Yesterday, just as I do every day after work I was taking Mr P for his daily walk around the block. On the end of our walk, while he was sniffing around on the grass suddenly it appeared as if he had stepped on something....he started frantically licking his back paw as if he had hurt it or stepped on something sharp. I looked at it not seeing anything, it was just a little red so I picked him up to take him inside, maybe I could tend to his sore foot...As I lifted him up he started making that noise, when you know they will be sick, so I put him down again. Within seconds he was sick, 3 times in a row. It really scared me I had never seen him throw up so suddenly, so violently before. In between he also made these awful loud gasping noises like he couldn't breathe, it was awful. I scooped him up, as he just collapsed and ran in the house. Within minutes it became evident there was something really wrong, he didn't move, became limp and unresponsive. His eyes glazed over and stopped moving...I honestly thought we had lost him. I picked him up and ran to the car to drive to the vet. My husband was at home so he drove..thank god as I wouldn't have been able to do it. It was 6.00pm, rush hour traffic, the worst possible time to drive in LA.....through the longest 15 minutes of my life....we somehow made it to the vet. I was too scared to look down at him, I just kept talking to him, hoping to keep his attention...hoping to keep him with us...
Once there they whisked him off to work on him. He had fallen into an Anaphylactic Shock, one of the most severe forms of allergic shocks possible from a bee sting. His blood pressure was practically non existent, his organs and whole body had started to shut down, we just apparently made it just in time. Most dogs (and people) die from such a reaction. He then took a turn for worse, he started to have internal bleeding/blood was pouring out of him... (his intestines did not get enough blood) and started to break down...They then decided to give him a Plasma Transfusion as a last resort, as an attempt to save him...THANK GOD...he responded well to this, within minutes his blood count became more normal and his bleeding stopped...He had to be carefully monitored during the night and next day, and was all back to normal by the afternoon...I was able to take him home...wow...
What a crazy whirlwind of events. Those who know my husband and I, Preston is like our baby. Particularly now, he gives us the much needed comfort we crave, he is a distraction, he makes us smile, someone we can fuss over, laugh at, take care of and hug...when the pain and grief becomes too much. To loose him...and so soon after losing Amelie (less than 4 months)...I would have really gone over the edge, I cannot even begin to imagine..Yet that's all I thought about, life without him, all my positivity, expectations hope...were gone...I had none left... To have such a cruel close brush with death, again was just so unfathomable, it brought back so many memories and emotions of the helplessness we felt last time around...waiting in the hospital, waiting hoping our daughter would survive. Waiting for Preston, was like going back in time...just being less optimistic than the first time around. After all, it didn't work out the first time, why would it now? We both sat there...expecting to say goodbye..again..I even prayed, which I learnt recently does not help...but I did it anyway..
But I was wrong. Through a miracle, the amazing vets saved his life, particulary Tara Miller (VCA, West Hollywood), who was absolutely amazing and basically saved his life. Somehow luck was on our side, things worked out for us this time.
TO bring him home on the 26th, (Amelie was born June 26th, 4 months ago)...and since we lost her, the 26th has become such a difficult day for us. It was such a beautiful day, when Amelie was born, it should still be that, a day of celebration of her life - it made me sad how now we saw the 26th as a sad day now. To me; having Preston back on the 26th gives this day a new meaning, a new perspective. It still reminds of the life we got, then lost, but we also got a life (his life back) that day. Maybe it's the universe telling us this; to see that miracles do happen, good things CAN happen to us, things can work out sometimes, 26th should NOT symbolise sadness but instead a celebration of my Daughter, her life here however brief... as well as the life of Mr. P.
(Mr P, will from now on be kept away from bees at all times and only go on the grass wearing shoes, incase there is another evil bee lurking in the grass...)
Currently, he is not too happy about the shoes....
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