Panicky Mommy

Update: In all the heart murmur chaos, I neglected to mention that Mr. Clean called last night but I was too worried about B Bear to be too excited…

Bella and I visited the wonderful Dr. Baker at Bargersville Vet yesterday.  Bella’s got a trio of allergies, anxiety and tummy issues working and after the hotspot incident it was time to move on to the next step of eastern/holistic/homeopathic treatment for her so now the wonderful folks at Downtown Vet and at Bargersville will work together on getting Bella feeling like Bella again.  I like to operate in the ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure mode. Dr. Baker is soothing and intuitive – Bella liked her immediately. Our visit was 90% great and 10% not so great. The 90% great is Dr. Baker is sensing a strong conflict in Bella’s liver and kidneys, which is why she is simultaneously bossy and fearful. She also has spleen issues which impacts her tummy and Dr. B thinks with some acupuncture (first session yesterday already helping!) and some Chinese medicinals, we can get these things realigned and stop the endocrine system battle that is affecting her.   Bella is complicated to say the least so it will take some time to peel back the onion as it were and get the treatments fine-tuned but I already feel better. Bella was so good during her 15 minute acupuncture session and I noticed a marked difference already in her demeanor – much more relaxed.  

What I am not feeling so good about is Dr. Baker heard immediately a grade 3 heart murmur in Bella and said it sounds like an MVP (mitral valve prolapse).  No vet has picked up on this before so likely it’s a new development and not congenital. I did a Melody and immediately got online and started Googling it and of course saw several alarming things  – like canines with MVP can develop congestive heart failure.  I am a little more than panicky now because in the last 3 sessions we had with Mary Marshall over the last 12 months, Mary had detected some fluid in and around her heart and lungs and something mildly funky going on there – it was nonspecific before though so I never did anything more about it but turns out Bella was telling Mary about this awhile ago.  All you nonbelievers take heed This next part is going to require a leap of faith so bear with me. I also have MVP. I’ve had it since I was born and I just have to get ultrasounds every 5 years or so to make sure it’s not getting worse and I take antibiotics when I get dental work done – no big deal.  Where this gets all weird and new-agey is I am worried that Bella’s MVP is not a coincidence. Mary Marshall also told me a year ago that if I didn’t get my mental health in order (this was during the bad fall period), I was going to make Bella sick because she is so connected to me.  I did indeed get it in order but it took a bit of time so now I am worried Bella somehow absorbed this heart thing of mine – perhaps trying to mend my broken heart and take the problem on herself? Who knows.  In any case, it was a stark reminder of how much I love Bella and how important all my babies are to me.  Aside from a few allergy issues, Bella’s always been healthy.

So on July 29th, I’ll drop Bella off with Dr. Baker and the veterinary cardiology team from Purdue who comes to Indy will run all the tests on her (chest xray, EKG and an echocardiogram/ultrasound – all the things I have to have myself…)to get a specific read on what’s going on and we will develop her plan from there. It may be as simple as keeping her out of the heat and continuing the fish oil and adding Q10 in, or maybe she will go on meds -we won’t know until the tests are done. In any case, Dr. Baker is getting Bella Bear off the steroids ASAP and we won’t be willy-nilly going into surgery for things unless they are necessary.