Carmella Needs a Miracle

Today Carmella saw Dr. Muller about her right front leg. I was thinking mostly about the stem cell transplant when I went in there, and getting the EKG so she can get on the medication, Procainamide, for the myoclonus but now there is an even more immediate situation with her worsening wrist. This is the second vet in the past week to tell me that she is going to end up lame if she continues to jerk. The continuous impact is making it worse and worse and the wrist if left untreated will end up lying flat on the ground.  Also, then her left leg could go bad in the process of trying to compensate for the right, and then she'd be in really bad shape.

If it hasn't already, the ligament will eventually tear. She needs surgery and the particular surgery he said they do for this is basically fusing the bone by putting a metal plate inside. She would not be able to bend her foot flat when she lies down and it would be forever in a locked position so she could walk on it.

I can't stand the thought of it, and I can't stand the thought of her going lame either. I hope that's not the only option, and on top of all that it will cost thousands of dollars.

If we can't find a way to control the jerking the surgery might not work.

While my friend and I were there, Dr. Muller called a pharmacy in Canada and one here and came back and said that neither carried Procainamide. It looks as if it used to be used in humans for heart problems but was pretty much made obsolete in recent years by newer drugs.

I don't know what we'll do if we can't get it. I'm going to see if I can check online pharmacies in India and a few other developing countries.

Now I'm really going to have to raise major money to get her through this. I don't know why this had to happen to her after all the stuff she's already been through.  After she was cured of distemper I thought she was home free, but now we are faced with another huge mountain to climb.

I just had a thought; I hope it wasn't the Zithromax she was on for her opportunistic infections that caused the problem with her ligament. I know it has been linked to that in humans. All the macrolide antibiotics have.

Dr. Muller suggested not doing the EKG since we don't know if we can get the Pracainamide anyway, and he said the only heart problem that is at all possible in a dog this age is heart block and that's very unlikely.

He told me he knows an orthopedist for animals who works over in the Northlake area who is good and also compassionate that he can talk to about Carmella's case and he thinks he'd charge less than they would at GVS.

He's also going to call the Neurologist Carmella saw over there the other day and talk to her.

Biarcliff Animal Clinic where Dr. Muller works has a charity that usually helps in cases like this but donations have been way down and they don't have the money.

Just a few more inches, and my hair will be long enough to sell.

I want to thank Janice at Heartworks for buying an ad on my blog! Please check out her wonderful plaques, mandalas and other handmade items by clicking on the new banner at the top of my TopSpots.

If any of you readers would like to help Carmella you can purchase an ad by clicking on the link at they bottom of that list and for $5.00 you can have a presence there too.

If jewelry, scarfettes, hats, or other accessories are your thing your purchase will help there too. Everything needs to go in my Etsy shop; http://giftbearer.etsy.com/ , jewelry and wearables. My goal is to turn it over completely and start phasing in all new pieces. Be sure not to miss the new hair flowers that wer recently listed; great to match Spring outfits! The buyer who brings my sales number in this shop to 90 will receive a free gift with their purchase.

or if you're more in need of supplies you can get some really unique ones here; http://giftbearersupply.etsy.com/ 

Carmella needs the help of the community now more than ever. You can be a part of her miracle so that she can have the comfortable and healthy life she deserves. There's much work to be done, but I promised her I would never give up on her and I intend to stick by her. She's had too many turn their back on her like so many other dogs have that came from shelters. There's something about Carmella that just reaches into your heart and that's why I chose her out of all the others.

Carmella Gets Neurological Referral

Today the phone rang. It was Jocelyn from Dr. Norwood's office calling to let me know the paperwork had been completed for Carmella's referral to Ga. Veterinary Specialists. It had been a long time coming and I was relieved that finally we would get to the bottom of the myelin damage causing her constant jerking and atrophy of the leg.

As it turned out transportation was really the biggest barrier because I had only two people I could ask and finances and health problems were preventing one of them from driving more than two trips, and the other one's job prevents her from going until later in the day, and even then only on Thursday and Fridays because she takes work home with her three of 5 days every week.

The policies dictating when GVS does certain things narrowed it down even further, but finally after several hours of vascillation and negotiation we came up with a workable plan and set the date for March 18th at 11:45 AM. Carmella will see  veterinary neurologist that day for an exam and most likely will have to come back another day for the MRI and any other tests.

I spoke on the phone with a very nice woman who told me that although they usually don't do this it's possible that something can be arranged the same day once I get her in there and talk to the vet if the radiology people can fit her in that day. This has taken so long to arrange that it would be nice to get it all out of the way in the same day, especially since I won't be picked up for several more hours after her exam.

Apparently they will put her under general anesthesia during the MRI so that she won't move, and it takes 2-3 hours because the MRIs they use for dogs are less powerful than the ones used for humans so it takes longer to get all the pictures. The neurologist might order other tests and will give me a price quote ahead of time once it's established all the tests she's going to need.

Since the time I called over a year ago when Carmella needed the CSF procedure they have added a new neurologist that used to be an intern and decided to specialize. I was thrilled to hear this, as the other one wasn't very interested in helping Carmella before. I hear this one is very open-minded, so that is who I made the appointment with.

I took some really cute pictures of Carmella tonight. As she often is she was chewing on something in many of them.

For some reason she seemed to be particularly hyper tonight and wanting to chew on my arms. I threw a rubberized dumbell for her to fetch that she'd stripped of the outer surface long ago, and I played tug of war with her for awhile until we both were worn out.

Hopefully she'll sleep well tonight after all that exercise and won't jump off the bed at the crack of dawn as she sometimes does when I'm not awake enough to get up.

This morning was one of those rare days that she stayed curled up beside me until around 12:00 noon. I needed the rest anyway after the long hours I'd worked the day before getting a wedding order completed.

This morning I wasn't feeling so well and needed to stay in bed until the pain in my back, stomach, and legs subsided.

I had also stayed up around the clock one night getting a bunch of my jewelry ready to go to a store. I am going to prepare another batch this month also in hopes that I can make a decent amount of money this month. There will be alot of money to raise given the upcoming medical expenses for Carmella.

I see it is 3:30 in the morning already so I'll get this posted and then get some sleep and promote this entry later on today. If any of you find it in the meantime please feel free to post your comments! If you aren't yet following and you would like to keep up with Carmella's progress please do so. Things should be getting very interesting in the coming weeks and months!