Observations: Back from the Internist's

Today was pretty rough. At the internist's this afternoon the ultrasound revealed a bright pancreas. So because Flower had her pancreatic enzymes checked at the previous vet, I was immediately distraught and saw this as going down the same path of checking and rechecking the same things, on some kind of wild goose chase. The internist was confident, however, that the pancreas was inflamed and suggested taking a sample via aspiration. The other thing that she suggested, with no other apparent symptoms in Flower from ultrasound, was to endoscopically examine her esophagus, stomach and duodenum. I began to see that I might be sending Flower down a path of increasingly invasive procedures with few results. Plus there was the cost to consider. I thought about this hard, and I thought about the consequences of the procedure. My fear was for Flower to go under anesthesia again, having a tube placed in her throat, waking up groggy and sore and worse for all of it. The benefits seemed uncertain. If ulcers were found, medicate; if inflammation was found, medicate; if lymphoma was found, medicate. So at this point I knew that this was the last of it. If this didn't reveal some definitive and effective treatments then I would be done torturing Flower with continued and probably unnecessary procedures. I decided to take this one last chance; it was and is my desire to avoid future vet visits. She has had so much stress and still is not eating on her own and barely holding down food.

I had to go to work so Ashley would have to go back to pick Flower up. Unfortunately I also had a lab to make up for chemistry after work, so I was anticipating not getting done until at least 9. More unfortunately I was delayed several times and did not end up leaving the lab until nearly 11 PM. I was worried and frustrated with repeated test ands no answers and, more importantly, a declining Flower. I was, however, relieved and surprised to find a lively, affectionate, and outgoing Flower when I came home. Ashley gave me the run down from the doctor, but I could hardly believe it when I saw Flower walk up to a plate of food. She had remained attentive to food but had shown little interest, especially in the previous 3 or 4 days. For a while her face just hovered over the bowl, but at least that's progress. To my amazement, she actually started eating on her own from the dry food. this afternoon and evening was probably one of the hardest days that I have had, but tonight, when Flower was up and walking around and enjoying people, I felt like I had, in fact, made the right choice.