9. Desicion Made

Good Evening!

I can't really believe its 12 weeks since Boson first took ill. We weren't sure we would get to this point on that night 3 months ago. Boson has been through so much, and has been stoic and resilient throughout, and I couldn't be prouder of my brave lad.

Physically he's nearly there. His muscles are filling out nicely, hardly surprising with the abundance of energy he has! The shaved squares on his back are taking much longer to disappear, the only evidence that there was something wrong.

His medication has now been reduced to 1x 5mg tablet every other day, one more reduction in a few weeks time, then hopefully, all done with them in December. Steroids are life saving drugs, but come with a list of side effects that I wasn't prepared for! At least the steroid belly has gone now!

So life is getting back to normal now. He has enjoyed meeting up with his best friend Tally, I think they missed each other, and had a riot at the beach!

The decision has been made as to whether to put him through another lumbar puncture or not. And the decision is not to have the procedure carried out for the following reasons:

Possible relapse. The stress of the procedure, and the anaesthetic can be triggers.

Prednisolone. He is still taking it, so this will give a false result.

No clinical indication. He has no signs or symptoms of any disease.

I know what to look for, and know what to do if a relapse is suspected. I am not prepared to put him through anything that is not indicated clinically.

Whilst I cannot thank the Neurology team at the veterinary hospital enough for their prompt diagnosis and treatment of Boson, I cant help but feel a little abandoned. We were given our dog back with a regime for 300+ tablets, but little in the way of information about the condition, problems we may face, tablet side effects or any check up/bloods etc. Just about everything I know about SRMA, it's treatment and prognosis, I have found out myself through hours of research.

A small gripe in the grand scheme of things, I know! But this is one of the reasons for this blog, to share our experience of our journey with SRMA, and hopefully help and reassure others going through this.

So bye for now, and as ever, thank you for reading.

Lynn and Boson x