It's been a tough six months, with very many downs and not so many ups, I'm afraid. I think this is a really good time to say a very heartfelt thank you to my truly wonderful friends, as they are pretty much responsible for every 'up' I've had during some tricky times. I am extremely lucky that whilst my friends are spread out over the UK and across the waters, they are always there to make me laugh and give me a dose of something magical to keep me going, and I am so grateful to them for their love.
In March last year, a member of my extended family had cocker spaniel puppies, and I became the mummy of one of those beautiful puppies, a little girl called Edie. She joined our family on May 18th last year, and immediately created absolute mayhem and at the same time brought us absolute joy. Stories about her arrival and early antics are the topic of some of my unpublished posts, so I will get them published as soon as I can, but for now I think it's enough to say that having a puppy is just like having a baby, and I am one seriously smitten mummy! My other doggies, Archie and Kiko, and Billie the grumpy old cat, didn't know quite what had hit them when Edie arrived, and I cannot with hand on heart say that they were pleased or excited by the crazy new arrival, but they are all lovely and so very quickly we settled into being a family of seven, with my mum and daughter and I in the minority as human faction of the home! Although only a baby, it was obvious that Edie had all the loving instincts to be a therapy dog, so right from the start she took training classes to make sure she had all the necessary skills and attributes - it was a very exciting time!
In September, I was offered an amazing job at a neurology hospital in Salisbury, which is about an hour and forty minutes from where I live. The employers agreed that Edie would be able to come with me, as she was going to be a therapy dog, and so I decided I would be able to take the job, as the shift pattern was four days on and four days off, so we would be able to stay in my camper van whilst there, meaning it would work out fairly well.
Sadly, on my fourth day in training for the new job, Edie became poorly, and by day five it was obvious that she needed to go to the vets. She went downhill so quickly that by the time we got to the vets, she was a shell of her former self, lethargic and floppy, and hardly responsive. We were warned that evening that she may not make it through the night. It was the worst time I have experienced in twenty years, leaving my seven month old puppy with the vet and not knowing if I would see her again. That night, she had emergency tests, and late into the night the vet called with an unbelievable bomb shell - Edie was in kidney failure, and it was extremely unlikely she would make it through the night. There are no words to describe how we all felt, it was devastating news and all we could do was sit and wait to see if she made it through so that we could see her in the morning. Thankfully, she did pull through. Early the next morning, the vet called to say that she had responded well to the fluids and they had arranged a place for Edie at a specialist doggie hospital in Winchester, where they could work to ascertain what had caused the kidney failure and what might be done to help her. I went with her to the hospital, and felt immediately reassured not just by the confidence of the staff there, but also by their care for the animals. Aside from the veterinary staff, they have a round-the-clock team of volunteers whose role is simply to cuddle and care for the animals to ensure they are not lonely. Leaving Edie there was utterly gut-wrenching, but I couldn't have asked for a lovelier place.
Edie was in hospital for a week, and as you can imagine, it was a pretty terrible week for us back at home. Her lovely consultant called us every day with updates on their findings, and the nurses also called daily with a report on how she was doing emotionally. It was so reassuring to have so much contact.
Very quickly, it became apparent that Edie had been born with congenital polycystic kidney failure. The nuts and bolts are that her kidneys were not able to function as they should, and the aggressive nature of the cysts were adding to their inability to function. The prognosis then, was a short little life for this beautiful girl, but nobody was prepared to suggest a time-frame as there were so many variables that might affect how she might be. She was given medication to make her feel better is she was sick, and set on a special renal diet. Beyond that, life with Edie was now a waiting game. I knew I was not going to be able to continue with the job in Salisbury. Edie was not going to be able to come with me and I was certain I wouldn't want to be leaving her at home for four days out of eight, so I contacted them and explained that I couldn't continue there.
I'm ashamed to say that I really went to pieces at the time, every time Edie looked remotely calm I went into panic mode, fearing that she was at the end. It was agreed that she would have a new set of tests every six to eight weeks, and sadly, each set of tests has shown massive deterioration of her kidneys, confirming the specialist's view that this was an aggressive disease. But despite the test results, tweaks in medications, and so on, week on week, she seemed to be growing into a happy (and for happy, read bonkers!) little dog with no notion that she was even remotely ill! As the weeks went on, I started to hope that she might be with us for certain milestones, firstly my birthday at the end of October, then Christmas, New Year, and now here we are in February. As long as she continues to be such an amazing little fighter, next month will see her celebrate her first birthday. I am so proud of her!
