Today Has Been Such An Awful Day........

Today for us came the news we’d been dreading, Gizmo’s eye pressure went sky high.....Last year in May Gizmo one of our beautiful JRT’s contracted a disease in his right eye and lost the eye unfortunately specialists found major defects in his left eye including a luxating lens, when they operated to remove Gizmo’s right eye they removed the lens from his left eye and told us that animals that had this procedure usually had a couple of year sight left, and that we should prepare for him to lose the left eye as well in the long run.... we were devastated but didn’t want to stress Gizmo and got on the best we could, he was very long sighted but still had a little devil in him, he’s very timid but with his brother Spike around every day has been delightful as they make us laugh constantly tip tapping at each other, they really are like a pair of five year old children...LOL
In January Gizmo had his first pressure spike, the pressure builds in the eye due to fluid building and it temporarily blinded him, I have to say that first time was terrifying as we thought that was it... however our wonderful specialist got the pressure under control and we got back on with everyday life.... this happened twice more in March of this year one week apart, the second time our specialist told us of a new procedure that was only performed one place in the US but had been brought over here by a clinic in Newmarket The Animal Health Trust and it was decided that Gizmo was a perfect candidate for the procedure and he was booked in to be operated on last Wednesday.
On Tuesday we took him the three hour trip to Newmarket, we were incredibly nervous about leaving him (well upset really) we saw the specialist and after looking at Gizmo’s eye it was decided that as the eye was in such good condition and the operation having only an eighty percent chance of success we would hold off on their advice, I have to say we walked out of there on a cloud we were so happy not to leave him but also excited that they felt it wasn’t yet necessary to operate just yet, sadly six days later (this morning) Gizmo became blind again, which meant another pressure spike, normally we would put Travatan drops into his eye and reduce the pressure that way (what you have to understand is that when the pressure is up it is very painful for them) this time it didn’t work, and Gizmo was rushed to the AHT where our wonderful specialist Claudia found that Gizmo’s pressure was between 67 and the low 80’s to put that into context, Gizmo’s pressure is normally between 4 and 11 it was through the roof we really thought that was it, Claudia advised Mark my husband that they would admit Gizmo straight away and operate to get the pressure down (by operate I mean they would put a needle into the eye and draw off most of the excess fluid to get the pressure spike under control) we’ve been on edge all evening until an hour or so ago when Claudia telephoned to say that it had been successful and that Gizmo was sleeping and comfortable..... One down one to go!!!!!!!
Tomorrow our baby will have another operation, this time if it is successful, he may come off the medication he’s been on for over a year and keep the little bit of sight for a lot longer, on the other hand if it’s not successful Gizmo will be blind...it’s basically all or nothing for him right now which is why it is hurting us so much, we’ve had lots of tears today, both Mark and I never thought it possible to fall in love with a dog, we’d both had animals growing up, but these two came to us as puppies and at a time when I could hardly move, I had just been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and the year before Rheumatoid Arthritis, at the age of thirty three life was pretty bad, but I really do swear this to be true, they completely turned my life around, I’m still having flare-ups but life has been so much better having these two bundles of fun around, I can’t explain why but what I do know is I can’t imagine life without either of them and we really do love them like children... but more over my health has been better, maybe because we concentrate on loving and caring for the boys (although we love and care for our son, he’s twenty one and fully grown with a life of his own) I think the boys have had incredible therapeutic effect on me, I really do...I don’t think we will be sleeping much tonight, and so I thought I’d post, I just didn’t think I would write quite so much...... Please keep your fingers crossed or say a prayer for Gizmo tomorrow.....he’s a wonderful little chap and so timid, he’s not much of a Terrier, more like a little lamb