ppotterfield
Well-known member
To those of you who are so willingly share your stories about SM, I hope you realize how much you are helping others who are also dealing with this disease. Although I do not post often, I try to read the posts a couple times a week. What you all share both educates me and gives me emotional support for which I thank you.
Our Buddy was diagnosed with SM about 14 months ago. He also has PSOM which confused the picture somewhat. I posted the story of his diagnosis last August. We were just at Ohio State University yesterday for a six-month check-up. The verdict is that Buddy is stable, symptoms under pretty good, although not perfect control (but then was I wanting miracles?!). He does have very intermittant single yelps on neck movement, and very occasional facerubbing, but both generally (although not always) correspond to times when I have not been able to keep him on an every eight hours schedule of Gabapentin. We are blessed that he still does not have air scratching or bunny hopping or lack of coordination. He runs and plays and enjoys his walks and (this summer) lying on the air conditioning vent when he comes inside
. Although there seem to be lots of new options for medications, rather than messing with fairly good success, the Vets and I decided to stay the course for now. He is currently on 100 mg. Gabapentin thrice daily, omeprazole once daily and 300 mg twice daily of NAC (a supplement he is taking related to his PSOM). Based on the observation of proprioception when he was initially diagnosed, we had discussed using prednisome, but I was reluctant and convinced them to wait. While he does still have some proprioception, it is very mild and does not seem to have progressed in over 14 months, such that when I asked about prednisone this visit they said "not yet."
But for reading all of your stories, I think I could easily have lost perspective
about Buddy's SM, would have been less likely to trust my own reading and my own instincts and would not have been able to partner with his specialists as well as I think I have been able to do. So, again, thanks to all of you from Buddy and from me. We are keeping all of you in our thoughts and prayers.
Our Buddy was diagnosed with SM about 14 months ago. He also has PSOM which confused the picture somewhat. I posted the story of his diagnosis last August. We were just at Ohio State University yesterday for a six-month check-up. The verdict is that Buddy is stable, symptoms under pretty good, although not perfect control (but then was I wanting miracles?!). He does have very intermittant single yelps on neck movement, and very occasional facerubbing, but both generally (although not always) correspond to times when I have not been able to keep him on an every eight hours schedule of Gabapentin. We are blessed that he still does not have air scratching or bunny hopping or lack of coordination. He runs and plays and enjoys his walks and (this summer) lying on the air conditioning vent when he comes inside
. Although there seem to be lots of new options for medications, rather than messing with fairly good success, the Vets and I decided to stay the course for now. He is currently on 100 mg. Gabapentin thrice daily, omeprazole once daily and 300 mg twice daily of NAC (a supplement he is taking related to his PSOM). Based on the observation of proprioception when he was initially diagnosed, we had discussed using prednisome, but I was reluctant and convinced them to wait. While he does still have some proprioception, it is very mild and does not seem to have progressed in over 14 months, such that when I asked about prednisone this visit they said "not yet."But for reading all of your stories, I think I could easily have lost perspective
about Buddy's SM, would have been less likely to trust my own reading and my own instincts and would not have been able to partner with his specialists as well as I think I have been able to do. So, again, thanks to all of you from Buddy and from me. We are keeping all of you in our thoughts and prayers.
