When I got the news of her diagnosis, all I could think of was that I was going to have to put her down. I'm very optimistic now...I'll try to have more patience!
When I took Saoirse in to see the vet last year knowing that something was seriously wrong - pulling fur from the right side of her abdomen, peeing like it was going out of fashion,
insanely hungry, and with a markedly distended abdomen - my worries were pretty much completely dismissed by the examining vet, and so was my request for diagnostic testing. I brought Saoirse back to the practice about a fortnight or so later (when she was drinking nearly a litre of water a day) with the attitude that I wasn't going to leave the premises until she got a proper examination and proper diagnostics. I saw a different vet, and the vet's initial worry was about the severity of Saoirse's abdominal distension. The preliminary assessment was that there was a fluid build-up and that was indicative of "nothing good" and, if their suspicions were correct, I might have "a few months, maybe a year" left with her. Thankfully my suspicion that she might be diabetic was more accurate than the vet's preliminary opinion (the fluid swishing in her abdomen was down to an overfull bladder, not abnormal abdominal fluid accumulation!), and I was
OVERJOYED that, after initial blood and urine testing, the preliminary Dx was changed from something imminently terminal to diabetes mellitus - a
treatable condition. And something I could do something about - even if it has been mildly terrifying and beyond exhausting at times.
(My best friend and his mum are both diabetic, so the FD Dx didn't freak me out as much as it might do for someone with no connection to diabetes.) The worry and the weariness that can go with caring for a diabetic just pale into insignificance when one contemplates the alternative. I have lost count of the number of times I have given thanks to all the scientists who made insulin treatment possible - they helped to save my darling girl; my baby...
Don't get me wrong. I really wish that Saoirse wasn't diabetic and didn't have pancreatitis. But when push comes to shove, I'd prefer her to be happy and healthy on insulin than to have a condition that I could do nothing about. I'm very grateful that she is currently diet-controlled. That's a bonus. (For her more than me - although I'm not complaining about not having to worry about hypos all the time.
)
