Briefly regarding Remington, he’s given us a couple of scares but the prognosis is still for a treatable immune mediated disease.  This afternoon he had a transfusion for a lagging red blood cell count, which in many ways is expected and not the bad news that it seems.  Clinically apart from a brief infection that he reacted badly to, he’s bright eyed, alert, and issues like blood in his urine are beginning to clear up.  We simply await his body to react to the treatment and begin creating platelets to bring him home for treatment.

Alongside that we’ve received some comments about putting Remington down or spending so much on his treatment that Rochelle I think addressed best on her facebook page.  Here are her words:

I’d like to put forth the issue of putting Remy down at this point – It’s been brought up to us multiple times from friends and family. I understand their concern, but let me tell you…we have been through this. We will NOT let our pets suffer because of our own selfish reasons of keeping them alive. There are several factors: financial, quality of life, and age.

We are blessed to be in a position that ER expenses are not an issue. Secondly, Remy is not at a stage of tremendous suffering (yes, his body has been through a lot, but he has given us NO indication that he is in severe pain or suffering). Thirdly, he is 1 1/2 years old.

Prognosis is good for the most part – Auto Immune-Mediated Disease is treatable. We just have to get him to a point where he responds to medication. If, for any reason, he is not respondent to treatment…then yes, we will visit the option of letting him go. We are not there yet, and it’s way too early to tell (he’s only been through this one week). What we ask is that our friends and family respect that Remy and we will be the best judge of when it’s time. In the meantime, we appreciate continued support, prayers, and positive thoughts.

We’ve received tremendous support from friends and family.  From fans of the Major Nelson Podcast, to my Twitter followers, to the gang at Xbox (especially my enforcers), to friends at Harmonix and fellow w00tstock and jococruise performers. Remy’s not out of the woods yet so we still need good thoughts, but thank you all so very very much.

[EDIT:  Update!  Bone marrow work came in early and normal, we can now rule out almost all of the potential cancers.  Signs point to an immune mediated disease.]

 

Many of our friends have been gone this weekend and have been somewhat blindsided, as were we, by what is happening to Remington.  Rochelle and I have both taken to twitter and facebook to keep people updated but figured we were doing it a bit to much with each twist and turn, so here’s a quick update.

TL;DR: His blood work still shows he’s very sick, but not in any immediate danger and he’s alert and playful.

The problem is that when we had the vet run a standard blood check on him when he woke up Friday morning lethargic, he showed few platelets, a low red blood cell count, and an out of wack white blood cell count as well.  Our local vet apparently has some experience with these types of results and told us to get him to a hospital immediately.  There was a very real chance he could die.

Remy was miserable yesterday as he had to go through a battery of tests. Today while his blood panel wasn’t what we wanted, it was at least better than yesterday as the hospital has begun an autoimmune regimen on him.  We went to see him tonight and were both surprised and relieved at how much better he was today than yesterday.  There was a spring in his step and he played his usual pushy self demanding attention from us.  Here’s a picture of Rochelle with him just a couple of hours ago:

Right now due to the holiday weekend we’re in a wait and see mode.  He won’t be able to come home for a couple of days, as his platelet count needs to reach a certain level before he can safely leave constant monitoring.  His bone marrow test results probably won’t come back until Tuesday.  At this point there are three or four possible things it can be ranging from autoimmune to cancer. None of them good but not all of them are horrible.  He’s only 18 months old so he has youth and otherwise strong health going for him, giving us many options depending on what the underlying cause of the problem is.

I’ve been a wreck all day as has Rochelle, but seeing Remy with his goofy grin and wagging his tail at least made us feel a lot better.  Our next update will be at 1pm or so Pacific time tomorrow as we get a new blood panel for him.  We expect, given his current treatment of steroids and antibiotics, to see an increase in platelets but how much we have no idea.

I just can’t thank people enough for the well wishes.

It’s going to be a long night for me.

Over the past 18 months our new dog Remington Martin has, as all new dogs do, wormed his way into our hearts with his unique personality.

This morning he was slightly lethargic. With a dog so young, Rochelle and I were a bit dismissive at first, assuming he’d just gotten into something in the back yard.  But his slow consumption of his food this morning (he’s normally Speed Racer at eating) and his inability to drink any water led us to the vet for a routine check and blood test.

Fast forward 11 hours and he’s in the hospital on an IV for a probable Auto-immune disorder. He’s fine as I write this, out of any immediate danger.  But my panic throughout the day as the prognosis grew worse and worse once again showed the value of social media.

From the first tweet that he was in trouble hundreds of messages poured out saying people were thinking of him and us, praying for him and us, or otherwise wishing us well.

I’m too much a realist to believe these thoughts will actually determine Remington’s outcome.  But I am a humanist enough in that I treasure and love every single person who replied with their own way of sharing their thoughts on what was happening.

Remy had a bone marrow test tonight.  I cannot even imagine what that entails.  But he was such a trooper about it that, while under normal circumstances they put the animal under in order to do it, he was so well behaved they just used a heavy sedative. We just called the hospital, because neither one of us is doing ok, and they said he was as alert as can be.  He’s fine for the moment.

“If you don’t hear from us tonight, that’s good news” they told us when we left him. They said that, but his ears were back and he was scared in his open air kennel. It was hard to see him like that, but I knew deep down he was in the best of hands.  And it occurred to me he was in better hands than most humans actually.

I have a new iPad2, a sort of retail therapy. I’ve been checking twitter all night with it and I have a wonderful mixture of messages.  Some people didn’t realize anything was wrong and simply thought I was tweeting about Remy like I always do and tweeted back their own dogs and pictures.  That was nice.  Others followed each tweet and told me that they were thinking of Remy and me and Rochelle.  Tonight I had pre-arranged a dinner for friends of mine in Dallas and they sent me messages too.

So I guess what I am trying to write about is just this interconnected feeling.  I’m scared for Remington.  He’s a simple creature, now surrounded by capable but ultimately unfamiliar surroundings.  And he’s not feeling his best. I love everything about him, his quirks and behaviors and how he’s fit into our family.

And I have this absurd love for the Internet right now.  My friends have sent me messages, and total strangers too.  People who have never met Remington wish him well and health.  And wish me and Rochelle the best in dealing with it. It’s not unlike how the Internet can rise up to the occasion of planet impacting tragedy.

In the end we’re lucky to be even able to afford the luxury of three dogs. In the grand scheme of life’s problems, there are many people on the Earth who would rather have this situation than their own.

I think of Remington’s simple happy grin when he’s outside at the park, his good humor.  And I think that if he had a brain larger than a walnut and more evolutionary developed, he’d say we humans should spend more of our time trying to make each other feel like we’re holding a squirmy gleeful puppy.

So if you’re reading this, and you feel bad that my wonderful boy is feeling sick and sad and alone in a vet hospital, think about all the humans who are in similar circumstances, or worse. Or even all the wonderful pets in similar circumstances.

No matter what befalls Remington Martin, we’ll deal with it.  But there are many out there facing far far worse situations who can’t.  So! 

Tonight I spent a significant amount of money on Remington.  And I commit to spending just as much on a charity of my choice because I am incredibly lucky to be well paid for my job (I’ll add in the price of that iPad).  I ask only that you consider where, and how, you can make a difference in something that is important to you. 

And go fucking do it. Like, now.