She is special. She
is an angel here on earth; the most gentle creature you will ever come across.
She is also a fighter!
I need to travel back in time in order to clarify how she is a fighter.
As the bells rang out and glasses clinked together in celebration of the arrival of 2010, Bella had her first psychomotor seizure. Of course, I had no
idea what the heck was happening at the time! She was panicking, trembling, and hiding and I couldn’t get her to respond to
me no matter what I did. Some of the episodes lasted for hours but they were never shorter than 30 minutes. Multiple
tests were done and still the doctors couldn’t give me a definitive
answer. Long story short, with process of elimination, they concluded she was having psychomotor seizures. She was put on a lot of medication. Once the last medication was added to her regimen, the episodes finally stopped. It was about 9 months after that horrible New
Year’s Eve.
In the picture below you can see the effects from one of the worst episodes that lasted all night. Around 6 in the morning she finally seemed to calm down so we went to sleep but when I woke up at 10 I found her hiding by the water heater with her nose scraped raw.
During these months she also had an emergency hysterectomy due to a disease called Pyometra. You can read all about her experience here. Essentially, Pyometra is a disease that
affects females who are not spayed. It is a life threatening disease, so if you have not spayed your pet, take a look at the symptoms. I learned the hard way, you may not have to.
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| Sleeping on the couch after surgery. Lots of pain meds. |
My family has been affected by cancer. In the last two years, it's taken my uncle and my cousin, attacked another cousin and my father, twice. It even came after my dog. Flipping cancer.
This time last year, Bella completed 18 days of radiation treatment for a nasal tumor. I can't believe it's been a year... Part of me feels like it's been 10 years since those awful few months and part of me feels like it was yesterday.
Her skin healed beautifully but her left eye was a bit more stubborn. I was applying two types of creams everyday, multiple times a day, but she still developed cataracts in her left eye and lost her sight about two months ago. The vet offered the option of surgery, but really, this dog has been through enough. She's not in any pain and can still see out of her right eye. She walked into a few chairs at first but she's adjusted really well.
After all this, she's still a happy dog. She plays and begs for food and hogs the bed.
The old saying, "When it rains, it pours." has been proven to me these last few years. Just the same, I still have my Bella and she still has her beautiful spirit. Animals are our companions, our conscience, and our teachers. She shows me every day that we all have fight inside us.
If you are feeling as though you have no more fight in you, don't worry, you do. It never leaves us. Take each day as it comes, hold on, and believe.
