Progress

Hello. I'm dictating this blog post using Dragon naturally. I wonder how it will go. If you see any strange typos it's probably the software.

The kiddo seems to be improving.  The pediatrician taught me how to listen to her lungs without a stethoscope and I can tell if she's getting worse or not. At first, the nebulizer treatments opened her up and made her wheezing worse, which is an indication of how tight she was. Then they started to clear her up.

My husband feels better too. So all the people with inhalers are doing okay. Even I had a good asthma run. The temperature went up by 30°, which is a big swing, and my lungs didn't care. I've really enjoyed going for walks the last few days.

My dog, my labby love, is not doing so well. She is 12 and that is pretty much the end of the line for most labs. She was spry and sassy up until the last week or so and suddenly she began soiling her bed. Both fecal and urinary incontinence. She became quite depressed and distressed about it.

On top of that, there was some change in cognition. She was forgetting the rules reverting to some puppy like chewing and naughtiness. Just not herself.

So we took her to the vet and we're going to try some medication for the incontinence. This will hopefully buy her some time as well as improve her quality of life.

We are in the process of doing some end-of-life planning for her. We are hoping to leave the state to spend some time with my husband's family this coming Spring and my gut --the same gut intuition that became so hyper about the flu--is concerned that she will have problems while we are away. I just have a bad feeling mostly because of the mental decline. I need to set up a care taker who can handle an elderly dog as well as have a plan in place with her vet should it become necessary.

She's a great dog and we will miss her. And I really hope my intuition is wrong.