Tag Archives: checkup

The good and the bad…

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Last week I had my standard cardiology follow up. The good news is that we continue to observe nothing abnormal. The bad news is that we’re no closer to identifying why my heart went wonky a few times nearly 18 months ago. I’m beginning to think this could be one of those unfortunate unknown unknowns that I’m just supposed to learn to accept. 

Acceptance of “what is” has never been a particularly strong suit for me, but since we’ve basically run out of non-invasive tests, options are a bit limited. It was made very clear to me that a consult is only a phone call away, but unless old symptoms reemerge or new ones develop, I’m to check in year hence for a follow up. 

I know I should absolutely treat this as a no news is good news situation… maybe I will eventually. At the moment I’m still trying very hard just to wrap my arms around the idea that I am, in fact, a mere mortal after all. One thing at a time, I suppose. 

In more important news, doc cleared me to start easing back into the world of caffeinated beverages. It turns out I can take or leave getting a morning jolt of fully caffeinated coffee, but I’m really, truly appreciating the return of a proper cup of mid-afternoon tea. My days of burning through two pots of coffee a day are probably over for good, but it’s an awfully nice option to have back on the table. 

Still better than the average Tuesday…

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Anya had her first checkup with her regular vet this morning. It was about as successful a visit to the vet as one can reasonably expect from a cat. They caught her up on shots and gave her a once over. Aside from the eye, they didn’t find any areas of concern. She’ll go back in late May for her spay surgery. It was nice to talk to the vet about “normal cat stuff” instead of emergent situations needing immediate and decisive intervention. 

After that, it was a quick trip home to drop Anya off and reset a bit before running off to a couple of appointments of my own. There, we largely talked about things I already know since there were no appreciable changed to anything since the last time I was there. Checking in periodically seems to keep the sawbones at least reasonably satisfied. Plus, it’s nice to get an occasional confirmation that my innards are still plugging along in spite of what I’ve done to them. 

I knocked a few other things off the list while in transit. It wasn’t a particularly restful day off, but it was full of stuff that needed doing. Then again, even if the whole thing had been pissing away time on stuff that didn’t need doing, it would still have been time better spent than the average Tuesday in the office. And on that happy note, the week drives on.

Updates on a chocolate lab…

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A couple of weeks ago, I took Maggie in to the vet for her regular checkup. As they get older, I approach these visits with increasing trepidation with every dog – mostly out of the fear that the vet will find something that should have been obvious to me, but that I missed simply due to familiarity, or that the regular blood work will show something new having gone out of whack since the last visit. For better or worse old dogs are just like old cars or old people – sometimes shit just stops working for no other reason than it’s old and broken.

Given Maggie’s last six months and the extensive vetting she had to get over her stomach trouble, I had lots of tests forming the baseline. Some of them I was expecting to be bad just as a matter of course. Others I expected to have gotten worse over time. It didn’t quite work out that way.

Maggie’s blood work came back with all the key data points “in range.” Even if it’s being held there through the advanced application of chemistry, it was as good a result as I could have hoped for – and not the one I was expecting. At a minimum, I went into this series of tests assuming that we’d be dialing up her medication to hold the same ground.

There’s no hiding the gray in her muzzle. My girl is still and old dog. She’s still got Cushings. But for the time being it hasn’t gotten worse. It’s still being effectively managed with her current dose of medication. Believe me when I tell you I don’t take that for granted for even a moment, because I know just how quickly the opposite can become true.

Although Maggie’s checkup was mostly good news, we’re headed over to the veterinary ophthalmologist in two weeks to get some small lumps and bumps looked at. One is purely cosmetic and has been there for a few years now, though it’s gotten bigger and is prone to bleeding when she rubs it. The other, most likely a small benign tumor or skin tag, is starting to form on the inside of her eyelid. This new one is the most troublesome to me since it’s in direct contact with her eye, though I’d like to see them both gone for her comfort and my peace of mind.