Quincy Update

Ok, so here is an update on Quincy, in case you were interested.

First of all, he still has both eyes.

It started with a pill he shouldn't have been taking.  Quincy Pants has been on Prednisone for a long long time.  The steroid helps control his the symptoms of his many, many allergies (for those that didn't know, Quincy is allergic to humans.  For real.  Among other things).  Well, apparently, his vet clinic forgot about this.  Or, at the very least, didn't check the chart.  QP's regular vet recently left so we had to see a different one when I first took him in to have his eye looked at.  She suggested we take him to the optometrist.  In the meantime, she gave us some pain killers.

This pain killer combined with the prednisone was the problem.  The two aren't supposed to mix.  When the eye doc saw this, she told me she wasn't comfortable doing the surgery.  He needs some tests and a new check up, first.

So, we run a blood test and the eye doc examines him.

Oh...he's got an ulcer in his other eye.  The doctor says it's very likely that, at some point (weeks, years, who knows) it's likely the other eye will need to come out.  We should consider removing them both, now.  He's not getting any younger.

Oh...and, he's got a heart murmur.  Could be a sign of heart disease.  You should have his heart checked out.

Oh...and, test results came back.  Thyroid problem, protein in his urine, etc,etc, etc.

We are scheduled for an echo cardiogram next Monday.

Here's where we're at.  There are a lot of things happening here.  With the exception of his heart, the docs have said that the surgery can be done with the other issues.  But, he'll likely need to be on more meds.  The optometrist thinks we should do the second eye.  We have a baby coming and no paid time off for either of us.  So, everything adds up.  We're going to see what happens with the heart exam and go from there.  That's another $500 by itself.

Kim and I basically decided that if his heart is ok, we move forward with removing the eye that is bad.  If the other eye develops a problem, we'll address it when we get there.  But, it's likely that we wouldn't pay for that second surgery.

If his heart is not ok, well...then it's time to start thinking about what's next.  Quincy is going on 13 years old.  He's not getting any younger or stronger.  Spending $5000k on an elderly dog who may not last many more years even if we did the surgeries is not very prudent, unfortunately.

I've been thinking, since Friday, about just how much Quincy means to me.  I mean, this dumb dog has been the longest constant in my life outside of my parents.  He's been around longer than Kim, longer than Desmond.  He's been here longer than my first marriage.  Longer than my time at Microsoft.  Longer than my time in West Seattle.  He was around during my divorce.  He has been there every day of Desmond's life.  He was my excuse to leave a date when I was single ("Well, I had fun, but I have to go home to let the dog out.").

When one talks about Man's Best Friend, this pooch has certainly been mine through lot of great and a lot of really hard times.  It sucks to even think about not having him around.  :-(