How it all began...

This is the email I sent out to let friends and family know about Katy's illness.

Hey-

I just wanted to let you know what is going on. We've spent 3 of the last 4 days with Katy (our smaller, brown dog) at the vet. On Saturday after breakfast, she started throwing up and couldn't keep anything down. The vet gave some anti-nausea and said to use Pepcid. Saturday night she threw up about 7 times. Sunday we got things settled down, but she still threw up periodically and was starting to get dehydrated. She spent the whole day at the vet yesterday, on IV and anti-nausea meds. They took xrays, and she didn't have any blockage, but part of her esophagus was not working properly.

She had a pretty good night last night with only two episodes, one around 12:30 and another around 2:30, with minimal spit up. When she got up at 6:00, she threw up some bile, but the vet said that could be from hunger. Other than that, she had a really good morning. She is at a specialist right now who is doing another round of xrays with barium and they are doing a blood test to see if she has myastenia gravis.

The vets have pretty much agreed on megaesophagus, which is when the muscles around the esophagus don't work anymore, so the food just sits in the throat, and they end up throwing up. They think it is being caused by myastenia gravis. For now, we are having to adapt to a new eating routine--3-5 feedings a day, with food watered down to the consistency of oatmeal or canned food. She will have to eat sitting down or at a 45-degree angle. She has to drink the same way too. She will probably have to take medicine for the myastenia gravis, and we will have to be cautious for pneumonia. It seems that when they throw up, they have a chance of it coming back down the wrong tube and settling in the lungs, which causes the pneumonia.

I don't know if the kennel will take her with her heavy special needs, so we might have to cancel our trip for next week, too. Max (the golden retriever) has been pretty depressed, because Katy hasn't been home the last couple of days, but has enjoyed all the extra time indoors this past weekend (trying to keep Katy's dehydration to a minimum) and PJ (one of the cats) has been missing Katy, too. Scout doesn't like anyone, so it doesn't bother him at all.

And this is the follow-up email from the next day.

Hello everyone.

Thank you all for your well wishes and prayers. They must have helped because Katy had a great night, and didn't get sick until 3:30 this morning, again with an empty stomach. She is doing much better today. The specialist gave us some pills that should help Katy's esophagus muscles work better, and it helps with the acid reflux. We won't know officially about the myastenia gravis until next week, because there is only one lab in the US that tests for it, and it is in California. She is eating well and hasn't been sick from the food at all, which we were told is highly unusual --usually, there is more problem getting food down than water. We told the vet that none of our animals can do things the normal way. Anyway, the multiple feedings are not a problem, and luckily this happened in the summer so that we can figure out a routine before we are both working.

Our regular vet recommended a kennel that will take Katy, so we will get to go on a trip after all. They are our vet's sister clinic and so if Katy has some kind of medical emergency, they have doctors and nurses on staff that can help her. We cut the trip down to two days, though, because this kennel costs about $20 more a night.