October 24, 2018

White Dog shushed the rest of the White Dog Army. "Quiet," she told them. "Roman, you come sit here next to momma. We are going to do a phone consult with Dr. Julia about you."

In consideration of Roman's reactiveness we agreed that we would look at Roman via phone, video and conversation. So after Dr. Julia finished up with Nilla who was in her office, we opened Roman's chart.

Steve showed our healer a video we made of Roman's walk just this morning. Our three-legged boy normally has a strong back leg with good enough muscle tone that he sort of hops, runs and can even jump. He uses his lame leg to stabilize and lean. The past few days, however, Roman has been moving in a drop hip movement that contorts his hips and puts stress on the bad limb. It is clear he hurts.

"Looks like a new flair up of the Lyme Disease," she said almost instantly. "Back on doxycycline." I sighed. "this disease is defeating me," I told her. "There is no pattern or reason to it. Makes me feel like I miss important clues. This is not even the same part of his body as before." Dr. Julia said, "That is the way Lyme is. It moves around and events can happen one a month, one a year, you just cannot tell and there are no warnings...and it can be different from episode to episode."

In response to my concern that Roman's sudden aversion to being touched on the hind quarters might be a brain tumor. I pointed to the tufts of furs that need grooming which Roman furiously balks at having brushed. She redirected my thoughts "Most likely he is in pain from the Lyme--look at his walk, he hurts. There would be seizures or other manifestations if it were a tumor. Focus on the most logical explanation for now which is that it is disease related. Let's do a pain med, gabapentin, and see if that helps. We are in for the long haul with this guy, none of his issues are going to magically disappear. And it is worse for humans with the disease, you know that. When you hurt it affects everything even how he responds to the environment and you all."

I stroked Roman's ears and spoke to him, Dr. Julia and Steve still in her office. "I promised my commitment was forever," I told them. "And I keep my promises. So let's give it a go; hopefully he will feel better by the time you return and we talk again. Or we will move on to something different."