The Day After

Earlier this summer my dog, Ely, began acting weird. I took her to the vet and tried to articulate what "weird" meant. She became food obsessed, gained weight she couldn't loose regardless of the amount of exercise, and began eating pooh (we just assumed she was getting a lot of extra calories from the pooh). The weirdness had continued, she just seemed confused much of the time. She's 9 years old, a senior dog, so my vet, Joey, suggested cognitive dysfunction. And then it just got worse, she didn't want to walk when we were on walks, she stopped playing as much with her best dog friend Tobey, she was running into walls and other things. When my roommate, who left for the weekend and came back and said "I think she's worse," I called Joey again and described my concerns. At this point she recommended we go to a neurologist. Her, myself, and others thinking brain tumor.

As of now, every time I watched Ely walk into something, I'd get teary eyed. We've been through a lot together. She really is my best friend, confidant, and longest relationship ever. I was heartbroken. If she got so bad so quickly, her life expectancy couldn't be that long, right? I even had a few moments of hugging her and crying into her fur. In all honestly this isn't the first time this has happened (i.e., after reading Marley and Me, break-ups, Bush being re-elected). I know this does not help her! I get that she picks up on my anxiety! I'm not a perfect dog companion all the time people, don't judge me.

Yesterday, we trucked up to the neurologist in Portland. (This was after, my clumsy, newly blind dog managed to eat about a cup of M & M's off an end table. She has NEVER done anything like this. So after a frantic call to the emergency vet at 2 am, I woke up every hour to check on her throughout the night before our trip to Portland. She was fine.) We went to NW Vet Specialists in Clackamas to see the neurology team, who happened to be two very, very cute women! Ely was very patient as Dr. McDreamy checked her out. Being in the new space it was obvious how much of her sight she had lost. Dr. McDreamy thought right away it may be Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration or SARDs. After testing her retinal function by putting these contact lens type things on her eye balls and sending electrical stimulation to her optic nerve they determined that this was indeed the case. Bad retinal function.

Ely went blind in about 3 weeks. Believe it or not, this is the good news. No brain tumor. So yay! My dog is blind! Oh shit, my dog is blind. Now what?

First, things first, I found some books to help us. I have to get her some special gear and somehow help her navigate her sudden disability. As my roommate said, I am her Seeing Eye Human. Poor girl...