost took her life, she has been getting stronger and stronger. The biopsy of her lingual tonsil came back negative, thank goodness. We are just waiting for a sleep study (in a few weeks) to see if the ENT needs to go in and remove that dreaded tonsil. It is a very vascular (bloody) area of the throat and if he doesn't need to he wont. I am for certain he will be doing the surgery however, b/c she has apnea even if she falls asleep in a sitting position in the car.
He is also going to fix her vocal chord by injecting collagen into it moving it permenantly over in the closed position. This should improve her voice quality too, she has always had a raspy voice.
There is absolutely no brain damage, she had CT scans and even a PET scan to prove it. However one side effect to a "brain injury" (aka heart stopping for 10 minutes) is that her short term memory is shot. It is getting better every day though and the neurologist says I shouldn't worry. It takes up to 3 months for a brain injury like that to heal.
(Yesterday she asked me if it was Thanksgiving yet. (We went to a friend's house for a very ellaborate Hawiian style Thanksgiving, complete with fermented poi.
) It is cute/bittersweet...especially knowing it is temporary.)
Thanks to physical therapy Sam is definitely up and about. We take long walks every day, a few weeks ago we walked across and back the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which by the time we got to the car was a total of 3.5 miles. (The bridge is arched a bit too.)
On a side note, we recently lost power for 4 days with temps in the teens and twentys. That was fun. Actually I really do mean it. I got to channel my inner pioneer.
Today is also a very sad day b/c I have to put my big baby to sleep. She is a 12+ year old St. Bernard. She was the best dog I ever had. We are going to be very sad for a long time.
Sam was released from the hospital on October 5th. (She was admitted Sept. 3rd.) Since then we have been driving over to the next biggest city for a million and a half outpatient visits. On average of 5 different Dr. visits per week.
In the hospital they found a lump in her throat the size of a pecan (in the shell) and she also had a paralyzed vocal chord (probably from her previous heart surgery back in 2000. They had to put a scope or down her throat to do the surgery). The lump is an enlarged lingual (tongue) tonsil.
These two issues have been there for a long time, gone unnoticed by the myriad of TX doctors for most of her life...and they are the reason why she has gotten pneumonia over 14 times. She was silently aspirating due to the wide open vocal chord. The lingual tonsil blocked her airway and mimicked (the sound of) severe asthma. Everytime she got pneumonia the doctors said it was "asthma induced pneumonia".
Well it turns out she NEVER had asthma..that has been 100% confirmed. She spent 12 + years on inhaled steroids, for no reason. I told every doctor that they don't seem to work, no matter how much albuteral and advair I pumped into this poor child, she still couldn't breath. Not getting enough oxygen to her brain explains her dismal grades in the past. A much better diet with healthy fats and probiotics etc. did make a difference, thank you so much freemotion. (Plus I took her off of the steroids last year too.)
Since the operation that almost took her life, she has been getting stronger and stronger. The biopsy of her lingual tonsil came back negative, thank goodness. We are just waiting for a sleep study (in a few weeks) to see if the ENT needs to go in and remove that dreaded tonsil. It is a very vascular (bloody) area of the throat and if he doesn't need to he wont. I am for certain he will be doing the surgery however, b/c she has apnea even if she falls asleep in a sitting position in the car.
He is also going to fix her vocal chord by injecting collagen into it moving it permenantly over in the closed position. This should improve her voice quality too, she has always had a raspy voice.
There is absolutely no brain damage, she had CT scans and even a PET scan to prove it. However one side effect to a "brain injury" (aka heart stopping for 10 minutes) is that her short term memory is shot. It is getting better every day though and the neurologist says I shouldn't worry. It takes up to 3 months for a brain injury like that to heal.
(Yesterday she asked me if it was Thanksgiving yet. (We went to a friend's house for a very ellaborate Hawiian style Thanksgiving, complete with fermented poi.
) It is cute/bittersweet...especially knowing it is temporary.)Thanks to physical therapy Sam is definitely up and about. We take long walks every day, a few weeks ago we walked across and back the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which by the time we got to the car was a total of 3.5 miles. (The bridge is arched a bit too.)
On a side note, we recently lost power for 4 days with temps in the teens and twentys. That was fun. Actually I really do mean it. I got to channel my inner pioneer.
Today is also a very sad day b/c I have to put my big baby to sleep. She is a 12+ year old St. Bernard. She was the best dog I ever had. We are going to be very sad for a long time.
Blackbird
Goat Whisperer
Sorry to hear about your pup
Henrietta23
Yard Farmer
Wow, so much going on! Sorry to hear about your dog. 
freemotion
Food Guru
Thanks for the update...so glad Sam is doing so well, and I can't wait for the day that she is done with the doctor's appointments. Sounds like that is still a bit into the future, though.
Sounds like you could use a bit of young man muscles on the place, someone who knows animals and plants and gardening and wine making and canning and soap making and herbals and is not afraid of hard work. Someone with great hair would be a big plus, too, as it is nice to have someone around who is "easy on the eye!" Where on earth could we possibly find someone like that?
:::snicker:::
Big hugs and smooches from all of us here on your mourning of your big dog, and bless you for giving her a wonderful life and a peaceful exit.
Sounds like you could use a bit of young man muscles on the place, someone who knows animals and plants and gardening and wine making and canning and soap making and herbals and is not afraid of hard work. Someone with great hair would be a big plus, too, as it is nice to have someone around who is "easy on the eye!"
Where on earth could we possibly find someone like that? :::snicker:::
Big hugs and smooches from all of us here on your mourning of your big dog, and bless you for giving her a wonderful life and a peaceful exit.
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
Sally, so good to hear that Sam is on the upswing and the doctors finally found what they should have found years ago.
So sorry about your baby dog...just went through this also and it is a hard and lonely road to lose a friend you've had so long.
So sorry about your baby dog...just went through this also and it is a hard and lonely road to lose a friend you've had so long.
Denim Deb
More Precious than Rubies
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Good news about Sam. I'm so sorry about your dog.
- Thread starter
- #319
big brown horse
Hoof In Mouth
Thanks everyone!
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
