Facebook is Killing my Blogging, but is There Something Else Killing Willis?

Facebook...I on it. I read it mostly. I post occasionally. It has ruined my blogging. Instead of coming here to write, I go to FB to be a voyeur. I feel the need to write about things, but I would never post it on FB for the world to see. Some of my friends on FB are just acquaintances from high school or elsewhere that I would not want to have here reading what I feel to be my personal and intimate thoughts.

And due to FB, my close and intimate audience here is no more either. Not because of anything other than I haven't given anything here to read. I keep trying to get restarted, and then the craziness of life happens to keep me from it.

Today I have decided I want to tell you about my dog Willis. You know her, she's the black lab pup we adopted in 2004 with the yellow lab Ella. Ella has since passed away, but Willis is still here with us - she's a sweet, sweet lass.

Last year, we adopted Eloise. A cute black lab puppy who is now a teenager dog. It wasn't long after her arrival that Willis aged, and aged rapidly. We've jokingly said she hates the puppy so much she's has become allergic to sharing us. She started developing hot spots, her hips began bothering her, and she all around became slow, cranky (at least towards the puppy), and generally old.

Going up and down the stairs, laying down and getting up from sitting, getting in and out of the cargo area of my car...those are just a few things that started getting tough for her. She has a dog bed in our room, but sometimes she would decide to just stay down stairs at the bottom of the landing (poor dog - our home is elevated so stairs have to happen in order to be in the house with the family). Again - we've all just decided that she aged due to the puppy and that her proximity to the young energy of Eloise has made her age more obvious.

Recently she developed an aural hematoma that had us visiting the vet on Saturday mornings for drainings and re-checks. Last week we loaded up to go have a re-check. Upon getting into the car (or her attempt at getting in the car) she fell back squarely onto her hips and then backwards onto her back. It was a hard hit; so hard she shook for about an hour afterwards. I felt bad for her.

Fast forward to yesterday (Saturday). Since last week, Willi's tail hasn't been untucked. She hasn't eaten more than a few nibbles of food on any day since she fell. Friday night ,after a whole day of having no energy, I once again decided to see if I could find a tender spot on her back or hips. That's when I realized that she had a large "dip" in her back. I then got afraid that she had broken a vertebra or slipped a disc. Her attitude was one of being barely here. I began to get truly worried and started the thing I'm known most for...crying. Bryan and I were convinced that she may not make it through the night and if she did, we were going on another trip to see the vet.

She spent the night in Julia's room - a very unusual thing - and we were thrilled to see that she had made it through the night. So, off to the vet Bryan and I went with Willis. I had come to terms with the fact that we may not be bringing Willis home, and I let the vet know that I was ready for that kind of bad news. Well I was lucky and got to bring Willis home. Fast forward through the appointment, we left her for tests, and because I was at "Wicked" with Julia, Bryan got to do the return pick up - we met him there. This is what he emailed me after the doctor called to say we could come get her...

"Blood work ok. There is a bony mass under spine on x-ray. Could be arthritis. Has not seen it quite so bad. Could be something worse. Can't tell without $200 ultrasound if its connected to spine, ok/bad/etc. Told him no on that because the fix is a specialist, etc. and we would not do that. Gonna put pain shot in her and see if she does ok. Need to get her around quitting time. I think we bring her home and give her paid meds. If she eats, drinks great - otherwise not sure what is left to do. Love you, "

The thing it could be the "something worse" is a non-invasive type of bone cancer.  So...the treatment, other than pain meds, would be seeing a specialist and doing back surgery or maybe even some chemo. NOT doing that with a dog that is a minimum of 9 years old. I also don't want to have a doped up dog ALL the time. So far, Julia has spoon fed her to get her to eat (she had lost 5 pounds in a week), and that seemed to jump start her and give her some energy. She's eaten several times since. She seemed to have much better energy today. We go for a re-check on Saturday to re-evaluate. Wish us luck. Say prayers for Willis.