Friday, September 9, 2016

Sweet Flossie ~ My blessing from Heaven ~ Chronicles of an English Springer Spaniel

Well Hey there Gals ... I thought I would give you all a bit of an update on my Sweet Flossie .. truly my blessing from Heaven. Did I ever share with you all that when I knew I was getting Flossie .. well I didn't know I was getting her. I was only given the choice to have a female out of her litter at 4 weeks old but didn't know what female would be assigned to our family. So I just prayed every night that whatever one was supposed to be mine that God would make her special for me and that I could be as much a blessing to her little life as she could mine.. Well I can't tell you the inumerable blessings she's been to mine .. and I'm glad I got her to be a blessing to hers with this disease she now has.

So many of you sent well wishes and prayers for her and honestly that just meant the world to me !

We are now headed into the 5th month since Flossie became so ill. She has been doing really well and has done better than expected. We just recently completely weaned her off the steroid which was very scary wondering if her body would go back to attacking itself without it. Now mind you she was still on another med. but even with that one it was worrisome. She did well coming off the steroid and so far so good her body is readjusting well and so far no attacking itself. And 1 week ago today we started weaning her off the last immunosupressant. This morning she had a blood test to see if her blood level held steady over the week as we dropped the dosage significantly. I think it has.  She's good and red and her energy is up and she's actually returning to her old self. For the first time she jumped on my bed last night in one straight up in the air bounce. I was stunned ! But so very happy. I think that means her muscle mass is re-building from the break down caused by the lengthy time on steroids .. woohoo !


(no she's not playing ball yet.. just a pict from before she got sick)

We still have a ways to go .. April 24th of next year (2017) before we cross the 1 year bridge with this disease. Basicly they consider her in remission like cancer patients and the 1 yr mark with no relapse will be a better chance she won't relapse in the future. This is a life long disease that we will have to watch for the return of. Some dogs relapse often right from the beginning and others can have 1 bout with this disease and go the rest of their life without relapse. There's no rhyme or reason and no cure. Just veterinarians who treat it in various ways to save the dogs life and then try to manage it if there is relapse. I am praying we are on the side of just this 1 time for her whole life. I never imagined the day I got her, that 3 years later I would be laying on the ER floor outside her kennel with blood transfusing into her leg hoping and praying she would make it. 6 days in the ER and now almost 5 months later we are in a much better place .. Thank the Lord ! It had been such a short time since I lost both our Goldens, 1 to old age and 1 to cancer ... I couldn't imagine 3 losses in such a short time. Well I'm feeling so blessed I didn't have to go through a 3rd Loss.

Thank you again to all of you who left comments and said prayers ! You know Prayer is an awesome thing ..  and uplifting someone with positive words is so helpful. I am ever so grateful for all of you !

Well it's a beautiful day here in the Ozarks .. a little rain this morning ..Some sunshine right now and some more rain tonight .. that's what makes this part of the Heartland so so beautiful !

Have a great day and I'll be back with another post about a sweet vintage market that just opened in our area with pictures shortly !


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2 comments:

  1. So glad your girl is doing well. I will continue to pray for her. We had a cat that was diagnosed with so many things that we didn't think he would make it past the 1 yr mark after being diagnosed. He made it almost 3 yrs after and his quality of life was still going strong until the end. So there is always hope.

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  2. I just found your blog and loved it. Of course, now I have to FOLLOW you, after I saw Flossie. I grew up with Springers and still love them.

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Many Happy Returns of the Day ..Sara of Sweet Magnolia's Farm