Sad . . .

I spent most of today at the vet's office -- this time with Gracie.  Thank goodness our vet is open on Sunday. 

We got home yesterday from checking out a few houses on a solar house tour to find that Gracie had thrown up her breakfast and was just laying there on the rug looking up at us.  She is generally extremely active and jumps up and down on the window seat from the moment she hears the car pull up, then is standing at the door wagging her entire body when we come in, so I knew immediately that something was seriously wrong. 

I found she wasn't able to jump up onto the bed where she normally sleeps or even onto the window seat, so I made her a bed on the floor from 4 folded comforters  and I lay down next to her until she calmed down and seemed to be resting.  We got up several times last evening and through the night and she walked around stiff-legged trying to throw up (but with nothing in her stomach, there was nothing but foam).  But she would eventually lie down and try and rest, although she would occasionally startle and look back at her tummy, so she was apparently having some sort of cramps or pain of some sort.

The vet had closed at 3 yesterday just before we got home, so the only thing we could have done right then was go to LSU's emergency clinic -- and we're talking mega-bucks on a weekend.  So I made the decision to try and make her comfortable and go to AVS today since they are open on Sunday.  By the time we were able to see them today though she had begun coughing up blood and was obviously in pain.  They did blood work and took x-rays of her lungs and her abdomen.  They found a number of abnormalities, but the abnormalities together didn't paint a cohesive picture of what might be wrong.  So tomorrow morning we will take her back in and they will do more tests and try and figure it out.  Today they gave her IV fluids, oxygen, a steroid injection to ease her breathing, and a pain injection that's good for 24 hours and then I brought her back home.  They said she needed to be hospitalized, but I didn't want to leave her there overnight in a cage with no one around.  And none of their vets work overnight on Sunday night.  She does seem more comfortable now than she was before we went in, and she was obviously glad to be back home, so I'm glad I made that decision. 

But I'm thinking we're probably looking at some sort of cancer.  I know boxers are prone to certain types of cancer.  And there is no other reason I can imagine for the sorts of symptoms she is showing.  But we'll wait and see what they find. 

I know it makes no sense to think this way and that there's nothing I can do about any of this, but I'm beginning to feel like no one around me is safe anymore.