Yvaine vs 2020

Dec 10th 3:30 am Thursday morning. I awoke to strange sounds in the living room and knew they were coming from Yvaine.  Groggily I walked out of the bedroom to find her laying in a dark puddle trying to lick it up.  At first I thought she had gotten sick and was eating it, but when I turned on the lights it was much more grim.  She was bleeding pretty heavily from what appeared to be her nose and mouth and initial thoughts were she was vomiting blood.  There was a considerable amount of blood on her and several pools and spray on the floor and walls.  /she worked frantically to clean it up while still bleeding pretty heavily, panic in her eyes.  A scene like that wakes you straight into parent mode.  I woke Brian and he and I immediately got her settled and calmed while searching for emergency vet clinics.  We were able to stop her bleeding and consulted with several clinics.  With the bleeding stopped we decided to wait until regular business hours and consult with our vet. 


The next day we worked from home as best we could while monitoring her condition.  Several vets recommended a rhinoscopy to determine if there was any obstructions or trauma in the nose and sinuses.  Unfortunately Covid has seriously burdened the animal hospitals as much as the people hospitals, so first available dates were in February.  Our usual vet clinic was very dismissive and hands off in helping us diagnose what could be wrong, simply telling us they didn’t have the equipment.  No effort to discuss causes or potential treatment, just the hand-off.  We were left rather floored and rudderless.  But time wasn’t on our side. 
December 12th 7:00am.  No sleep is deep enough to hide the sounds of a loved one in trouble.  The rough breath and sound of frantic licking pulled me awake.  She was bleeding again from her nose.  Luckily this time it had just begun.  We grabbed towels and an ice pack and got the bleeding under control rather quickly. But we wouldn’t have the same reprieve as the day before.  By early afternoon the bleeding started again, worse than the last.  Streaming instead of dripping.  But again we persisted and got it stopped.  On and off the bleeding came and went until around 1am Sunday morning when we couldn’t get it to stop.  Holding Yvaine to my chest, covered in blood I looked up at Brian.  It wasn’t going to be ok.  We had to go to the emergency vet. 
Dove Lewis emergency animal hospital was across the river.  I pulled the car around and we got our baby in the back.  Brian sopped the blood and iced her nose as best he could while we made our way to the vet. After arriving we called to arrange pick up. The hospital was severely understaffed due to an employee testing positive for Covid. A large portion of their staff was forced to quarantine and they were bare bones. But they responded quickly and got Yvaine inside to get stabilized.  Brian and I waited. 
5:30 am Drifting in and out of sleep we receive a call.  Yvaine’s bleeding had stopped and she was comfortable.  Now for us to determine diagnosis.  The possibilities; respiratory infection, cancer, or bacterial infection.  The tests, CT, X-ray, blood panels, ultrasound, and the hard to find rhinoscopy. But in the meantime Yvaine was set to come home. 


The next day Yvaine was back to chasing around Hugo and stealing his favorite squeak toy Pig.  Armed with a new plan to stop the bleeding we began calling clinics and vets to start the diagnosis process.  But things were grim.  The soonest a rhinoscopy could be performed was still mid January.  And with the increasing bleeding we couldn’t wait that long. 
But even the little break we received yesterday was short lived.  Tonight during her walk her bleeding started again, full pour.  The treatment options provided by Dove Lewis didn’t seem to be working.  For almost two hours we battled to get the bleeding under control.  
Blood sneezes are thing you deal with as a parent.  They are hot and tick wads of coagulated blood that break free when she sneezes or shakes her head.  Blood spray from sneezes reaches insane heights.  It was too much again.  We returned to Dove Lewis tonight.  But this time the car ride was so much harder.  Her blood was coagulating in her nose but then sliding into her throat.  She was having a hard time breathing and honestly it’s one of the hardest things to hear from the back of your car while driving.  You can’t look back, you can’t pet her and tell her it’s gonna be ok. You just drive and get there. And that’s where we are.

She is spending the night at the hospital until her internist appointment in the morning but we can’t spend it with her because of Covid.  We’ve started the tests and the bills are already coming due.  $400 for Sunday’s visit.  $2000 already tonight for deposit on services with a potential $4000 up coming just for diagnosis.  If you know us, you know how much she means to us.  She has personality in spades and has been by our sides since the beginning.  We don’t know what’s coming and we don’t know how much time we have left so we want to make the most of it and we want her to be as comfortable as possible.  There’s still a chance it could be treatable, but without knowing what’s happening we are just left with triaging and cleaning up blood spray.  

So in a humbled sense of fear and panic I sat down tonight and started this go fund me.  We love her and aren’t ready to say good bye and we need help trying.  If you’ve ever met Yvaine you know how much she commands a room and how smart and playful she is.  Through all the bleeding and difficulty breathing she’s stared me straight in the eyes with perfect love and perfect trust.  I can’t let her down now.  We can’t let her down. I know that 2020 has taken so much from everyone and I know I don’t really have the right to ask anything from anyone right now.  But I wouldn’t feel like I doing my best if I didn’t ask. Please help any way you can.  We’re going to have a long road ahead.