The Story of Shubi’s Illness

I have often written about what a miracle Shubi is, but I am not sure most of you realize that what I say is true, and not just me being a drama queen. While going through files on the computer, trying to decide what to keep and what to trash now that the laptop is fixed, I came across these letters written in November and December of 2003. They will show you clearly how sick she was, and how very close we came to losing her.
Shubi’s birthday is next week on December 1st. She will be 10 years old. Back then, no one believed she would see this day. So truly, she is a miracle.
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The story opens November 19th 2003
Shubi is in the hospital. We brought her in yesterday as she seemed to be getting worse and worse. We just didn’t know what was going on with her. She couldn’t stand up without falling over, has terrible pain in her back and still wasn’t eating. If we brought her outside to do her wee-wee she would crawl in a counter clockwise circle. Over and Over and Over she would crawl like this until we picked her up and brought her back in.
The x-rays showed that her spine is full of degenerative arthritis and it is getting worse. The good news was that she has no ruptured discs in the spine. She also has an inner ear problem which is causing much of the lack of balance and the crawling in one direction.
The doctors are giving her steroids and muscle relaxants and an IV. I called my Vet in New Hampshire yesterday and we spoke with him last night. I felt better after talking with him and we will see him as soon as we get back to New Hampshire on Wednesday next week. He will call the Vet down here who is treating Shubi and get all the details on her case today.
We go in this morning to see the x-rays and bring some of her food. I am so eager to see her. I hardly slept last night without her next to me.
The inner ear problem had given her the appearance of having had a stroke. But he has ruled out a stroke. The last few days have just torn me up. I feel so useless and stupid.
Meanwhile, Fritz had two puppy boosters yesterday and weighed in at 37 pounds! He is growing by leaps and bounds.
We have spent our vacation mad money on the Veterinary!

November 21, 2003
I’m afraid that the news about Shubi is very bad. When we got to the Vet in Punta Gorda yesterday he told us Shubi needed a specialist quickly. She was far worse than she had been the day before.
We quickly packed the coach up and drove as fast as we could 2 1/2 hours to Orlando to a canine neurologist. Dr. Mary Smith is wonderful and both Hubby and I like her very much.
They performed a C.A.T. scan to look at her brain to make sure she didn’t have any brain tumors. Thank God she doesn’t! Then she performed a spinal tap to see what type of brain infection Shubi has. We are now waiting for the results of this test. We hope that it will be bacterial because then we can cure it with antibiotics. If it is viral then we will have to pray that Shubi is strong enough to fight it. And we must pray that no permanent damage is done to her brain.
How she got this, we just do not know. We do believe she contracted it in New Hampshire before we left as she showed the first signs of the illness even before we left, but we thought her back was bothering her.
The doctor said yesterday that Shubi does have a bad back, but that this was the least of her problems.
Yesterday we sat in the waiting room at the Vet Clinic for 5 hours. I cried, Hubby cried. And our dear Fritz lay quietly under the bench like the very best boy in the whole world! I am so proud of him.
Once we knew Shubi was out of danger from the spinal tap, we got in the motor coach and drove to the camp ground here in Kissimmee. It is about 20 miles south of the clinic. We arrived after dark and no one was around to help us. But there was a list of available sights. So we picked one out and parked the coach there. After we hooked everything up we went out for a meal. Neither one of us had eaten all day and although we were not hungry because of our worry, we made ourselves eat. Then we came home and fell into bed.
This morning we registered and found that they had wanted us to be in this very spot. They are very nice here and told us that we can stay as long as we need to with waiting for Shubi to get well.
I still hope that she will get well and will not have any long term problems. I pray this is so.
I have been just shattered by all of this. You know of my great love for Shubi and I know you can imagine my pain. I never ever thought that she would get sick like this. It is just beyond anything I could ever have imagined.
I will write again when I can. Please pray to God for Shubi’s recovery.
November 26, 2003
I hope you will forgive me for not getting on-line sooner, We left Orlando on Sunday afternoon about 2 PM and drove well into South Carolina before we stopped at 9 that night. The next morning we got up at 5:30 and quickly readied ourselves and drove 880 miles to a rest area just north of Albany, NY. It was nearly 10 PM when we stopped. The next morning we awoke to SNOW had a breakfast and then drove across Vermont to New Hampshire arriving home about 11:15 AM. We worked unpacking the coach most of the day and both of us went to bed early last night.
Here is the latest on Shubi. We are still waiting for the results from the lab about just what is going on with Shubi. Yes, it is a brain infection of some sort, but what exactly it is we don’t know. Although the doctor is leaning towards a condition known as GME (Granulomatous Meningoencephalomyelitis) It is not curable, but it is treatable. Shubi is doing better. She can walk now, is pottying herself and eating and drinking well. She is still off balance some and her pretty little head tips to one side. But she can focus her eyes and no longer walks in circles. The facial paralysis is gone and she seems like a different dog in many ways. I cannot begin to tell you how close we came last Thursday to losing her.
She will go in to see our Vet today at 3 so he can evaluate her and begin handling her local care. This may require a visit to a Neurologist up here for her, there is one in Portland, Maine, and if it is GME then it will require her to be on massive doses of Prednisone for the rest of her life.
I know that your prayers made all the difference. The doctor in Orlando said as much to us. She didn’t hold out much home that Shubi would survive, but our girl has come through!
December 9, 2003
Shubi did well keeping the chemo capsules down. She is eating and drinking fairly normally, She is VERY tired and just wants to be left alone. Of course it is tough trying to get that point across to Fritz. He wants to play and play and Shubi is too tired and too wiped out to want to be bothered
I stopped by our Vets today and picked up more of her medications. They’ve been so kind. Shubi is on two different antibiotics, administered every four hours, an anti dizziness/nausea drug and then the Prednisone. Right now I’m one of their best customers. But I feel that anything I can do for Shubi, is worth it.
I had to leave her for an hour today. I had a dental appointment, (look Ma, no cavities!) and Hubby is skiing. I put Fritz in his crate and just left Shubi out in the family room. When I came back she was just frantic. We just won’t be able to leave her much for a while.
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And we didn’t. We stayed with her all the time and slowly we saw her recovering. But we didn’t think it was possible that she would make it.
She was on the chemo treatments for a year before they stopped them due to liver damage. I swallowed hard and prepared myself. I would lose her, I just knew. But she perked up, and with special food and an enzyme to help digest it, she has done really well. She is off of all antibiotics and all of the Prednisone too! And has suffered no reoccurrence of the symptoms.
The Vets all call her a miracle, and I do too. Every day when I look into those big brown eyes I am thankful that God granted her just a little more time with me.