Stella's Recheck Update

Just thought I would update everyone on where we are with Stella.  We had our two week check up at KSU, and we had mostly good news.  I guess the biggest news was that she seems stable on most values, like her RBC and the anemia issue, so my take away message is that the prednisone (pred) is working. She is up two pounds YIPEEEE!   While she acts almost completely normal, other than the obvious side effects from the high dose pred of panting, peeing and drinking tons of water, her kidneys are still dumping way too much protein in her urine.  To combat that, we are giving her a drug to help with high blood pressure, and to help her kidneys, so we don't damage them.  She takes that pill once a day, along with her pred still twice a day.  Since she is improving steadily, we will reevaluate post next week's visit as far as starting the taper of the pred.  The taper has to be so slow and careful to avoid relapse, so for now, I just do constant laundry to clean up the pee accidents, and thank my lucky stars that pee is easy to clean up on hardwood floor.

When we go back next week, we will repeat blood work, urinalysis, and look at organs on blood work values.  We didn't do a full blood work up this time, but next time for sure.  We had all hoped she would be so much better that we could avoid weekly visits, but her blood work wasn't as great as we wanted it to be.  She also has been released to do activity, so I am doing low throws with the disc, throwing the ball longer but keep it low, and starting timed walks.  The biggest issue that I am seeing now is her stamina, which is to be expected.  Even ten minute walks seem to zap her.  We will slowly increase those every day until she can walk 30 minute total and be okay.  Then we will start the couch to 5 K program.

I will be very honest in the fact that I had not managed my expectations very well, and after Dr. George's phone call, was a little crestfallen.  I know this disease takes months and months to get over, but I had this small smidge of hope that her previous fitness would help her rebound quicker.  Thank GOD for my vet for taking me into his office, and having a powwow about the blood work and results.  I really do owe him a case or more of beer for being so good about answering my questions, texts, and calming my fears.  He even gave me a really good article to read, written by the vet at KSU that this the clinician that my resident and students report to.  I never think of questions right away during my phone calls with Stella's student and resident, so he was able to help me figure out what it is that was bugging me about the recent results.  I think the biggest issue I am having is just a plain ole case of what if?  What if the diagnosis is not correct and we are chasing the wrong thing?  What if this really is cancer? I think he convinced me and also the article convinced me that we are on the right track.  I guess after we chased rocky mountain spotted fever (RMSF) for so long, I am a little gun shy, and based on the initial blood work, we were rightly so in chasing RMSF, but still.  I guess I should have retested titers two weeks on the dot.  Oh well, could have, should have, would have.  We are here now, and any progress is good, and I will try to quiet the little voices of doubt.

I will put up another post after our visit Thursday!  Keep your finger's crossed for even better news!

Thinking Out Loud Thursday!

I want to blog more.  Blogging gives me a sense of relief, almost of therapy, much like when I run or bike with friends.  I love reading multiple blog posts from my favorite bloggers.  It's like a window into their world and sometimes soul :)  I love when they also play with prompts.  When I did agility, we would be given a topic and then link up to share our thoughts.  I think they still do that, but not very frequently.  I really enjoy link ups so I can find new bloggers to puruse.  There are several link up and prompts out there and I am muddling over which ones I would like to do.  I have a full time job, so I don't want blogging to be another job or this thing that I feel like I have to do.  On the other hand,  I really like getting thoughts out of my head, onto screen so they quit scrambling my brain.  Anyhoo, here is my first attempt at using a link up or prompt to write a blog. Hope you enjoy:)

Today's prompt is Thinking Out Loud Thursday hosted by Amanda.  Check out her cool blog

Well, here goes.  Randomness in my head onto paper.

Pokemon GO:  Okay, I will admit, I was one of the ones highly annoyed with all of the sudden appearance of the zombie like figures in my neighborhood.  We saw them night after night, moving in hordes, staring endlessly at their tiny phone screens, and pointing.  We had NO clue what was going on at first, because we aren't hip, and didn't know about this new app Pokemon Go.  We finally found out why suddenly our neighborhood was so popular.  We live about a block away from City Park in Wamego, so on the way to several Pokestops.  We kept watching as nightly, sometimes in the 100 degree plus heat, the kids would be active, moving around our neighborhoods on foot, scooters, or bikes, laughing, running and cheering.  I asked my student at school who had the app, to show me what it was all about. I  was curious as to why suddenly there were so many kids getting out and about.  She showed me not only how to catch pokemon, but also how to hatch eggs and collect pokeballs at Pokestops.  I was amazed at how much ground we covered trying to catch these creatures with names I can't even pronounce.  I was gobstopped (yeah I just pulled the age card there) at how far you had to walk just to hatch some of the eggs (still learning why hatching eggs is important), but interested to learn that some eggs required 6 MILES of walking to hatch!  I know we as adults like our fitness counters, but how many kids have anything that tracks their activity?  I think this app is GENIUS!  It's fun, it's an easy way to have a more active lifestyle, and if you obey the rules to stay off of private property, you can have a ton of fun.  NO, you do not have to stare at your phone 24/7 but heck, most kids I know of were already doing this before the app came out so why not add an active component to it?  I know there will be people who will hate it no matter what, but I am proud to say I am a convert and excited to play!  I even took the dogs on an extra walk just this morning so I could have more playing time and andrew loves going out to hunt for Pokemon!  I did notice last night that andrew was having some issues understanding that these things are not real and that they are in our house but fake.  I quickly said that stella eats them (because my trying to explain that are fake just wasn't working) as they come into our bedroom and that was the end of that.  Stella for the win.

Stella:  Speaking of stella, we go back to KSU vet med tomorrow for a recheck, including blood work and urinalysis.  I am nervous and hoping that they are encouraged by her progress.  She has gained 2 lbs in these two weeks which I think is good.  

She weaned off of the codeine (pain pills) this week and honestly, I think is better since she is off of them.  I was super nervous to see how she would feel, and seems to be feeling great.  Which brings in a new set of problems, mainly keeping a very high drive dog happy without throwing the frisbee or the ball, and figuring out a plan for rehab.  She is still on the high dose of steriods and has pretty much destroyed the wood floors in certain areas BUT I wouldn't trade one urine stained towel for anything, as long as she is alive and with me and on the road to recovery.  

Speedwork and Strength training:  Oh, and you might as well throw in eating healthy to that mix. I have lost my mojo on all three of these topics.  I need to get it back.  I slightly miss strength training, and during my bike ride last night kind of felt guilty for skipping it for my bike, but then was like nah.  I need to stop stress eating too, especially since STella seems to be on the mend and i Have nothing to stress eat about.  All of my friends are being so good right now and I am like Mcdonald's drive through, I love you!  I need to find a way to do some sort of speedwork as well, because I have read that a major mistake runners make when training for an Ultra is ditching speedwork.  Maybe writing about all three of these topics will help me get back on the wagon.  Now where is that ice cream my boss bought from Call hall?:)

My Job:  We have always had ebb and flow since we have had our service center.  Our service center saved my job's life four years ago when we lost our final grant funding for our beetle work.  Things have been steady until around mayish of this year.  I hear crickets chirping in my lab as I type.  I am typing this up mainly to have something to do.  I am scared.  I don't want to loose my job.  My boss is the BEST boss ever made, and I don't want to work for anyone else.  She is the most understanding, caring, yet non micromanipulating boss that I have ever had.  She is the woman I aspire to be when I grow up.  Well, her and my mom.  Please don't let this end.  Please don't let this end.  

Okay that was kind of fun!  Check out the other bloggers Thinking out Loud on Thursday!

13 weeks of training to go! Week 6 of Hell Creek on Heels 50K training!

First week of back to back long runs!  Let's see how these legs handle this crazy week, shall we?  Again, most runs were done during the cover of darkness, so will pepper this blog post with random pictures:)

Before the parade selfie, which was mostly political people and farm implements 

Monday:  4th of July OFF!  Our town does 4th of July right!  A carnival, a parade, and the biggest fourth of july fireworks show in the state.  We always open our house up to anyone who wants to watch any parts of the day.  We have food and drink a plenty!

Riding the ferris wheel.  Glad he didn't get the fear of heights gene from me!

Tuesday:  Second day off:  Well, hadn't planned this one per se, but family was still in town, and Andrew's daycare was closed, so we hit up the pool and relaxed all day.  I thought about hitting my bike later in the night, but it was miserably hot, and i pretty much fried my shoulders the past two days and was fairly uncomfortable.  #sorrynotsorry.

Wednesday: Planned Speed work.  Going to call this one the 2, 3, 4 minute hell.  Luckily, when we met at 4:30 am, that plan was changed, so we got to experience a different hell, 80 degrees and 100% humidity.  We decided that conditions were not safe for doing hard speed work, and just ran 6 miles instead.  I am glad that we made that decision, because it was so miserable outside.  We took several walk breaks.  There were storms to the south of us, but they stayed away, thankfully because they had lightening.  I don't mind rain any day but lightning is a big heck no!

Thursday:  Planned 6 miles.  Woke up at 3:40 to storms.  Woke up at 4:15 am to storms.  Woke up at 6:30 to storms. Gave up.  Decided to run later in the day.  Kept watching the temps rise and thinking, there is no way.  Finally decided it would be safer to get up early friday morning, and if that didn't work, run friday night on the mill.  

Friday:  Planned cross training/strength. Since Thursday's run got canceled due to weather and since we couldn't run thursday night either due to this:

We had to push our 6 miler to Friday.  We had hoped to "make up" the speed work we missed on Tuesday, but  we woke up to fogged up windows and doors.  While it was cooler (75F), the humidity was 100%, and that pushed the dew point up into the 70s, so once again we had to cancel any intensity.  Oh well, miles are miles, and we got our six in with a walk break every mile for a tenth of a mile, so we could stay somewhat cool.   We did have a very pretty sunrise though.

Saturday:  Planned 13 miles.  Coach wanted me to do some speed work during our long run.  When we looked at the weather friday night multiple times, the weather app said low 70s and partly cloudy.  Wanting all the sleep we could get, we opted to go out a little later than normal, due to the supposed clouds and lower temps.  I knew we were in trouble when I got up at 5 am, and it was high 70s and 100 percent humidity.  Sigh. No clouds in sight.

well technically there were clouds, but they never got in front of that pesky sun!

We did a new route of gravel country roads, and then looped back on our normal route for our 13.  At first we were drenched due to the humidity, and then as that dropped, the heat and full on sun started kicking our asses in earnest.  We both had plenty of water and Nuun, but we were really feeling the effects.

We would play a game of run to a certain land mark or turn in the road, and then walk to the next one.  It took us 2 hours and 40 minutes to get 13 miles in, but we were safe about it, and only at the very, very end felt bad.  My hydration and fueling was on point.  I fueled with my fig bars every hour, and had two 17 oz bottles of Nuun water, that i did almost empty.  I am still not really liking my pack and the bottles up on my boobs, even with the soft body bottles.  I am going to try Melly's pack that has the bigger bottles that are lower on your body, and then if I like it, will try and find a used one on the TAUR group.  Side note, I chaffed like a boss yesterday in weird places, and in normal places, even though I put on full body, body glide.  WTH???

Sunday:  Planned 5 miles on hilly trail.  Whelp, when we saw hilly and only 5, we opted to hit Konza up.  Got there just as it was starting to get light, and got our 5 in, and finished with a nice cool down walk for the rest of the big loop.  Lindsey from LivingLoving Runner joined us, and then we hit up the coffee shop post run and just talked.  Mother runners are the bomb, and I can't wait to run some more with Lindsey!  I had a sore part of my leg that bothered me both saturday and today, that I need to give some attention to.  I think it is from running differently thanks to the new balance 1260s (which is a good thing, it is a tendon that I should be using), and I just need a good massage.  The pain comes and goes throughout my run, with or without my compression socks on, so I will be addressing this issue with Dr. Needles when I see him next.

30 miles total!  Excited to be back on a routine next week of hopefully Tuesday/Thursday and Saturday/Sunday runs and excited that running three days in a row didn't kill me :)  Please Kansas summer, give us a break next week, so we can get some speed work in!!!!

Would you Rather????

I saw this blog post format on another blogger's page and thought I would play along!  It's called Would you Rather?

Would you Rather:

Run in Subzero temperature or Hot and Humid?

If you know me or have read any of my blog posts, you know I thrive when I am training in the cold!  I don't mind cold or wind, even subzero temperatures, but when the weather is hot, I wilt.  Remind me please to stop signing up for big events in the fall!!!   I have some really awesome cold weather gear, but when it comes to hot and humid, there is just nothing you can do about it.  It's just like this morning, we ran at 4:30 am and it was already 80 and 100% humidity.  It was just plain gross out, and slightly dangerous, so we had to switch out our speed work for just a run.  Bleh.  I am already counting down the days till fall, till we can switch over to after work runs again, versus getting up at 4 am.

Run on a trail, beach, or road?

Well, since I mainly run on the road, I would rather run on a trail.  We don't have very many trails in our immediate area, and the whole goal of running for me is to be able to lace up and head out, so driving a long time to a trailhead defeats the purpose.  Especially now that we have to start around 4:30 to beat the heat.  Believe me, if there were trails closer, I would say good bye to the roads for everything but intervals.  Stella votes trails all they way, even if they are muddy!

Run Hills or Speed Intervals?

Both make me feel badass, but I think I would choose speed intervals, just because we do walk back recoveries, and we normally do track like work outs on the flat.  Of course ask me this when I am doing one or two mile repeats, and I will probably scream out HILLS! Stella ella likes both, as long as she is with me:)

Miss a PR by a minute or by 30 minutes?

Sometimes it's fun to help others PR too!

I guess I have had both of these situations happen, so I would say miss by one minute.  If I pushed as hard as I can, and I left it all out on the course then so be it, whether it is 1 minute or an hour, for that matter.

Run a marathon on an unfamiliar course or a short familiar loop multiple times?

I have done a few loop races, and while I don't mind loops on long runs, something about doing them in a races shatters my soul. I would have to pick an unfamiliar course, because there is something fun about the unknown.

Pre-Fuel or Refuel?

I am all about the Refuel!  Most mornings I just wake up and sleepily, put on some clothes, and head out.  My stomach is a hater of all things morning, so the less I can put in it, the better.  For long runs I usually eat either a pack of belvita crackers with a cup of coffee, or I do my UCAN if I only have around 45 minutes or less before I head out.  I am all about coming home, refueling on some yummy, ice cold 2% chocolate milk or a nice cup of coffee!

Get a medal or a t-shirt?

This is hard, because I do have a ton of both and I like both.  I like it when races do normal t shirts, not technical, just a plain old t shirt I can wear to work, but I do love a pretty medal as well.  I guess I am leaning towards medals.

Run a short intense session or a long run?

Long run baby!  These are the runs where I get right in my mind with all the things.  I either catch up on podcasts, or I chat with my BRFs.  It's therapy for my soul.  I would rather run long, than intense any day.  I have always joked that I can run a slow steady pace all day, and now with my ultra coming up, we may get to test that!


Okay that was kind of fun!  Which would you rather???

14 weeks of training to go! Week 5 of Hell creek on Heels 50 K training!

Another week of training in the heat and humidity that is the sucky KS summer.  Another week of trying to figure out what this mess is that stella has.  Here we go.

Monday:  Speed work (2 minutes MGP, 2 minutes slightly faster than MGP, 3 minutes easy x 5 for a total of 6 miles).  I am really beginning to dig this type of speed work.  Not missing track intervals at all.  It was cooler this morning, but the humidity was 100% when we started at 4:30 am.  Bleh.

Tuesday:  Planned PT and strength.  Today I took my beloved Stella Ella to the vet in topeka to have an ultrasound of her belly done to rule out the cancer theory.  You can read more about it here because it is a huge mess, and I am very emotional about it right now and don't want to start emotional diarrhea here about it.   I ended up doing a 12.5 ish mile bike ride with Rockin Robin instead to cool off and de-stress.

Wednesday:  Planned 6 miles.  Finally, it has been cooler in the morning but alas, still humid.  We walked some, farted some, and ran some.  Running is such good therapy.

Thursday:  Rest day.  Spent most of the day at KSU with stella.  Lots of tears, but lots of good progress towards a diagnosis.  The bottle cap in her tummy is going to be removed, and we hope this is the cause of a lot of her issues.  We also hit up the 4th of July carnival that is a block away.  My little man is getting so brave!  He doesn't have the fear of heights gene, so him and daddy rode the Ferris Wheel 3 times!!!!  We had cotton candy, caramel apples, and the best cheeseburgers you have ever had!  Our little town does the 4th of July right!

Friday:  Hill work (6 repeats, 45 seconds each for a total of 6 miles).  Found a slightly longer and tougher hill this time, and just cranked them out.  My legs feel like lead now.  I so wanted to quit around 4 total miles, but we made it through 6.  I think I am just emotionally exhausted and missing my stella ella.  Had another visit with Dr. Needles and he gave me some painful manipulations and ART.  OUCH!  We also talked about the lift that I need in my shoes and how that hopefully will resolve all of my running injury issues.  I sure hope so, finger's crossed!!!!  Stella got to come home and already seems WAY better!  I can't wait to get her back to running this fall!

Saturday:  Rest day and family time.  My Mother in law came in from TN to spend the holiday weekend, so no PT, cross training, or anything happened, and i am fine with that.  Went to shoe store to see about getting a lift put in my running shoes, and they were closed but did spend some time down in aggieville with Melly Mel.  Had some early beer and then switched over to water + nuun for the rest of the night.  I so love running and dog friends.  They have pretty much gotten me through all of my running injuries and my dog's injuries/illnesses with my sanity intact.

Sunday:  12 miles planned.  Finding a place that wasn't a mud pit was interesting since we got 3 inches of rain the night before.  We tried linear trail in Manhattan and other than one place that was in a low spot, the trail was fine.  Running is so much better with these ladies!

30 miles total for the week.

We are going to shake up our training routine and change to back to back long runs.  However, we don't want to add an  extra running day.  We are going to switch to a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday running plan with a long easier run on Saturday with maybe some speed work interspersed and a hilly shorter long run on sunday.  I am slightly scared but slightly excited to push my body and see what happens!

Have a great Fourth of July weekend/Week!

Week 5 of Stella's Story. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever that was and then wasn't: New diagnosis IMPA (Immune Mediated Polyartritis)

This has been a total roller coaster.  I have now seen a total of 3 vets with 3 different opinions.  Here is how the fifth week of this nightmare played out.

June 30th.  Called KSU at 8:01.  Got an appointment to see a specialist at 10 am.  Hurried up to my office to get all of my notes, and type up a good summary (was handwritten and very horrible).  Rushed back to Wamego, loaded up Stella, and headed back to Manhattan to KSU Vet Med.  Met my 4th year student, a very bright, wonderful young woman.  We went through EVERYTHING on my typed up time line, and she took lots of notes.  We waited another hour and a half for the resident to come in, but stella and I cuddled and caught up on work email.  Thank God for smart phones.  Found a penny when I took her out to potty.  I thought this had to be a good sign.  The resident felt like she had lupus and wanted to do some tests that would help rule lupus out.  We did an ANA test and a urinalysis.  The ANA test came back negative, but her urine was full of protein.  They decided to rule out lupus, but rule in some sort of autoimmune disease like poly-arthritis.  They also decided to go ahead with the endoscope friday morning (july 1), and do a joint tap to check out what is in her joints.  Before I left town, I got to go over, check in with the resident and student, ask a million questions, and share a bag of beef jerky with Stella.  She seemed way better, and performed all of her tricks for the student.  I am so ready to get this stupid bottle cap out.  I know we had to wait till she was stable enough, but now is the time.  I took out a loan from a family member to cover the cost of the KSU visit, and my other two vet visits.  I would rather have one payment than to have to pay three different bills.  It is what it is, and I am not going to stress about it.

July 1st:  Long night without my girl.  Very anxious watching the clock, knowing the timeline of things to come.  The student called me around 8 am to tell me she had a great night, and that she was doing really well, and in fact was very hard to examine because all she wanted to do was cuddle.  She was suppose to go into surgery around 11 am, and I would be called when she was in recovery.  True to form, the resident called around 12ish, and said she was in recovery and that the bottle cap was out.  It was very rusted, so hard to tell where it came from beer wise.  Her joints were tapped, and the fluid was cloudy.  They were waiting on path to tell them what the cloudiness was from.

In meeting with the resident and the student, we formed a plan forward.  We still haven't completely ruled out bacterial/tick borne in the form of Bartonella, so we are keeping the baytril in for that, and for the possibility of bacteria in joint fluid.  We are going back up to the high does of pred, hopefully just for 2 weeks.  We will have a recheck at KSU for blood values, pain management, and pred dose in 2 weeks.  Unfortunately, we will be on the pred for some time, with estimates being 3 months to 6 months.  The wean down will be very slow and very careful.

July 2nd: What a great day!  Now we are having issues keeping her quiet.  She wants to run, play, and not be quiet.  She has resumed many of her normal ways like sleeping in the bed with me, watching over andrew while he bathes, and being the boss of the boys.

July 3rd:  Much like the 2nd.  I think we may be officially done with this blog thread till her recheck, YIPEEEE!!!!  She really isn't having any issues being on the high does of pred or the codeine.  She is pretty much back to normal in all ways.  I will update when we get the joint fluid cultures back but other than that, it seems the nightmare may be over for now!!!!  Thanks for all the emails and calls and FB messages!  They have truly helped me get through this nightmare!

Week 4: Stella's Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever story or Is it Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever?

I am writing this for other dog owners, so that they can see how Stella's Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF) played out.  I have read a few blogs that have been very helpful to me about RMSF, and I am hoping this will do the same for others. If you would like to read about the first two weeks of this horrible disease, please check out this blog post or this blog post to catch up.  I can't believe it has been almost a month since this nightmare started.  We have made progress, but it seems ever so slow.

June 23rd: Woke up surprisingly well.  Mornings seem to be hard lately, since she is only getting one pred a day.  When we got home from work, she seemed sore, especially on the front and back leg that has been bothering her.  Other than that, no other problems.

June 24th:  Super sore.  Could barley walk and yelped whenever anyone bumped her.  Melly Mel, my running partner came in and gave her extra lovings.  Silly girl still wanted to play ball, even though she can barely move.  Her spirit is still there, even if her body isn't cooperating.  I met with my new alternative health vet.  She is a normal vet, but she also does acupuncture, chiropractics, and chinese herbs.  My hope was that she could provide alternative therapies to compliment what we were already doing.  She did one of the most thorough exams I have ever witnessed, and took copious notes on EVERYTHING.  She looked over blood work, tick titers, and symptoms.  She at this time does not feel this is rocky mountain spotted fever and that the titer is left over from a previous infection.  She is leaning more towards cancer based on blood work values, and the fact that she has lost so much muscle mass/weight.  We have to repeat the blood work first, and then go from there.  I am honest when I say I am very freaked out by the prospect, but at the same time I just don't feel like this is cancer.  I hope my gut feeling is right.  She did give us a non steroidal pain medicine called Gabapentin, and an herb called body sore.  I immediately after the appointment gave her the first dose of both.  In coming home later that day, stella met me at the door and jumped up to greet me, which is typical stella.  She even continued to be active, and even did some naughty acts like steal some food off of my plate, and steal andrew's pasta when he got up to the go to the bathroom.  That is my typical stella.  Even though I should be mad at her, it make me super happy that she is feeling well enough to be that naughty.

June 25th:  WOW!  I am amazed at the progress with just the addition of the gaba and the herbs.  She has been super active all day.  Is a little loose on her stool, but other than that, she has been all over all day.  I got up at 4 am to run, so gave her a gaba then, so technically she could have had three today, but honestly, I didn't feel like she needed it.  She even jumped on the bed when I was trying to get andrew to sleep today.  It took her a few tries to get everything together, but she didn't want assistance.  She did this three or four times.  She has been traveling at her normal speed, which is 150 mph and is back to being my shadow.  Naughty stella also made an appearance this morning when I went to the library by getting up on the counter and getting not one, but two loaves of bread down and eating them, as well as  a package of hamburger buns.  I am sure she wasn't the only culprit eating, but I am sure she would be the one to get them down to share.  

She even got her frisbee when we were out in the yard picking up yard bombs and brought it to me.  I did a couple of short throws, and other than her not being able to do her normal acrobatics and being a tad bit slower than normal, she was after each and every one.  She didn't seem too uncoordinated or wobbly.  I am super shocked at how well she is doing now.  I hope this continues.  

June 26th:  Woke us up at 1 am getting on the stove to clean a cast iron skillet.  Slept in the bed most of the night, post her midnight snack.  We re did the blood draw and sent off for new blood work, and a new tick titer.  Dr. Kristen was impressed at how much better she felt, so much so that the blood draw became a fun affair.  I didn't think I could hold, since she is my baby, but tony was having lots of trouble holding her, so I had to step in.  We needed a ton of  blood, so it took a bit longer than normal, but once I stepped in, we were able to get what we needed.  I just need to put my big girl panties on and be brave when it comes to my kiddos.  Her poop is a little runny now, but still not diarrhea, more just cow pie.  We made the decision to go ahead with an ultrasound for any masses in the abdomen.  Dr. Kristen is not convinced this is rocky mountain spotted fever, due the liver enzymes being off the charts, the platelets being normal, and her WBC counts being elevated.  If the abdomen is clear, we can just assume this is the oddest case of RMSF ever.  

June 27th:  Last day on pred till we switch to one every other day.  Little girl had a good night, sleeping in bed with me most of the night.  She was the first one downstairs and ate with gusto.  She also wanted to play frisbee when we got back from our run, and so we did.  She also helped me make coffee, something she hasn't done in a while.  

June 28th:  First day without Pred.  Also trip to Topeka to get ultrasound done to rule out cancer.  In true Stella fashion, nothing was to be routine. When we got to Topeka, she started running a fever, coughing, and her heart rate plummeted to 48 beats per minute. She was quickly hooked up to an EKG, which showed abnormalities, and then whisked away for a chest x ray. Heart and lungs came back clear, with one artery looking enlarged, but nothing to worry about. We started to work through symptoms, and kept coming back to a very odd disease called dysautomia (sp?), BUT when we gave her the drug that speeds up her heart to test if it would even speed up (a symptom of this odd disease the heart doesn't respond to meds), her heart did speed up. So this may or may not make sense. Her thyroid is also slightly low on blood work, and she still has that slightly positive rocky mountain spotted fever titer. She couldn't sedate her to do the ultrasound, but they decided to go ahead and try without her sedated. They shaved her belly, and did the ultrasound and she was a good girlie. No masses on liver or spleen. BUT when she tried to go over her kidneys, she went bonkers. SO at this point, we are treating symptoms not disease. She is getting more doxy. She is weaning off the pred completely. She is getting baytril on top of the doxy. She is getting thyroid meds. We redid the blood work to check all values (should get results tomorrow), and we are re doing the tick panel as well. If she doesn't respond by friday, we head to KSU to talk to the dysautonomia expert there. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers, because I feel like we are headed in the right direction even if we don't know exactly what this is.

She was pretty tired and sore the rest of the night, but still brought her frisbee to me a couple of times.  I was pretty worried, she seemed to have back slid so much, but she seems to do this every time we wean down the pred.  Her heart seemed back up to around 87 beats per minute, which seems a little more normal.  We did lots of cuddles last night, but she wanted to sleep by herself in the bathroom.  It is cooler in there, so I was hoping she was just cooling her body.  

June 29th:  She had a good night, only heard her up once walking around.  She was pretty stiff/sore especially in her hind end, but ate with gusto and took all of her new pills.  I was glad that I wrote up a list, because at 4 am, my brain is not functioning at full capacity, and that is a ton of pills.  Post my run (that took about an hour) she seemed better, but she got a dose of pred today.  She was still pretty stiff, but that glint was back in her eyes.  As long as I see that will to fight, I will do anything for my baby.  

PM she was still good, but the blood values came back that her body was not good.  I had emailed the dysautonomia expert at KSU and he had suggested that we bring her in immediately.  By the time I called, they weren't making appointments and had switched to emergency only.  Her tick titer also came back lower than previously so not a good indication that this even is RMSF.  Sigh.  To KSU we go in the morning.