Kathleen's Blog

Apparently, I am a worrier.

I won’t bore you with all the veterinary medicine I have learned the last few days, but part of Misty’s challenges after Chemo were/are that her blood is screwy. Not enough white blood cells, not enough platelettes, or not enough red blood cells. At some point in the last few days we dealt with all three, sometimes at the same time, sometimes individually. She has been tested so many times, I am surprised she has any blood left!

But Critical Care released her thinking that time at home would be good for her (it is!). However, her white blood cells were very low, plateletes weren’t great but they were “decent” and her red blood cell percentages were increasing.

In order to help increase her white blood cells, there is an injection dogs can get (Neupogen – you would be SO impressed with the knowledge of pharmaceuticals I now have…) But, you can’t get shots if you don’t have platelets because you run the risk of a bleed at the injection site that won’t clot….

So the morning after she was released, I was supposed to give her a Neupogen injection…. giving the shot isn’t the big deal for me…. my cat gets twice-daily insulin injections and Misty has needed shots before… but I worried ALL night that she was going to bleed at the site of the injection. ALL night! ALL NIGHT!

Finally, it was morning and it was time to give her the shot. I loaded her up in the car, parked outside the Critical Care Hospital and gave her the shot in the car. I wanted to be nearby JUST in case the horrible bleeding I had envisioned actually occurred. I sat with her for 20 minutes, in the car, right outside the door to the Hospital and when I was convinced she was fine, I drove off to work. But then the whole way to work, I worried about getting in a horrible car accident with a dog who might have trouble clotting…. so I drove very slowly….

I think I’d like to call that prepared, not neurotic….