my poor bean

 Phineas is not having a good time. 

Before I went away, I took him in for a check up, he'd been acting really weird, peeing constantly, drinking constantly, falling down. The bloodwork came back inconclusive but the vet said she thinks he has Cushing's Disease. She wanted me to bring him back in for a test (LDDST) to see what's up. Doug made a face when I suggested he do it while I was away. "What's it going to tell us?" he said.

"Well, if he has it, we can probably treat it with medication from what I read," I answered.  "And if he doesn't, what's wrong with him? What is going on with him. I'd like to know, and then decide well, what do we do." 

Doug said that while I was away he had a seizure of some sort. Just apoplectic, shaking, eyes rolled, the whole thing. He came out of it and was absolutely discombobulated. He walked into my bedroom closet, and got himself stuck in there, Doug had to pull everything out, and pull him out. A day or so later, he was perfectly fine. But after a day, got back to normal. 

I forgot to make the appointment, because, of course I did. And Doug didn't. And that's something I expected. He had a pretty good week since I've been back, and I kind of forgot about it. Until today. 

This afternoon, I was in a meeting, Phin was outside. I had headphones in and Doug came upstairs and said "Do you hear the dog yelping?" No. I did not. I'm in a meeting. 

He went outside and Phin was laying down in the grass. He saw Doug and got up on his own, and came inside. But he was like a drunkard - wobbling, not stepping down right, almost like he hurt his front leg or something. 

The list of symptoms for Cushing's includes increased urination and increased drinking, excessive panting even when not active. There are other symptoms like increased appetite, thin skin, sores, hair loss, skin infections. He doesn't have any of that (well, he's always increased appetite because he's food driven and obsessed, so that's been the case for the years we've had him). 

I called the vet this afternoon, and they have an opening tomorrow (yay!) for the LDDST test. They also want to do an ultrasound on his adrenal glands/etc because that's where all this nonsense comes from. But that has to be made further in advance since the testing unit has to be brought in. 

He spent the better part of the last 2 hours frantic, panting, falling down. I gave him a gabapentin, he's been taking that at night time because it knocks him out. He finally settled down and went to sleep for a good chunk of the afternoon. 

But yeah. wow. Dude. What is up with you? 

Doug told me that while I was away, he (Phineas) stopped sleeping in the guest bed and slept on the floor in our bedroom. The gabapentin helps him sleep, so, he just flops down on the carpet and sleeps and because he wasn't in a bed with a human he wasn't woken up by anyone moving. Doug said he wasn't waking up 2 or 3 times a night and wanting to go out. He'd go from 11pm to 4-5 am, just fine. He's been doing the same since I got back. Sleeping on the floor, sleeping mostly through the night. To be honest, I wake up more than he does right now to go pee.

I feel bad that I didn't call sooner, like, I could have made the appointment for this week last week. I'm truthfully relieved that there's an opening tomorrow because they sometimes are booked weeks in advance. 

One of the hardest things is that I won't be feeding him breakfast tomorrow per doctor's orders. It is one thing to tell a human that. Quite another to tell a dog. 

Send the old bean some mojo. And send me some mojo. I will need it. 

Work today was so crazy. So busy. I had to ditch a call from C because I was running a meeting with a client that went almost 2 hours. Then I had to do QA work for a code push for Monday. 

The good news is they did a hire for my team, not the person I wanted but a person I love and will gladly accept. And my best partner in crime comes back from family leave on September 2nd and I cannot wait for them to come back. 

I have not taken any pictures in a couple days so nothing to share.  Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. 

blood glucose:

9:30am: 186
5pm: 177 
10pm: 191

food:

coffee, water, iced coffee
11:30am: bowl of tuna fish w/celery
noon: metformin
6:30pm: cheeseburger and a big salad w/romaine, tomato, cuke, red onion, pepitas, feta, apple thyme vinaigrette dressing. 
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance
white wine
8:30pm: some oreo cookies