Katy's story is king of a long and complex one, so I'll just hit the highlights here. A couple of years ago she was diagnosed with HCM (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) and has been on medications for that since then. Right after that, she was also found to be hyperthyroid so had I131 and then just a couple of months later had an endoscopy and was found to have IBD. So, 2005 was not a good year for Katy . . . or me.
In addition to her heart meds, she's been on prednisolone for her IBD. We've tried to taper her off, but it just hasn't worked so she's stayed on 5 mg a day for the last year-and-a-half. Last year she also had a bout of pancreatitis but improved pretty quickly, but the first of this year, she started getting sick again, mainly not eating well and just acting depressed. It turned out that she had pretty severe pancreatitis again, but this time she just isn't getting better except for a day or two here and a week there. We're trying to wean her off of her pred so she's been on alternating days of pred and Leukeran for nearly 2 months now, and I've been giving her fluids here at home, or at least trying too. I'm not very good at it.
I guess my question is . . . has anyone else ever dealt with pancreatitis? Has your experience been like this with waxing and waning symptoms? Never really getting better for any length of time?
I just want her to feel better! 2005 was an awful year for her . . . she was sick for most of it, then 2006 was great, and now we're back to feeling bad. I realize that with all of her health problems, there will probably be a lot of days when she doesn't feel good, but I'm so tired of seeing her like this. I take her back to the vet on Saturday for blood work to check her red count since she's been on Leukeran, so I'll talk to the vet . . . again . . . then.
In addition to her heart meds, she's been on prednisolone for her IBD. We've tried to taper her off, but it just hasn't worked so she's stayed on 5 mg a day for the last year-and-a-half. Last year she also had a bout of pancreatitis but improved pretty quickly, but the first of this year, she started getting sick again, mainly not eating well and just acting depressed. It turned out that she had pretty severe pancreatitis again, but this time she just isn't getting better except for a day or two here and a week there. We're trying to wean her off of her pred so she's been on alternating days of pred and Leukeran for nearly 2 months now, and I've been giving her fluids here at home, or at least trying too. I'm not very good at it.
I guess my question is . . . has anyone else ever dealt with pancreatitis? Has your experience been like this with waxing and waning symptoms? Never really getting better for any length of time?
I just want her to feel better! 2005 was an awful year for her . . . she was sick for most of it, then 2006 was great, and now we're back to feeling bad. I realize that with all of her health problems, there will probably be a lot of days when she doesn't feel good, but I'm so tired of seeing her like this. I take her back to the vet on Saturday for blood work to check her red count since she's been on Leukeran, so I'll talk to the vet . . . again . . . then.