My Whole Family Has Been to the Doctor This Week!

So Maggie, my 2 year old lab/boxer mix has gone through some eating issues prompting many a strange call to the vet's office.

Call #1: Yes, I was wondering if it were possible for a dog to have acid reflux?
Vet Assistant: Um, no.

Our dog throws up bile on an empty stomach so to ensure she doesn't have an empty stomach we feed her 4 small meals a day at 5am, noon, 5pm and 9:30pm. We started giving her Tagamet to knock down the excess stomach acid hoping she would stop throwing up on an empty stomach. This worked as long as she didn't miss any meals, if you are paying attention this also means that her stomach is not empty.

Call #2: Yes, I think my dog has an eating disorder.
Vet Assistant: ?

Maggie started skipping meals. We wouldn't mind so much if it weren't for her throwing up. It isn't good for her to keep doing that and to be honest, it isn't good for our new carpeting. She would sniff her food and walk away. She would have food in her crate, readily available which she would not eat and then throw up because of her empty stomach. This got worse when T was putting trim down in the kitchen and living room as we had the furniture and kitchen appliances pulled out from the walls and did I mention Maggie HATES change? T physically put food into her mouth and she would spit it out. (She would of course always wait expectantly for us to drop "people food" so she could snatch that up.)

Call #3: Yes, is it possible for my dog to be autistic?
Vet Assistant: ? (writes note in chart that dog is perfectly fine but owner is questionable)

I took her to the vet Monday night and he quickly diagnosed her anxiety. The term he used is "a bomb waiting to go off" (My dog is about to go postal!). She is such a bundle of nerves she doesn't know what to do with herself. She gets anxious and doesn't eat, if she doesn't eat then she throws up. To solve the problem, we need to calm her nerves so she will eat ensuring she doesn't have an empty stomach.

Maggie is now on anti-anxiety drugs. I used to joke about her having ADHD and needing Ritalin. I made this joke to the vet but he didn't laugh, he said I was right. Geez! So, we'll see if we can get her to mellow out a bit and then wean her off of the drugs. *shaking head*

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Yesterday I took the day off of work to accommodate an endometrial biopsy on my part and a urology appointment on T's part. These were new experiences for both of us and as you can imagine, neither one of us were looking forward to our respective appointments. To alleviate the "you are afraid of what you don't know" thing we both did a bit of searching online so we would know what to expect. Everything I saw on the biopsy from first hand accounts started with "Ouch". This coupled with the fact that the doctor told me to take Motrin before the appointment lead me to believe this would not be pleasant. T was definitely NOT reassured by what he found online and was dreading his appointment.

My appointment was at 11:30am so I scheduled a massage at 10am to get myself relaxed. I planned on taking 800mg of Motrin right before my massage to give it time to get into my system before my appointment. In theory it was the perfect plan. In practice, not so much. I forgot the pill. I realized this as I was walking back to my car post-massage. I didn't have time to stop at home what with all the construction on the way so I stopped by the Walgreen's down the street from the doctor's office and bought Advil Liquigels and a bottle of water. I downed 5 of them (1000mg) and called it the best I could do. I got to the office and was called back rather quickly. I think I was the last appointment before lunch. The nurse asked if I had taken anything, I said Advil, she said one or two, I said five, her eyes bugged out. Hey, I take 800mg for mentrual cramps, I think a little more is in order when having things shoved into my ute!

The nurse gave me her hand to hold. People, when the DOCTOR tells you that this will hurt a little (I believe the direct quote was "little cramp") you know that means you are about to go through the roof! I didn't want to break the poor nurse's hand so I just tried to breathe through it. Yeah, that didn't really work and it re-affirmed my thoughts on getting an epidural when/if the time comes to actually give birth. The doctor was also delighted at the fact that I have lost 6 pounds since I was last in her office a month ago. :0) Once she was finished trying to impale me she told me to lay back and relax a few minutes and when I was ready to get up and get dressed. They checked back on me a few minutes later to find me dressed and heading toward the check out desk. They seemed a bit shocked at my recovery time, they forget, I have Endo. One does not stop for a cramping ute when one has Endo. I slapped on a Thermocare heat patch and the complimentary pad provided by the doctor and was on my way.

I went home, made myself a big salad for lunch and watched episode after episode of Adoption Stories from the DVR while I waited for T to get home so we could go to his appointment in the afternoon. Did I mention he was nervous? It actually turned out MUCH better than either of us expected. The doctor said he saw no problem with T's S/As. That the differences between the tests were very natural and he saw no cause for concern. (Really? 45.7 million down to 17.6 million?) He patted us on the back and wished us luck. The motility and morphology were excellent so the count didn't concern him at all. We think once he heard my history he wrote off any problems that T might have as not being the problem. He actually said "We of course don't like to place blame...but... (and then gestured towards me). He told us to focus on quality not quantity and said we should be good to go.

It went a little TOO smoothly. We talked about it last night and decided that the urologist is used to seeing worst case scenarios so that T's average to low numbers were nothing to worry about in his mind (not like the 10 million or 600,000 that he used as examples of his usual patients). However, since we are facing the fact that MY issues are what they are we need his numbers to be as good as they can get to improve our chances. We decided we will have him do another SA to act sort of as a tie breaker. We have one high(er) and one low so let's see what the third one says. He also agreed to take Fertility Blend.

So, at this point we are back to waiting. Waiting for the results of my biopsy and waiting for T to have a repeat test and we will then take these results to the Fertility God (RE) and see what he has to say. THEN, we will sit down and discuss all the possabilities and decide where to go from here.

Keeping Fingers Crossed