ML Saga: Graduation to stage 2
| October 10, 2014 | Posted by Melinda under Uncategorized |
Having lived through first 48 hours+ and looking pretty stable, we all agreed it was probably safe to buy a weeks worth of drugs and supplies for the next major stage in this process.
Going to oral medications might sound like a minor thing but this new stage is a big deal.
Taking out the catheter means that ML now has the freedom to go outside. My gut says that before she was perhaps sick enough to not really care….but in the last 24 hours I really felt like she needed that extra space mentally without a ceiling and solid walls. The NSAIDs are a necessary evil right now (and she’s been a HUGE doses for the last 1 1/2 weeks) and she’s definitely at risk for ulcers. But perhaps access to the outside beyond the little box will reduce overall stress enough she’ll be OK (but I started her on gastrogard today just in case).
How it used to be
Graduation
Removing the catheter also means that she’s less at risk for a thromboembolism, which was a huge concern because of how sick she was, even though we tried to minimize that risk by placing an over the wire catheter.
It also means that I don’t have to flush the catheter every 4 hours and can sleep for more than 3 hours at a time, do household chores, and most likely run my 50 miler tomorrow. One more chore of rewrapping the catheter site daily is removed from my list. My life just got a lot simpler.
The sleeping bag, ladder, and most of the plastic totes got to be put away, hopefully never to return
There are risks of course. No more IV banamine. We need to avoid poking her veins – sick horses like to develop thromboembolisms if they are poked a lot. So, we are hoping oral banamine is enough to control fevers if they are there. I can’t easily administer fluids if she needs them. But overall, we’ve moved to this next stage because we feel like the benefits outweighed the risks.
New goodies!
More good news – the pus leaking out of the external abscesses looks….less like pus. More serosanguous and yellow fluid and less thick and off white crap. Only the biggest one is still oozing and I can tell they are healing and itching because of the nice granulation tissue and they itch. There’s 2 or 3 small ones at the bottom of the chain that weren’t there when we lanced that still need to pop open but they look uncomplicated. The swelling is almost gone.
Picture taken 24 hours since last cleaning
Thank you for all the well wishes and supportive comments. They’ve made a huge difference.
Good stuff! And yet another unconventional lead-in for you running a big race, eh?
Keep it up, ML.
Totally :). Now just need to get rid of this stress stomach issue! I have….12 hours and 26 minutes to do so. at LEAST 8 of those will be spent sleeping. Which means….I need to be in bed at….7:30. mmm…might not be happening.
Good luck for both the run and the continuation of ML’s recovery.
Good luck on the run..50 miles is alot of time to sort all the stress and anxiety you have been dealing with..I have a feeling this run will one of the most important things that you do for yourself, and definitely one to remember.
And.. a big congrats on being able to take ML to the next “stepped down” level of care. I hope the symptoms continue to move in the positive direction
I hope she continues to improve! I’ve been out of town and came back to read all this. Very scary, but I think your bond will be stronger.
I hope your run was successful. Just getting out after a horrible week like you had will be worth it.
I was actually thinking of you while running yesterday, wondering whether any of the horse poop I saw on the trails was Major’s poop. LOL. Very weird thing to think about I guess. Thanks for stopping by – My run was a success depending on how you define success…:)
For those of you folllowing along, things are not going completely smoothly. She has been running a low grade fever the last couple of days but seemed systemically stable, so continued on. Last night I found her down and grunting in pain, but when asked to get up (after doing a full physical when she was down including temp and gum check….) she did so willing and without incident, and then seemed totally fine. Talked to the vet last night after I found her down and with the exception of adding one more IM antibtiotic, we are out of options to treat. Next steps would be a “full workup” including radiographs, endosope etc that may or may not tell us what else was going on and give us a better prognosis. And/or hospitilizing her with no guarantee of more answers or a better outcome. Very disheartening. This morning she’s brighter and eating better than when this all started. So it’s a series of ups and downs with no way to predict where she’s going to go at this point. And I have no idea what to do and the vets don’t have any really good ideas except spend a couple grand on top of what we have already spent to *maybe* find answers with no gauarantee we can do anything beyond what we are already doing. So that’s where we are so far. I’ll keep you guys updated. Please keep us in your thoughts.
Continues to look quite good this afternoon. Good enough that I’m sitting at home, drinking a nice stout vodka mixed drink and working on my 50 mile run post this afternoon since I’m sure enough about how stable she is today that I’m not going to get a phone call need to rush out there.
Oh Mel, I really hope that she continues to look better. Thinking of you both.
Keep chugging in the right direction, little girl!