The Ruffles Report

I found an old post I thought I had published shortly after my first vet visit. Read it here (some of may be outdated medical info so be sure to read “Mo’ Meds, Mo’ Problems“… though that is also outdated because…)

I feel great!

Kinda.

I finish up my antibiotic regiment today. Yay! But my steroid regiment continues for another week or so. Boo! And I know my two-legs is going to take me back to the white coats in the near future. Super boo!

I am proud to say that I am no longer wheezing like a fat kid during gym class and I only hack a few times a day. I feel like it is just the residual ick that this being worked out of my lungs, not unlike a smoker’s cough in the morning (no, I do not have lung problems due to smoking). My energy level has returned and I am back to playing with frog and my other plushies. I can once again reach a tug-of-war standoff with big-little-bro. And I have returned to my vigil of staring out the screen door and scaring the bejesus out of little-two-legs who bang on the door and scream “puppy!”. (I am not a puppy anymore, I am a grumpy old man)

What a better time to start feeling better than the middle of August? It is starting to get cooler outside again (you try wearing a 2 inch thick hair suit all the time) which means the bike paths are starting to open back up again. How does this affect me, a non-cyclist? Well it just so happens that my two-legs is a cyclist. What’s more, he has a penchant for strapping things to his bike so he does not have to use a car (he is a dirty hippie).

I am the big gray lump in his side car there. Dignified eh?

While I do not look terribly pleased in this picture, I assure you that this is one of activities I enjoy doing with my two-legs. The four of us often go for rides around the beach. Poor big-little-bro is forced to run alongside the skirted-one. I, on the other paw, just get to sit back, relax, and enjoy the scenery. The wind whipping through my hair. The ever changing smells. The falling out of the pannier when my two-legs forgets that this center of gravity is now 20 lbs. heavier in the rear and misjudges a turn. Good times.

I hope now that I am feeling better and the bike paths become less choked with tourists on unwieldy cruisers my two-legs and I will be able to hit the open road again. (hint, hint two-legs)

It is good to have my health back and I hope it remains. Thanks to all for the kind words and support!

I blocked out most of last week. My two-legs abandoned me with other two-legs I do not know. They had two mini-two-legs. One of whom screamed all the time, and other just ran around and played with our toys (and our toys became hers). I suppose in retrospect it was not too bad… except that I am still sick.

My two-legs decided I needed a haircut. He did not do a good job. I am displeased for multiple reasons.

On Monday night he took me back to the V-E-T. Supposedly I lost a pound in two weeks (sickness diets work!) and was running a bit of temperature. They also had to retake all my x-rays. I do not like sitting still, splayed out for any period of time (unless it is of my own accord). For your viewing pleasure are my X-rays. I have included both the ones from July 17th and from August 2nd. To the trained eye they look pretty similar, but you need to look closer (which is tough as they are not very high resolution here). I will explain after the photos.

Look at how huge my heart is!

So, look at the lungs (the dark gray), it should not have all those white spots.

This was on Monday, my lungs are more white than black... not good.

I do love how cool my insides look. I wish I could see it in action (breathing and eating and pooping).

My  lungs are what is in question in all this. Two weeks ago they had a few little white speckles. The speckles are an anomoly and have a higher density than the surrounding tissue. Two weeks later I have more little white speckles. Which essentially means something is growing in my lungs. Things should not be growing in my lungs.

We opted to try some new medication. I am on a different family of antibiotic from the one I took before. I am also on a light dose of steriods. The steroids are mainly to help open up my lungs and make breathing easier. If I take too much, it may speed the growth of the whatever it is in my lungs.

Sigh. This regiment should take another two weeks or so to finish up. At which time I will more than likely be subjected to the same horrors of the V-E-T as I have before… probing, prodding, x-rays, pills. Good times.

So wish me luck. I will post later in the week with an update.