Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Holter Monitor – Take 2

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DISCOVERING AN ARRHYTHMIA

For those who don’t know, our vet discovered a heart arrhythmia at Delilah’s annual exam in June.  Since early July, she’s been seeing a cardiologist.

At the first visit, the vet did an ultrasound and recommended Soltalol to help control the irregularities. At the next visit, they increased her Soltalol and at the recheck, they repeated the ultrasound which showed her irregularities were down to six beats in a four minute period. The vet was over the moon with this, but  a Holter Monitor study was recommended to see what was happening with her heart in the other 1,436 minutes of her day.

Does this Thundershirt make my butt look big?

We had the first one completed in August, and you can read about that HERE.

Because we had a problem with that first test, we repeated the Holter study on the 11th of October. Last Thursday we got the results of the test and it’s not good.

In a 24-hour period, Delilah had a total of 9,549  Ventricular Premature Beats and 1,162 Supraventricular ectopic beats. That’s almost one every minute!

WHAT IS A VENTRICULAR PREMATURE BEAT AND HOW DOES IT DIFFER FROM A SUPRAVENTRICULAR ECTOPIC BEAT?

The cardiologist’s office wasn’t much help when they called with the results of the Holter Study. They told me she’d had over 9,500 irregularities in the 24-hour study and suggested a new medication – Mexilitine (Mex-ill-ah-teen.)

“I have to warn you,” the vet tech said, “This medication is expensive, and it needs to be given every eight hours.”

She wasn’t kidding. To purchase the medication from the vet was $197 a month.

My initial reaction was, “We can’t afford $200 a month, and I don’t know how I’ll manage to give it to her every eight hours, I work.”

The vet tech told me of an online pharmacy in California that sold it for $95 a month, and she also suggested checking Walmart. Then she asked me if I had anyone who could come in midday to give Delilah her meds.

Honestly, WTF? Do these people think I’m made of money? A dog walker in my area charges $30 a walk. To my knowledge they won’t just pop over to give her a pill. I’d have to pay for a ‘walk’ and It would cost me $150 a week to have someone come in.

I asked about timing. “What if I can’t give it to her every eight hours?” Like what if I give it to her right before I leave for work, as soon as I get home and just before bed? I was told it would probably be okay.

Naturally I then asked if there wasn’t a less expensive drug we could use.  She said she didn’t think so, but she would check. I asked, “What if we can’t afford the new medicine?”

Delilah could collapse and die, or die in her sleep.

After I hung up with the vet tech and stopped crying, I went to the online pharmacy she recommended, (HealthWarehouse) and using their online chat, discovered I COULD get the medication for $94 a month, and I COULD put it on autoship. According to the chat rep, there would be no charge for shipping.

After I chatted with the warehouse, I called Walmart and it was $187. Then I decided to call MY pharmacy. The out of the box cost was $223, BUT they have a discount card that brought the meds down to $95.

The next step was getting Hubby on board.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to ask him if he loved Delilah $200 a month worth. He did whistle when I threw that figure at him, but then I told him how it came down to $95 and he was totally okay with it.

We then brainstormed on how we could possibly get her mid-day pill in and I think we have a plan. Once we get it in place, I’ll let you know how it works out.

WHAT THE HELL DOES THE HOLTER REPORT SAY?

I tried re-reading the Holter report, and googling the medical words, but I couldn’t understand it.

So I put a call in to my own vet.

I don’t know about you, but there is something so reassuring about speaking with my own vet. She did her best to put the information in such a way that I could understand it.

“Ventricular Premature Beats and Supraventricular ectopic beats.” – In English this says, some of the irregular beats are coming from the Atria (upper two chambers of the heart) and some are coming from the Ventricles (lower two chambers.)

Ventricular originates in the Ventricles and the Supraventriculars originate in the Atria. Ectopic means irregular. So basically all this report says is she has irregular heartbeats in both her Atria and her Ventricular chambers. Something we already knew at my vet’s office on the day of her initial exam.

(I’d finally calmed down after talking with the vet tech, but this could get me going again. WTF do I spend money on a specialist for?)

We still have no idea WHY her heart has these irregularities and according to both my vet and the cardiologist, we may never actually know.

We also talked about the timing of the medication and Dr. Soutter said, “Do the best you can.” The reality is I adore my dogs, but I have to work and there is no way around that.  She will get the medication three times per day, it just may not be every 8 hours.

WHERE WE ARE

There have been a couple of times when Delilah is feeling anxious. I can tell by the way she climbs into my lap. One night a couple weeks back, I could feel how fast her heart was beating. Hubby was gone, but I was fully prepared to take her to the emergency vet when he got home. After about 20 minutes though, her heart slowed down to a normal beat.

These episodes have me super concerned. My biggest fear is that she will collapse and have a traumatic event.

I know I can tell you this, because I know you won’t judge me, but I actually considered helping her to the Bridge.

When I tried to talk to Hubby he didn’t want to discuss it. He said, “She’s fine, just look at her.”

I mentioned it to my vet when we spoke. She told me she would never judge me for making a decision that felt right for me, but she really felt that if the Mexilitene works, despite Delilah being almost 13-years old, she still has some good time left. She also assured me if she thought Delilah’s quality of life was deteriorating, she would tell me.

Delilah started the Mexilitene last Friday, and she is seeing the cardiologist on Monday to have a recheck and see how the medication is working. My vet and I both feel a second opinion is never a bad idea, so I made an appointment for Delilah at Tufts. It’s not until early December, but that gives the Mexilitene some time to work.

HOW I AM

I am mostly okay. I have some good and bad moments, and I do worry a lot. When I let myself really think about it, or when I talk to the vet, I can get emotional and a little weepy, but for the most part I’m doing okay.

The positive thing that has come out of this is, I can now spell arrhythmia without looking it up, and without word underlining my mistake.

We Have Lift

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When Sampson was a puppy, sometimes he would squat to pee. Our trainer told us if he didn’t lift his leg by the time he was a year old, he probably never would. She also said, he had to have a male dog to show him how to lift his leg.

He squatted for probably the first two years of his life. I’m not sure why it bothered me so much, watching him squat, but I can’t tell you how proud I was the day he actually lifted his leg and peed on something.

Because he has bad knees, he still squats at times. Actually, it’s not so much a squat as it is a little dip of his hips. And now, it doesn’t bother me at all.

I was reminded of this story, yesterday morning when Delilah lifted her leg to pee on a telephone pole.

I had never seen a female dog lift, and Delilah didn’t start lifting until we started walking in the woods. When she first started doing it, I tried like hell to get a photo of it. I mean, really, how often do you see a female dog lifting her leg?

Eventually, I got the photo.

If you look closely, you can see the urine stream, but just in case, I used the arrow to point it out to you You’re welcome.

Now when Delilah ‘lifts’ she doesn’t raise her leg the same way a male dog does, it’s more like she rests her foot on the object she’s aiming for.

No matter how she does it, it makes me smile to see it and think about it.

What did your pet do to make you smile this week?

You make me smile (or laugh,) the sweet, funny, loving things my dogs do that make me laugh or smile.

 

Yes, I Make My Bed – For My Dog

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When I first rejoined the work force after having my girls, my manager at the bank was a lovely Jamaican woman. She would tell us stories of her life in Jamaica, before she came to the states.

One of the ‘lessons’ she gave us, was telling us how her mother told her, to never leave the house without making her bed, and putting on clean underwear, BECAUSE, if you got hit by a car and they had to bring you home and put you in your bed, that bed needed to be made, and your underwear needed to be clean!

Making my bed before I leave for the day is something I always make sure to do, but not because I’m worried someone is going to bring me home and put me to bed. No, I make my bed for another reason.

Some people, when they sleep, are restless and move all over the place. They get up in the morning and their bed coverings are all over the place. It looks like a WWE match took place there.

You gotta smooth those covers out, and make that bed look nice.

WHAT was I thinking when I sponged that wall?

I’m not (at this menopausal stage of my life) what could be termed a ‘restful’ sleeper. What that means is most nights, I sleep, but I wouldn’t consider it a deep sleep. I wake up frequently, to shift positions, or flip that pillow over, or get up to pee. But even in my restlessness, I take care with those covers.

Maybe it comes from the days of kids climbing in bed with me, or the days when both dogs slept on the bed. Whatever the reason, most mornings I can get up and my bed mostly looks made.

We have dog beds all over the house. Two in the living room (plus the dog’s couch,) one dog bed in my room, and a crib mattress (that doubles as a dog bed) also in my room.

And yet, there’s a certain dog in my home, that loves to snuggle down on the Mama’s bed, when the Mama is at work.

I’m truly okay with that. Both dogs are in those senior years where I really want them to have comfortable, happy lives.

What I don’t want, is for my bed to be mussed and trussed like it’s a Thanksgiving turkey. Nor do I want to climb into my bed and have the sheets look like someone dumped a container of chocolate sprinkles on them.

After that fiasco, and having to change my bed sheets at bedtime, I started making my bed in the morning.

For Delilah.

Shhhhh……All this yapping makes it hard for me to get my beauty rest.

I determined, based upon her habit of pulling the bedspread back, and sleeping on the sheets, that she likes the feel of the sheets.

And while it’s true, I want her to be happy and comfortable, I also don’t want to have to change the sheets every night, so I came up with a compromise.

Okay, you don’t have to point out that I am the one compromising. I understand that. She is after-all a dog, and has no verbal negotiating skills. Unless you count her barking, groaning, sighing….okay, so she does have some verbal skills, but NO reasoning skills. Of course, she’d argue she has reasons for ALL her skills.

Sigh.

Back to the subject at hand.

I had an old, over-sized queen sheet, and my little futon (if I’m being generous,) is a full-size bed.

You follow?

So every morning, I get up, walk both dogs, and then come home and make my bed for the day.

Siriusly, that wall.

For Delilah.

Yes, I always make my bed before leaving the house, but I don’t make it for me, I make my bed for my dog.

What do you do to spoil your pets?

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