Wednesday, July 30, 2014

How Much Money Would You Spend?

How much is your dog worth to you? Priceless? Yeah, that's what everyone says, but when you have to actually put a price on him, what is your limit?

Last week, Grif started to look a little under the weather. He didn't want to eat or come out with us to play. By the end of the week, he wasn't eating or moving much at all. His timing was good since we already had a weekend trip planned, so I figured we'd swing into the vet, get some antibiotics and snap him out of it. 4 hours and $700 later, the vet had done a CT scan, an ultrasound, x-rays and multiple blood tests and she still didn't know what was wrong with him. She prescribed a steroid and antibiotic, which would treat a variety of possible issues, she mentioned a lot of scary potentials that it could be and we planned a follow up visit for Tuesday.

Yesterday, we got to the vet and his red blood cell count had dropped, he wasn't any better and after several vets looked at his ultrasounds, she was concerned that he might have a splenic torsion, but she couldn't be sure. So she sent me across town to a different vet- a specialist that you can only see by referral. "The Mayo Clinic of vets". They agreed that it looked like a splenic torsion and worried it could be a few other scary things too. A splenic torsion is when the spleen gets twisted around itself, cutting off blood supply. You can live without your spleen, especially dogs.

A splenic torsion is very rare and after about 50 pages of google, I can't find a cause for it. It can just flip. That's what the vet said too, but I hate that answer. It's so random and illogical. There has to be a REASON.

So once again, Grif was whisked off to emergency surgery to have his spleen removed. They thought he might need a blood transfusion too, and they were going to poke around and make sure everything else looked okay while they were in there. Price tag- $5000. Gulp. A new record, even for my special needs dog.

My options were take him home and let him die a slow death (not in a million years), euthanize him or give them $5000 to do surgery. All terrible options. But you would have had to sedate me and drag me out of that vet at gun point before I could approve euthanasia on my baby. There's just no way. $5000 is crazy, and every time I type it, I feel a little sick to my stomach. But I guess I don't have a price tag on him.

Last night he came out of surgery not having needed a blood transfusion and they didn't find anything else out of the ordinary. He is recovering nicely and will get out of the hospital tonight or tomorrow morning.

I had to go back to camp. I've had several breakdowns over the past 24 hours at the thought of going back to camp without him. I am starting to think our co-dependence issue is more of me needing Grif with me, than the other way around. I was paralyzed all morning, unable to leave home to drive back to camp.

Nate is going to pick him up and work from home on Thursday. My mom is coming over Friday. Nate is going to be home all weekend. And then he might bring him to me at camp on Sunday. Camp is dirty and there is a lot going on, so I know being at home where it is quiet and nice and cool and he can rest and recover is the best place for him. But being separated is KILLING me. I am so incredibly tense and anxious and I feel like part of me is missing. I have one more week of camp before the end of the summer, so it is possible he will just stay home until then, depending on how recovery goes. I HATE the thought of it. But I am incredibly thankful for Nate and my mom for taking care of him while I am away. I'm thankful for my exceptional staff who ran camp without me and especially Abby who took amazing care of Olivia, so I could be at home. I'm thankful I had the means to save my baby, even if it is more money than I wanted to spend. I know I'm lucky (and so is Grif), but I am still stressed out.

Ugh. Special needs dog strikes again. He's KILLING me.

A few bulldog pictures from the past few weeks-


My little snuggler

Riding back to camp, Olivia uses Grif as a pillow


Snuggling

Olivia hanging out with her camp friends

Grif at the vet before surgery