Friday, September 27, 2019

Pleasantly dull life, ha! I too am also grateful for the beauty of ordinary days.

Not sure what is going on at my parents house...My brother who never, ever communicates with me umprompted, sent a text that the new roofing project my Dad and nephew were attempting was going real bad, and he was trying to put a crew together for tomorrow, and was my ds available. (He is not). When I heard about this potential project last month I offered up that I thought it was a very bad idea, my father an 82 year old man with a hip replacement and vertigo, and my sweet nephew who was in a serious car accident and sustained a brain injury that qualifies him for social security disability. What could possibly go wrong with this scenario? I was told they would wear ropes. As if this would address all the possibilities for disaster. I'm torn between rushing over and trying to save the day as I have been groomed since birth to do, and deciding my brother can handle the crisis this time. Letting brother do it is winning.

We went to see Brittany Runs a Marathon tonight. Funny, charming, and relatable, especially for those of us who woke up and decided to change something about our lives. It was not pro thin or pro body positivity, it handled the issue of obesity and self worth from many angles. It was pro health, pro self respect and I came away feeling uplifted.

Can't wait to see that! It comes to our theater tomorrow. I think not jumping in to fix the roof situation is the right plan. Makes me think of a huge new shed on a trailer I was driving behind today. The shingles were flying off left and right at 60 mph. They didn't think the transport part through...

You absolutely should let your brother handle it! Those of us who are used to always taking charge always feel the urge, but we REALLY need to let others take care of things sometimes.

I am so proud of you. Leave it on brother's plate.

I've heard good things about that movie. Plan to see it somehow, somewhere.

Lordy! 5 hour drive home in the dark/rain on pitch black roads with worn off paint lines is sooo stressful!

Update on Ferg: His follow up echo today at the cardiologist was a month early (5 months instead of the 6 we were planning for) because I had noticed increased night panting and the once a day gagging had come back, both in the last week.

The cardiologist said he doesn't like a story that doesn't make sense. This is because Fergus's heart function has improved a lot in the last 5 months(!). His fractional shortening (strength with which the heart contracts) went from a dismal 6.08% at diagnosis to 18% today (30+ is healthy). His left atrium has shrunk quite a bit and is barely enlarged. His left ventricle is still enlarged, but is slightly smaller and contracting much better, though he was perplexed/concerned that the septum was not contracting at all, so all the work and improvement was in the outer wall. Given that his heart is functioning better and his lungs had no fluid/congestion, he couldn't explain the panting/gagging or that last night he hardly panted at all on the higher Furosemide (diuretic) dose.

So he said to keep him on the higher dose and call him in a week to let him know how he's doing. We may taper the Furosemide back again.

One "comforting" thing he said that gave me some peace oddly enough, was that there is no way this isn't nutritionally-mediated DCM as he said the Vetmedin (one of the heart drugs) alone would never have improved his heart function this much. Our vet at home who hasn't treated a DCM dog (that he knew of) had told me that it couldn't be nutritional because his taurine blood levels were normal. This cardiologist said, that's a faulty understanding of how NM-DCM works and Ferg's case is definitely nutritional.

To sum up, improved heart function = great news! Increased panting/gagging has no explanation = perplexing.

Yay! So, so happy to read this! Big hugs for Ferg!

I insisted my BFF take his girl (of my breeding) off the grain free he was feeding. Guess what? Her heart murmur has vanished! His vet, too, said there was no way it was nutritionally related. I called BS. Heart murmurs can be one of the first indicators of DCM. Change of food and 1 year later no heart issues. Hmmm....

Increased panting with gagging.... could be reflux. Give him a TUMS and see how that goes.

Good news about Ferg!