Success story… sort of.

Dscn2749_2 This is Coco.  She doesn’t look very remarkable, but she is.  If you were reading here last August, you may remember when I wrote about performing my first pericardiocentesis.   Coco had developed a huge accumulation of fluid around her heart, and this was interfering with it’s ability to keep her going.  I felt at the time (and still do) that  a tumor within the pericardial sac is producing the fluid.

At the time, I thought it remarkable that I had been successful in temporarily relieving her situation without damaging her in the process.  She actually did really well for about 10 weeks, when she began feeling as bad as before.  In October, we repeated the procedure.

Fluid_drained_3 And on February 4, we did it again.  Six months later, and she’s feeling good again after her third experience with an ultra-sound guided needle next to her heart.  This is a small dog, and we got TWO of these babies full of fluid (7 ounces total) out of that sac surrounding her heart.

I still think she’s living on borrowed time, but we’re getting better terms than the sub-prime mortgage people.  So it’s a success story… for now.

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