Ken and I arrived to Lexington this morning. He drove the entire way from Omaha...to Dale, Indiana, where we had to stop because of weather.
We left Omaha after my morning TJ's shift with heavy hearts. The day before (Dec. 23) we had to put our sweet baby dog, Dolly, asleep. She fought for her life and health the entire time we had her. Even those first few weeks of having her we noticed that she had this slight cough; we bought a humidifier. We noticed she peed quite a lot; we put puppy pads out for her. The vets noticed that she had elevated thyroid levels throughout her checkups. Hyperthyroidism is so rare in dogs we were sent to Kansas State University so an internist could look at her. Dolly ended up having a tumor on her thyroid. She also had quite the heart murmur which contributed to her coughing issues. Ken took Dolly to Kansas State once a week for an entire month so she could receive check ups and more cancer medicine. She seemed to be improving, her tumor decreased in size and she got her bark back. She seemed like a new dog and it was so much fun. On her last check up the vet noticed that she'd lost a pretty significant amount of weight. For a dog who was only around 13.3 pounds...losing 3 pounds was too much for her. So we fed her whatever she wanted.
We noticed that in two weeks she seemed to be carrying a lot of weight all of a sudden. Perhaps she was just gaining that much more weight. She began having a harder time jumping on the couch and the bed. Ken bought her dog stairs...but she just wasn't getting around like she used to. We began planning our trip to surprise my family for Christmas. Dolly was a part of our plan. She was going to be in the back seat just hanging out the whole trip, like last time.
The day before we planned on leaving Dolly fell off of the bed. She's fallen off of the bed before and she would slightly sprain or bruise her leg. She'd always be fine the next day. But this time, the noise we heard from the floor was the accumulation of all of the pain Dolly experienced in her life. It was a haunting and alarming whine...Ken tried to pick her up off of the ground and she yelped and nipped like she was in serious pain. We managed to get her on the bed where she was only comfortable leaning directly on someone's arm, she could not put any weight down on her left paw. We grabbed an ice pack...it didn't work...a pack of blueberries...a wet towel. We debated on pain medicine and remembered the other medicines she was taking (heart murmur, stomach pain and antibiotics) and opted not to give her medicine. We spoon fed her water...then dropped water in her mouth. Kenley put on gloves to pick her up and see if she needed to go outside. K ended up sleeping downstairs with her in case she needed to go outside.
We woke up the next morning, with just a few hours of sleep behind us, to start our early day. We packed Dolly in the car and drove to Trader Joe's. I went to work and Kenley went to the vet.
I waited and waited. In my head I thought that perhaps she just sprained her leg and she needed a shot of steroids or something. In my heart I knew that something was pretty serious. Even when things were happening that evening/early morning, I had a feeling that Dolly was ready to go. So I worked through my shift...and tried calling Kenley (he dropped his phone in water during the chaos), but I couldnt' get through. I ended up calling the vet where I heard the news.
Dolly fractured her leg above the elbow joint. She was not a good surgery candidate, she was actually a poor candidate as the surgery was so risky, even for a healthy dog.
She had retained an enormous amount of water. She had fluid not only on her lungs, but she also had fluid around her heart. They noticed that there was a slight pink liquid coming from her nose which is an indication of heart failure. They saw these pockets of fluid that we noticed on her abdomen. She was low on protein which contributed to her poor health and fluid retention.
Basically, the cancer could've spread. Her health was so poor that there was no point in testing to see if the cancer spread. There was no point in taking her to Kansas State to see what the next steps were for her.
We knew what Dolly wanted and needed. My heart was breaking at work. My sweet coworkers and I did a little 'this one is for Dolly' glass tink before our lunch was over...and Kenley picked me up at 2.
Driving to the vet was a whirlwind. It didn't seem real that a week ago Dolly was her sassy self, sleeping next to me during my afternoon naps.
When we saw Dolly, she was doped up on morphine and without pain. We saw her swollen and bruised little leg. She was covered in a blanket. And she looked so ready to be done. Kenley stepped out of the room after his goodbyes...and I sat and watched her last breaths. I'd never seen Dolly look so peaceful.
I'm not sure if dogs/animals go to heaven, but if they do, Dolly is hanging out with some of our favorite people and other animals.
K and I reflected on the year and two months that we had her.
- She was with us for our entire first year of marriage. She witnessed our heated discussions, our lighthearted discussions and our hilarious discussions.
- She was with us when I had to take K to the ER both times (kidney stone and stitches).
- She was with me when I had a terrible day at work and was at the end of myself...
- She made us get to know our neighborhood on our dozens and dozens of walks.
- I saw the sacrifices that Kenley made for Dolly...taking the time to drive her 6 hours roundtrip...and the money he spent on making her comfortable.
- She reminded us to take it easy.
- She reminded us to laugh.
- She reminded us to be present.
I'll post a bit more about Dolly i'm sure :) Let's be honest, I sort of fell in love with her.
She was the best Dolly girl anyone could've ever asked for and I miss her a lot. I'll enjoy my time with my family and the family dog, Jackson!
1 comment:
i am sad that i will never get to meet dolly but happy that she was able to share in so much of life with you and k during your first year of marriage. still thinking of you guys.
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