Poor Gizmo...

First i have to apologise to anybody trying to e-mail me, I'm getting mail in but I'm unable to send mail out, I'm working on the problem but it's taking some sorting (i have to get the incoming and outgoing server data tomorrow), please don't think I'm ignoring any of you, (i always feel awful if i don't reply the same day...) hopefully I'll have it sorted by tomorrow evening...

I didn't post yesterday, Mark and i spent most of the day fighting back tears, we hadn't had the usual telephone call from the specialist yesterday morning, so at eleven thirty i telephoned them, and was given the sad news that Giz had a pressure spike that morning which was why they were late telephoning, the pressure in his eye went up the the high thirties but they'd managed to get it down to thirty, which although that was good news it wasn't great and while Thursday and Friday were great days for Gizmo's eye, the pressure building now was raising questions as to if the last operation had worked or not...

We are in limbo with it all again, the specialist says he can't do the laser surgery again as they can't destroy any more of the gland in the eye that produces the liquid but that they can put in a shunt which is experimental in animals, however there may be a problem with scar tissue as time passes, surgeons have been using the technique with human patients and it works but animals apparently get more scar tissue build up, it involves putting a tiny metal shunt (I'm assuming like a little tube) from the gland to the tear duct any excess fluid would automatically drain off thus keeping the pressure stable in the eye, but it's by no means a permanent fix and we are not sure how long they can keep this shunt in Gizmo's eye, the specialist is trying other methods (medication) first and the shunt will be the final option, i guess we are just terrified he's going to lose the eye, with no eye's will he still be the same Gizmo and more important will he cope?.. We have been so lucky to get this second chance with the laser surgery to save Gizmo's eye (there are only two places in the world today doing this surgery on animals and Gizmo is one of only a few dogs to have had the surgery) but it's looking like Gizmo is in the 20% that experience complications after the surgery, the problem is that because there isn't the raw data available because this is so new, the specialists are sort of winging it... i suppose Giz is a little bit like a guinea pig in that sense, but we do know how lucky we are for him to be getting this treatment..

All of this has left Mark and i fighting back the tears and very stressed... when the usual morning telephone call came this morning, the pressure in Gizmo's eye was down to twenty three, however they've just about exhausted all options on medication, the specialist who has been looking after Giz over the weekend is David and he said that ideally he would like Gizmo's pressure to be low teens (as it had been on Thursday & Friday) but that between fifteen and twenty five is sometimes normal for terriers with no eye problems but because of all of the operations Gizmo has had David is not comfortable with Gizmo's pressure being that high...

With all of that, Gizmo is going to be down in Newmarket a lot longer than we thought and may well need yet another operation, i feel as though i jinxed him, writing about how well he was doing..... (i know that's stupid but it really does feel that way at the moment) This poor little dog never has any luck with his health, i said to Mark yesterday that Gizmo never has any luck at all and could somebody up there just please help him out this once and give him just a little bit of luck, Mark said that Gizmo did get a little luck, when we found him at the kennels....but for me that was our luck not his.....we have been so fortunate to know and love him and while i know this is not a life threatening condition, it is so awful to see him suffering.....A friend summed it up other day, she called her daughters dogs "her furkids" and i guess that is totally how we feel about the boys, they really are our furkids.......

Well we have another waiting game now, and Mark & i are heart broken that we won't see him this week, we miss him so so much it hurts and Pika just seems to be getting more and more depressed bless him... and to top it all off, because I'm so stressed about this my joints are swollen and incredibly painful (Rheumatoid Arthritis and Fibromyalgia are triggered by stress) although i'd have them stay that way if Giz could be OK...

Back to praying and keeping everything crossed again.....