The following is Max doing a foot soak to try and remove some of the dead (necrotic) tissue from his gangrene. This is after 18 HBOT treatments.. Today is 5 days after his 18th treatment and we are not just left with dead skin on his toes... there is new tissue under the dead black skin.. so we're soaking it in salt water to try and soften it up so that it comes off... I am beginning to thing we need to get Max a bath with those little fish that eat dead skin.... (not sure how sanitary that is... but they'd have a field day on his foot)
Showing posts with label coma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coma. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Monday, June 11, 2012
It's Monday. Some Improvement!
It's Monday. June 11, 2012. Max had a weekend full of ups and downs. Fri he showed some improvement with his reflexes and was able to swallow for the first time since his big seizure and going into a coma (induced to stop the seizure). Saturday was not such a good day. Max was flat and dull, and didn't reflex respond to much at all. He wasn't swallowing either. When we went back to visit at night I noticed he had a blood shot eye.
Sunday though was a good day! I spent about 5 hours with him massaging his ears just like a few people had told me to do, from the base of the ear to the tip. Apparently this is like reflexology or similar to hitting all the important points in acupuncture / acupressure to help stimulate the body. I don't know, but by the time I left last night, his pupil (we could only see one because of the scarring on Max's other eye from when I accidentally dropped him the night before his cyber knife) had gone back to normal size and was responsive to light. I thought I could see him following people in the Emergency Room but wasn't sure. He kicked the tech before the tech touched him, he bit me and the tech when we were messing with his mouth. He yawned a few times and pulled his tongue back in and repositioned it where it was supposed to be. He sneezed, he coughed. He looked like he might be able to hold his head up a little when they were coupaging him but it did fall down. His muscles can shake him head as a reflex but he doesn't quite have the control to hold it up on command like he used to. He also was swallowing quite a bit. While I was massaging his ears he also started to pant and opened his mouth and panted that way. When I stopped rubbing he closed his mouth and stopped panting. Still a reflex to regulate his body temp, but something new. Maybe there is something to that ear rubbing???
They also had reduced his keppra to 100mg 1x day, and reduced a number of his other drugs on Saturday so maybe his body was just adjusting.
This morning's call with his neurologist was encouraging and he said his reflexes were crisp and more consistent. Mentioned his eyes and that when he touched Max he seemed to respond appropriately. He said he thought we had a little improvement! Improvement is good! Of course we still don't know where we will be with regards to brain function until he totally recovers.. He also mentioned we're going to have up and down days, recovery ebbs and flows, so we have to look at it as a big picture vs day by day. He also mentioned that there isn't a lot of information out there about how dogs recover from coma's, so hopefully what we're doing will help others in similar situations, just like all of my blogging about what Max went through with the brain tumors and the cyber knife.
Today Max is getting a feeding tube put in. The goal behind doing this is two fold. 1) To give Max more time to recover and 2) Let Max go home to recover at home. They should be putting it in early afternoon. Then they're not going to use it for 24 hours and then tomorrow they will start with water and see how he absorbs that, and then start on some gruel and see how that goes.
The positive: He will no longer need his urine bag (which could be a negative from a clean up perspective!) His tummy will hopefully start working, he'll get more nutrients and hopefully be able to get stronger
The negative: He's going to be pooping now and he can't get up to go out yet! Good thing we have a big box of pee pee pads from Daisy still!
I was told that I'm going to need to build Max a ramp to sleep on about 6 inches high on one end. Put a yoga mat over it for traction and then his bedding... However, while walking the dogs this morning we saw a bean bag toss toy out in someone's front yard that looks exactly like what we need to build. Luckly the Local ACE hardware store carries them... might be a very easy solution! Max also will need small t-shirts to cover his feeding tube and keep it clean, so I've got to go get him a little wardrobe! (100% cotton - he broke out when he was modeling for Christian Dior at Sax 5th avenue that one time! Yes Max has been a runway model in his earlier years.. not much he hasn't done!)
Please keep those good positive thoughts coming Max's way for a good strong recovery! He's making baby steps but he's definitely improving! I'd love to see him running again! I keep remembers that he was in a similar position last Sept and he came out of it running and jumping and chasing puppies! He is a super dog!!! He deserves a shot at showing the world what he can do!
Sunday though was a good day! I spent about 5 hours with him massaging his ears just like a few people had told me to do, from the base of the ear to the tip. Apparently this is like reflexology or similar to hitting all the important points in acupuncture / acupressure to help stimulate the body. I don't know, but by the time I left last night, his pupil (we could only see one because of the scarring on Max's other eye from when I accidentally dropped him the night before his cyber knife) had gone back to normal size and was responsive to light. I thought I could see him following people in the Emergency Room but wasn't sure. He kicked the tech before the tech touched him, he bit me and the tech when we were messing with his mouth. He yawned a few times and pulled his tongue back in and repositioned it where it was supposed to be. He sneezed, he coughed. He looked like he might be able to hold his head up a little when they were coupaging him but it did fall down. His muscles can shake him head as a reflex but he doesn't quite have the control to hold it up on command like he used to. He also was swallowing quite a bit. While I was massaging his ears he also started to pant and opened his mouth and panted that way. When I stopped rubbing he closed his mouth and stopped panting. Still a reflex to regulate his body temp, but something new. Maybe there is something to that ear rubbing???
They also had reduced his keppra to 100mg 1x day, and reduced a number of his other drugs on Saturday so maybe his body was just adjusting.
This morning's call with his neurologist was encouraging and he said his reflexes were crisp and more consistent. Mentioned his eyes and that when he touched Max he seemed to respond appropriately. He said he thought we had a little improvement! Improvement is good! Of course we still don't know where we will be with regards to brain function until he totally recovers.. He also mentioned we're going to have up and down days, recovery ebbs and flows, so we have to look at it as a big picture vs day by day. He also mentioned that there isn't a lot of information out there about how dogs recover from coma's, so hopefully what we're doing will help others in similar situations, just like all of my blogging about what Max went through with the brain tumors and the cyber knife.
Today Max is getting a feeding tube put in. The goal behind doing this is two fold. 1) To give Max more time to recover and 2) Let Max go home to recover at home. They should be putting it in early afternoon. Then they're not going to use it for 24 hours and then tomorrow they will start with water and see how he absorbs that, and then start on some gruel and see how that goes.
The positive: He will no longer need his urine bag (which could be a negative from a clean up perspective!) His tummy will hopefully start working, he'll get more nutrients and hopefully be able to get stronger
The negative: He's going to be pooping now and he can't get up to go out yet! Good thing we have a big box of pee pee pads from Daisy still!
I was told that I'm going to need to build Max a ramp to sleep on about 6 inches high on one end. Put a yoga mat over it for traction and then his bedding... However, while walking the dogs this morning we saw a bean bag toss toy out in someone's front yard that looks exactly like what we need to build. Luckly the Local ACE hardware store carries them... might be a very easy solution! Max also will need small t-shirts to cover his feeding tube and keep it clean, so I've got to go get him a little wardrobe! (100% cotton - he broke out when he was modeling for Christian Dior at Sax 5th avenue that one time! Yes Max has been a runway model in his earlier years.. not much he hasn't done!)
Please keep those good positive thoughts coming Max's way for a good strong recovery! He's making baby steps but he's definitely improving! I'd love to see him running again! I keep remembers that he was in a similar position last Sept and he came out of it running and jumping and chasing puppies! He is a super dog!!! He deserves a shot at showing the world what he can do!
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Max Update 7-8-2012 - He is swallowing!
When I finally got to the hospital today the gang from the neurology dept had left for the day but the ER tech who came to greet me was excited and told me that when she flipped Max a few minutes before she started to see more of a spark in there. She took me back to see him and his eyes were open, he was blinking. His right pupil was responding to light, but the left one isn't yet. He could move his legs a little, and was able to swallow which I thought was great! If he can keep it up and keep improving HOPEFULLY we can avoid a feeding tube.
I put my finger in his ear and he shook his head, however, when I tried to film it, it didn't work that way - he coughed instead. Not sure he can see yet, but sometimes when I had my hand over his eye (not touching but a few inches away he'd close his eyes. Still a reflex.. but a lot more than he was doing the day before. Also when the tech went to inject his keppra into his leg catheter he kicked his leg. Again, technically a reflex, but more than he was doing the day before and that was a reflex to something that was irritating him so he can feel it.
Please keep the good positive energy coming! He's doing great! The ER vet let me know that sometimes it can take 5-10 or more days to come out of a coma, we're on day 5...
I wanted to post this video for anyone who is dealing with this sort of a thing... don't give up hope too quickly. It may look dire, but sometimes you just need time.
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