Our Stella Needs Urgent Eye Surgery

I absolutely hate to be doing this .. for several reasons, but I'll give you my top two. One, I never want to be in a position where asking for help is a necessity and not an option. Two, I also never wanted to be in a position where asking for help for my dog was the only choice I had.

Our Stella had an eye injury approximately 2.5 weeks ago. She was taken to the vet the same day the injury was noticed. At her first appointment, the doctor said "we have to be very aggressive in treatment" as eyes are so fragile. We started her treatment with two different eye drops every two hours and two different oral antibiotics twice daily along with scheduled visits to the vet every 3-4 days. So, we did this! As a team, we tackled this injury head on. I took her to work the first two days and my coworkers helped me with her. Angelina then took over and helped at home (when she was home) and when we weren't home. We never missed an appointment and were making truly remarkable progress on healing this wound. Treatment gradually slowed down and just last week we went to every 7-day vet visits. Yesterday, I took her for her follow up thinking we were going to be given news of continued progress. Unfortunately, we got news that she has 2 mm of eye tissue that is keeping her eye from rupturing :( .. the injury itself, which they call an ulcer (they do this with dogs and eye injuries?) has traveled so deep into her cornea that it's made it past the nerve endings. This is why it appears as though she no longer has any discomfort/pain and why she is "using" the eye more. She is at HUGE risk for rupture. They offered to start over again with aggressive treatment (exactly as we had done in the beginning) but also told me the risk for rupture was so high that the smallest bother of any kind to the effected eye could cause it (things like "playing, getting too excited aka heightened blood pressure, 'jarring' of the eye of any kind). He told me that she would need to be crated for most of her days while doing this "aggressive treatment" if that's the route I went. Stella also has a leg diagnosis that doesn't allow for her to be crated for long periods of time which is why we don't really crate her at all. Plus, the risk of rupture sounds really terrible and traumatically scary to me. He then said he recommends seeing the ophthalmologist at Blue Pearl Vet Hospital (we are going to the Pittsburgh location). He basically said this option is the best option and can guarantee for her to be pain free (rupture is considered a 10/10 for pain on the pain scale - incredible and sudden intense pain), healing of the eyeball itself and keeping her vision.

We take her Friday morning. They are charging us a consult fee (of course) and an emergency fee because the appointment was made specially for her d/t the urgency of the situation. So, for us to just walk through their doors, it's costing us $400 right off the bat. The surgery itself is on the low end when talking about level of invasiveness. They will take a piece of tissue from the sclera of her eye (white part) and will place it over the injured cornea. This will give the eye a chance to heal by providing shelter to the injury, blood flow with oxygen and nutrients will then have an easier time getting to the injury allowing everything to heal up nicely. This will also prevent rupture.

So here we are. We've put in very close to $2,000 in vet bills throughout the last 2.5 weeks, for her and this injury only. Any savings we may have had, we no longer have. We live on cash only, no credit cards so that is not an option. Our Care Credit is maxed out as Meela (her sister) had an eye injury that started approximately 2.5 months ago (that we spent about the same amount of money on, possibly a little over $2,000) and was finally deemed healed about 2 weeks before Stella got hers! I cannot make this up. So that is also not an option. We are literally stuck between a rock and a hard place. After a sleepless night, a day full of anxiety ridden thinking .. I've come to the conclusion that maybe it is ok to ask for help (everyone knows I don't ever do this and it's VERY hard for me to be even slightly ok with this). I have to say that I don't expect one person to donate. I understand the responsibility of owning one dog, and we've consciously made the decision to have multiple. I also feel like had we not dumped the money in over the last few weeks that we did, we wouldn't be in this situation. While that doesn't matter .. it's just another factor in the grand scheme of things. I also know that EVERYONE is feeling the effects of our economy. I understand that we may not get to our goal (or even close to it) but I believe in my heart that if asking for donations is not the way her surgery is to be paid for, another way will present itself and our Stella will be taken care of. I'm truly praying for a sign of some sort as I feel so defeated in this situation.

I thank each and every one of you .. for even reading my storybook, sharing or donating. I know I have wonderful and amazing people in my corner that offer me all types of support daily and that's something that could never be looked over. Thank you to all of you for all of that through all of this! I am truly grateful.

Please say a prayer, send good vibes, send love and light ... whatever it is that you believe in.

We appreciate you!

Nick, Janae, Angelina, Nicholas and our Stella

And the rest of the clan - Harper, Kimber, Zeus and Meela

*I will post a final bill on Friday, the day of her surgery.

*This cost is an estimate from MY HOME VET. I will have a finalized cost on Friday, when she has to have surgery. Unfortunately, I cannot wait that long to ask for help. But I promise to return any unused funds to the respectable donors.