One Day at a Time

Today is a new day and God's tender mercies are being praised and surely felt!

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul who seeks him.

Lamentations 3:22-25

 

We have spent the past two days at VCA with Shelly.

 

Friday began bright and early with our scheduled appointment at 7 a.m. at Animal Eye Consultants. The pressure reading on Shelly's right eye was higher than it'd been before. It read 48. This is definitely a serious situation as pressure in the eye means pain. A dogs normal eye pressure should be between 15-25. The week before it was 37, and the week before that it was 30. Obviously heading in the wrong direction!

We were told that the eye definitely needed to be removed immediately. It was that or euthanize.

We had both agreed going into this appointment that we wouldn't put Shelly through the surgery until we knew just how stable her TCC (bladder cancer) was. So we left and proceeded to head over to VCA to find out.

 

VCA has their own Ophthalmologist, Dr. Enry Garcia. We hadn't realized this when the eye problem began with Shelly.

By the way ladies, you all need to check out his bio on their website - Mike made the comment later that he was certain Dr. Garcia would have no problems getting dates! Leave it to another man...

 

So after a complete examination by Dr. Garcia, Shelly's pressure reading was back at 30! He definitively stated he saw no reason to remove her eye immediately. He also said Shelly did not appear to be in pain or distress. Dr. Garcia went through her eye medications with us and changed them up a bit. It all made more sense to administer them the way he indicated. Did I say that I really liked him as a doctor?? Oh and that accent!...o.k., o.k. back to our precious Shelly.

 

So from his department, we wanted to be seen by Dr.Greene, Shelly's oncologist there, but the oncology department isn't in on Fridays! Of course!

 

We did however get another ultrasound done of her bladder and spoke to the radiologist, a Dr. Donna Almondia. She told us in essence that nothing's changed +/-. It's only been 3 weeks since starting Shelly's current chemo protocol, so not sure if this was good news or not. We're not actually scheduled to do this ultrasound follow up for another 3 weeks. The urgency of the pending eye surgery is the reason we did it on Friday. Dr. Greene will have to let us know what "no change" means in terms of Shelly when we see her this week. As of now, we're tentatively scheduled for enucleation surgery of Shelly's right eye on Wednesday.

 

The good news for us is that Shelly's TCC doesn't appear to be getting worse. So then why did she seem to be worse? For most of the last week or so, she has been going downhill. Neither one of us wanted to say anything to the other, as that would somehow confirm our worst fears. I've been down this "cancer road" before, and the imminent signs were beginning to rear their ugly head. Shelly was becoming pickier and pickier at eating. She didn't want to come in from being outside. She was loosing interest in many things that she has always loved. It was a battle all around.

 

We got home late Friday afternoon after a LONG and exhausting day, settled in and Shelly seemed relatively comfortable. The next morning was a different story however. She could barely walk! Her limping was so bad that we had to carry her and place her in the yard to do her business. She was unable to do our stairs, and we were both just getting scared. So back off to VCA emergency to find out what was happening.

 

Long story after another exhausting day at VCA - we ending up putting her on another antibiotic and one other pain medication. 

 

Last night as I was reflecting on everything, I began thinking about all my wonderful lady friends in my bible study group. Everyone is such a strong support network for one another, and we've been really stepping up our focused prayers for each other. We're truly seeing God work in many lives! I thought well Shelly is our family member, so I reached out to them for prayers for Shelly's comfort. That's all I wanted was her for her to be comfortable. 

 

This morning - we had a different dog!!! Praise God that he answered everyone's prayers!! Shelly ate everything I gave her, she's comfortable, and she's walking again! This is truly a miracle if you had seen her yesterday.

Now I know some of you are saying, well you did give her some new medicine. Yes, we did. God can work through any means he chooses. The reality is that if God hadn't intervened, we'd likely be back at VCA today and it wouldn't be a good outcome. I believe this with my whole heart.

 

The truth is that God is in control - we are not. Whether you admit it or not, every breath we take is only because he allows it.

Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:  Isaiah 42:5

God is good, indeed he is!