Since I’ve left the island…
River Watch — yes, the Mississippi River threatens to flood Baton Rouge and I live less than a mile from the levee so I will be one of the first to know! But, things are looking up since they’ve opened some spillways.
Ophthalmology — this is my first rotation. Tonight, I’m studying up on corneal ulcers for rounds tomorrow AM. Wednesday, we’re going to be “assisting” on a corneal transplant surgery and a glaucoma-shunt (a shunt will be placed from the anterior chamber to the frontal sinus) which I’m REALLY excited about, not only are they surgeries but they’re super cool surgeries!
Louisiana-cuisine – I ate alligator for the first time today and it really tasted like chicken. It was blackened and dipped in a dijon sauce but it wasn’t over-cooked, apparently, so it was tasty. Like really lean chicken… in fact, I think I prefer nicely cooked ‘gator to chicken.
Doobie — I haven’t been able to do any cardiac diagnostic work on him since we’ve been on the island (over a year) so as soon as we got to LA, I had an echocardiogram done. His left ventricle had enlarged and seemed to have consistently enlarged over the years little by little, and in doberman-world, that’s not a good thing as Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) is prevalent in the breed. The internal diameter of his left ventricle (LVIDd; d=diastole) was 4.2 cm; greater than 4.6-4.7 cm is somewhat indicative of DCM (depending on if you have arrythmias) and in 2008, Doobie’s LVIDd was less than 4.0 cm. So, I was concerned. He was also due for a holter but the group holter that I have part ownership in was currently being rotated around and I needed to know sooner if he was throwing any VPCs so I had LSU run a 24-hour holter monitor on him… they have a digital one, which was way cooler than the analog one that we own. I’m still waiting on the results of the holter. I also had blood pulled to check his thyroid levels and he’s always threatened to be hypothyroid but was low-normal all these years so never started meds… with his echo results, I decided now might be a good time start meds. He was started on a low dose of Soloxine last week so we’ll echo and run more bloodwork in another month to monitor everything. If his cardiac changes are due to his hypothyroidism, there is a small chance that his heart will go back to normal function and size.
Tessa‘s back! Luckily, Doobie & Tessa reunited and returned to their usual routine quickly. I was afraid Doobie would forget who she was after all that time apart, but it wasn’t so.
We like our new place; we have a yard and a petsitter! Hopefully things will work out with the petsitter because it seems I have some lonnnggg days ahead of me soon.
On the way to LA
Stopped in MS for a night
They both got echo'd... and apparently, it was an exhausting day
Doobie "loves" wearing the holter monitor for 24 hours
I think the cats like the new place
I had to include this because Tula looks like those dog toys that are only heads with two front feet with no rear end... and that she's finally come out after traumatic weeks of traveling away from the island!
Recent Comments