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| Lily - August 27, 2014 |
Before we started the trip, Lily had been coughing a bit, and she had fainted once during one of our walks. I asked about the coughing when I took her to the vet in Napanee before we left, and they didn't see any reason for her coughing, so we didn't think much of it. As our trip progressed, we noticed that she was coughing more and more, and gagging, mostly at night. Needless to say, none of us got much sleep on the trip.
When we arrived in Portland, we took her to a vet near to the apartment, and they couldn't find what was causing the coughing either, but the vet said she suspected it might be her heart, and recommended that we visit their heart specialist clinic. A few days later, it had become even worse as her belly seemed to be swelling. So we took her back to the vet to ask if they could do anything to make her feel better in the meantime before her next appointment. None of us were sleeping, and it was so upsetting to hear Lily gagging and coughing all night long. They did an x-ray, didn't find anything, and sent us home with some prescriptions.
After the next appointment at the so-called heart specialist (so-called because after the scan, she told us that she didn't have a lot of experience doing this, and that we should see another heart specialist) they still didn't find anything wrong. She said there was some fluid buildup around her heart, and also in her abdomen, but she didn't know the cause. So, $1200 later, we still didn't know what was making Lily cough.
Finally, we made an appointment with an actual cardiologist, and took her in yesterday. After he did his examination, he told us that he was 90% certain that Lily had a cancerous tumor in the blood vessels beside her heart. He said that he would drain the fluid from around her heart, which would make her feel better, and then do another scan after the fluid was gone, which would give him a clearer picture of what was there. After the second scan, he said he was now certain she had this tumor, and that it's an aggressive type of cancer. So, poor Lily doesn't have much longer to live, but we finally know what's wrong, and how to treat it. They gave us a prescription for a cough medicine that's also a mild sedative, so she won't be wracking her poor little body with the horrible coughing and gagging.
Today, she has been much better; sleeping mostly, but she hasn't coughed once since we brought her home from the cardiologist. She seems much happier and peaceful; we're just happy to still have her with us.
