Sadly neglected in our academic sphere, and yet he probably would have wanted it that way. Too bad EA, I am writing about you. I'm probably the first Saffa to do so. Wish me luck x
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| Here we go Masters! |
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| The proudest flower in our little garden |
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| The pair of them, just look at it! |
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| And the pair of us, a macabre contrast |
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| And them again, just because |
Zita has had an underlying problem since we got her. She vomits. A lot. She goes through peaks and troughs; doing wonderfully for months and then drastically dropping condition over night.
Altogether, we have taken her to seven different vets in
three different provinces to try and root out the source of her issues. The
diagnoses have varied from gastritis to ulcers to possible diabetes. We haven’t
found a hard-and-fast answer.
After three years of
battling we finally have a diagnosis. Zita suffers from a rare congenital
version of a hernia, by which a hole appears in the diaphragm and the organs
move into the chest cavity. When not congenital this is cause by severe trauma,
for example being hit by a car.
Symptoms include sudden onset anorexia and severe vomiting.
I am proud to say she has never been anorexic. We rushed her to a vet in Johannesburg, a
specialist surgeon with over 30 years’ worth of surgery under his belt. The
best, we are told. He has done more hernia repairs than we can count, we are
told. He received her x-rays and seemed optimistic.
Today she goes under his knife. The cost is well in excess
of 1.5 months’ worth of my salary – but I’d pay so much more if she has a
chance. And, I am told, she does.
I love you Zita, I love every grumpy inch of you. Please
hang on girl child. xxx
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| You funny, grumpy. quirky girl |
ETA: As everyone knows, I said yes...
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| Not all doom and gloom then :) |
Sorry to hear about your grandmother. Dementia sucks.
ReplyDeleteMy 13-year old dog will be going under the knife soon to have a growth removed. The tests and the surgery will be over $2K, but that is money well spent in my mind. I am sending healing and positive thoughts to Zita for a swift recovery.
That ring is gorgeous! :-)
Thanks Wolfie!
DeleteYou know, we had a birthday for gran two weeks before she passed. It's wasn't her birthday yet though she insisted it was :) I am happy we did it. I am also consoled by the fact that when she was mostly lucid Tristan and I spent loads of time with her. I miss those visits, and all her anecdotes about her work life when she was younger.
Is the growth benign? Adolf had a growth removed and that ended up -thankfully- being a fairly uncomplicated surgery. I hope you experience smooth sailing too, it's never a good feeling when an animal is in strife.
The problem with this surgery (though I am happy to report she made it through) is that the organs like the intestines and stomach move into the chest cavity where arteries eventually fuse. The trouble is that is is hard to diagnose every single time when not caused by trauma - so she has had it since baby time. I look forward to having a healthy happy Zita back, a Zita that can eat any dog food she likes and not only the special low allergen stuff, which I have found do not contain the protein she needs to maintain a healthy weight. She's such a funny thing.She's been at the vet since last week wednesday, and during this time she lost a mess of weight because she lost the ability to retain ANY fluids. That is when barium and x-ray gave us a diagnosis. She despises vets. The male vet reported that she wagged her tail for him NOT ONCE and the only time he can jab her without a muzzle is when we are there. Ahhahaha, that's so typically her it's not even funny.
We are incredibly lucky because future father in law is a vet in the states, and we can always ask him for his opinion, which helps us a lot. Just talking about it helps, actually :)
xxxxxx
On the ring: it was custom designed and we moved the event to valentine's day next year, is soooo cheesy but there you go. Break out the violins! :)