Gracie update

Gracie may or may not have cancer. Her heart IS enlarged, but no tumor is evident on the X-rays. More about what it takes to diagnose that shortly. But her most serious immediate problem is thrombocytopenia – an abnormally low platelet count. Hers is only 43,000. Normal is from 200,000 to 500,000.

The two most likely reasons for the platelets to be that low are either they are not being made, or they are being destroyed by her own body. So it is either an immune-mediated process that is destroying the platelets, or a cancer that is preventing them from being made (lymphoma).

To definitively diagnose a synthesis problem she would need a bone marrow aspiration. That would need to be done at LSU.  Or we could just try steroids – if the platelets pick up, then it implies that it was immune-mediated and we go from there. BUT – if it is a cancer and we use prednisone, we have probably made the problem worse.  Nevertheless, we chose to go the prednisone route anyway. To me that’s the best option because if it turns out she has lymphoma, I wouldn’t put her through chemotherapy anyway. Dog’s can’t understand that being hurt may ultimately help them. And at her age, I just don’t feel it would be justified. I don’t even think I would do that to myself after a certain age. Better to live the remainder of life as comfortably as possible.

So she is going to be on steroids for the next two months, hopefully tapering off over that time period.  We are supposed to keep her very very quiet, and monitor her closely for symptoms of bleeding, like bloody urine, stool or vomit, bloody nose, blood in the whites of the eyes or bruises on the belly until those platelet levels come up to near-normal (we will go in to have it checked every 7 to 10 days).  Any signs of bleeding and we will need to get her back to the vet ASAP since the slightest injury could result in her bleeding to death internally.  So I'm glad she's feeling as lethargic as she seems to feel for now.  Hopefully that will last until those platelets come back up so she doesn't hurt herself.

But she IS home now.  She does NOT have to spend even one night in a cage by herself instead of in her nice comfy bed at home next to us.  And we now have the chance to make her life as comfortable as possible until she feels better . . .  or until the end.