(previous post) • (next post)
In January when we started having to sit next to you to watch you eat your food, we should’ve known you were telling us something. We should’ve realized your belly hurt, and it was likely that tumor we didn’t know about. And that was likely the cause of your kidney failure. But neither we nor your doctors would know all that information at that time. Based on repeated blood readings, we all thought it was just your kidneys and treated it as such.
By February, two weeks before we were scheduled to leave for our trip, the doctors started to talk about Doggy Dialysis. Truth be told, Kirby … I was terrified at that moment. The thought of any procedure requiring sedation terrified me. And if you needed it more than once, how many times would you be alone afterwards when we were gone for 2 weeks?
Your Daddy didn’t know it at the time, but I felt split in two at that moment. Cancel my vacation plans altogether? Or … Go on the 2-week Australia / New Zealand cruise that my Father-in-Law graciously gifted us?
A glimmer of hope arrived a week before our vacation. Your chief doctor called to prescribe medications before starting Doggy Dialysis, as it was the last resort. They wanted to see if it’d help your kidneys respond and then check your labs in a month. However, they would need to do more bloodwork before starting them.
We miraculously took you in for bloodwork that same day, and the doctor sent prescriptions to the mail-in pharmacy before your check-in for your “vacation.” The medications would arrive the next Monday, and the “hotel staff” were given specific instructions, along with other detailed instructions we discussed before dropping you off.