Steven's Illness Is Back

[patricia]

Sending more prayers for your sweet little man.

[greypuppyluv]

Sending more prayers Steven's way.

[iluvgreys]

Very sorry to hear that your sweet boy is not feeling well again. Didn't read through all the pages of your previous thread... was he tested for TBD's? Could be one of those nasties. Sending prayers and wishes to Steven.

[Guest GreytMuse]

Thank you for the prayers and good thoughts. We are pretty numb and worried right now. Steven is home for the weekend, stable enough to take oral meds (as long as he will eat and his fever stays down.) Most likely we have exploratory surgery in the very near future.

 

The vet is not exactly sure that these are tumors, but it is his best guess.

We are negative for TBDs, always the first suspect with a greyhound.

Since the CPLI (pancreas test?) was negative, we're tentatively ruling out pancreatitis. Always a chance of a false negative, but it is rare.

There were no cancer cells in his abdominal fluid, but that may only mean the tumors (if there are some) are not shedding.

There was no bacteria in the abdominal fluid, so probably no bowel perforation.

 

The doctor said he would have bet his left arm that we were dealing with pancreatitis, based on the sonogram. He said, "Usually when you hear hoofbeats, you should think horses, not zebras. Well, I'm starting to think zebras." He asked if Steven could have ever had surgery?..."maybe a surgical sponge left in?"... He's thinking that far out of the box, and really, the only thing to do in my mind is open him up and take a look. Maybe something is torqued, is necrotic...he just doesn't know.

 

Money is starting to become a very real issue, too. We're at over $5K right now, and there's not much more left. I hate to even put health and money in the same sentence, it makes me feel just nauseous and guilty. Ugh.

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest greyhound1]

:hope

[Guest couchpotato]

I only post this in the hope it helps, our Iowa may have suffered from something vaguely similar.

 

She had three lapses of excessive amount of fluid in her chest (outside the lungs) that caused a progressive lack energy and difficulty breathing. Each time they tapped and drained off the fluid out of her (nearly three liters on the first occurrence).

All lab results of blood, urine showed no significant abnormalities and the fluid drained from her was normal chest fluid, just way too much of it.

 

Each period in between was care free and "normal". 6 months the first time, over a year before the third time.

 

During the third occurrence we had a CT Scan done, the analysis showed multiple "malignant nodules" on the membrane between the lungs and the ribs ("Pleural effusion left and right thorax; pneumothorax right thorax. Multiple small pleural nodules along chest wall on both sides").

 

At that point we simply could not afford the thoracoscopy the doctors wanted to get a biopsy of the nodules shown on the CT. We were going to begin a steroid treatment, but Iowa decided it was time for her to go.

 

Breaks my heart to tell the story not to mention seeing anyone else going through it. Courtney, know your not alone and we'll be sending good thoughts your way.

[Guest jurishound]

Sending good wishes to you and Steven!

[Guest argolola]

I will pray for your precious baby.

[Charlies_Dad]

More good thoughts for Steven.

[Guest LolasMom]

Sending my prayers for your sweet boy.

[Batmom]

Sending prayers for your boy.

[Remolacha]

[Guest trevdog]

I know the feeling......sending lots of prayers.....it does add up fast and gets so frustrating when you don't have a definitive diagnosis....