Belle Update - Updated

She seemed to have a little more energy last night. Jonathan and I already had plans to go to a free premiere of The Hangover. So, I went to the Angelika right after work last night. Feeling guilty the entire time. The movie was hilarious and I highly recommend it, though.

Anyway, when we got home, she seemed in good spirits to see us, wanted lots of petting and love and wolfed down an entire packet of food. That's still not anywhere near what she should have eaten (if she must eat the packets, she needs about 6 or 7 per day...still no luck on the dry food), but she ate it and that's what counts. She took all 4 of her pills in cheese very well. But of course, they were in cheese! Why wouldn't she eat them? She has always been pretty good at taking medicine and before she stopped eating, all we had to do was throw the pills in with her meal and she would gobble them right up. She also seemed to be less stiff in the joints when she was walking. I mistook the stiffness for waddling because of her *few* extra pounds, but her joints are really stiff. But, she seemed to be better in that department a little.

Of course, I could be reading way too much into all of this since I am hoping beyond all hope that this does turn out to be something from a tick and we will have many more years together. After all, if it is a tick, she should be back to normal by this weekend. And I really, really want that. She's my baby.

I allowed her to sleep in the bed last night, but I think she was too hot and jumped down after about an hour. Which is a side effect of the prednisone. I mean, steroids make people sweat so I would assume it makes dogs very hot as well.

So far, the expenses are adding up just in general. The vet bill from yesterday was a couple hundred higher than a normal visit with shots, but it was nowhere near the thousand dollar mark, so that's good? I guess? But, I also start my allergy shots today and before my insurance kicks in with 80%, I have to meet my deductible. I still have just under $600 to go, so there's a big payment today. Plus, I am in dire need of new tires. Not sure when I can fit that in seeing as how I have to work on Fridays now (no hope of that changing any time soon) and I have school on Saturdays. Plus, New York...which is already paid for so we kind of have to go now. And then add tuition for school and books on top of that and I am just all around broke!

But, as long as Belle gets healthy again, I am a very happy girl. And that's all that matters to me right now.

Update: The vet just called. All the tick diseases came back negative. He said that if it's within a month or so, they can be negative when they are really there. But, in hindsight the past couple of days, I started noticing some of these symptoms here and there several months ago. So, the prognosis is not good at all at this point. He is hoping she gets better this week with the meds she is on. I don't think he convinced me that it would happen, though, by the tone of his voice.