Update… It’s been a little over a week since my last post on Ashlee and it has been yet another roller coaster week. I am emotionally spent, that’s for sure. Ashlee is home for now but she is far from out of the woods. She spent over a week at the vets under observation. The vet believes that Ashlee has a non-viral chronic Hepatitis. He thinks she has had it for quite a while and that we are just catching it now because she is showing symptoms. This Hepatitis is not curable, only manageable with diet and medications. There are a couple of problems still to overcome. First off, the incision from her surgery is not healing properly because of the continual build-up of fluid in her abdomen do to the damaged liver. This leads to her leaking from the incision, sometimes quite heavily, as I found out this evening after taking her for a short walk. The second issue is that she is still not eating much, if at all, right now. She is drinking but without eating, it’s tough to get her to take her medication regiment. The vet has told me to double the steroids she is on and I have been somewhat successful using peanut butter and other soft stuff to “trick” her into taking them. I am hoping that after a couple more doses she will start wanting to eat again. This should allow me to use the treats from the vet to give her the other medications. I did get her a dose of the diuretic and antibiotic earlier today and another dose of steroids so we will have to see how it goes.

There is a bottom line in all this: either the medication works and she will be able to live out her life or they won’t…and I really don’t want to think about if things do not work. This situation has drained me quite a bit. Emotionally, I am worried but trying hard to rely on my faith in Christ to get me through. Since she is still leaking, I have her quarantined to the dining room until I come up with a better plan. To make her feel more comfortable, I slept on the couch last night and will again tonight. We have nice furniture but a couch is not a bed. Not to mention the distractions this is putting on me at work. Today I worked from home all day to keep an eye on her and tomorrow I will probably work from home in the afternoon so she is not alone all day. I really am trying to compartmentalize it all so that it does not impact me at work but it’s not easy. I feel pretty tired and emotionally spent. The best I can do is keep on course with the vet’s plan, pray hard, covet prayer from others, and keep driving forward as best as I can, leaning on Christ, family and friends.

That’s all I have for now…stay tuned for further updates.

Thanks and God Bless