the weather was not great when we left vero beach on a sunday but the rain cleared up eventually and we reached the cocoa village marina without incident. mikey came over that afternoon to pick us up so that we could have his car. we drove over to his house and FINALLY got to see it after all of these years. we waited for marie to come home and then had dinner out in orlando's version of asia-town. if there is anything that i have been deprived of all this time, it is noodle dishes so i really enjoyed my dinner. anyway, it was so good to see all of them again - mikey, my sister-in-law, marie, and little annie who is not so little anymore at 17! we took the car home to the marina that evening and let me just say that for a cruiser, having a car is just such a luxury - it makes things so much simpler so we were extremely grateful to have it. later that night, mikey sent me an email saying that the SpaceX Falcon was launching that night from cape canaveral - he sent me this email 5 minutes before the launch! so we scrambled and it's a good thing that we were able to catch it. what a spectacular site it was, seeing it from TADHANA's flying bridge.
our first week in cocoa was spent trying to get caught up with work plus tom had scheduled for a Cummins tech to come over to check things out. TADHANA is currently out of commission but that was planned as we are sitting here for a month anyway. we did manage a drive out to cocoa beach and port canaveral to check things out and, of course, the usual places - publix, west marine and the pet supermarket on merritt island, plus walked around the historic village in cocoa. on friday, we drove over to titusville to check out marinas there as alternatives to cocoa, but the titusville area really pales in comparison. as i had previously said in an earlier blog, cocoa is a nice little town to spend some time in. we also drove to sanford to see what we were missing since our plans had changed about going there this winter thanks to the SAIL rally. yup, cocoa was definitely the better choice. sanford is way inland and although we've been told that the st. john's river is just absolutely gorgeous, it would still be a five-day cruise for us to get there from the coast. not to mention alligators ugh... i was, of course, thinking of consuelo.
speaking of consuelo, she was having some breathing issues, tired easily and simply just wasn't up to doing anything. she stayed in the car a lot this whole time. we drove to mikey's after sanford to stay for the weekend, leaving TADHANA safely tied and buttoned up at cocoa, but that night, we didn't get much sleep. consuelo was really having trouble breathing and kept getting up and moving around and making the most horrible breathing sounds. she hardly ate and there was blood in her pee. it was a really rough night and we were at the pine castle animal hospital the next morning (it is a walk-in on saturdays) and quite frankly, i thought that was it for her - she was just doing so badly. dr. bill klein asked us to leave her with them for a few hours while they did tests and to come back before noon when they closed. so tom and i went back to mikey's and waited and you can't imagine how those hours dragged by. we were expecting the worst and bracing ourselves to let her go - i really thought it was the end. dr. klein had said that she had enlarged lymph nodes in her neck and groin and he suspected a lymphoma. she was also blind in the right eye which was completely bloodshot and then, of course, the urinary issues. when we finally got back to the animal hospital, dr. klein went through the blood work and x-rays with us. the complete blood count showed a markedly elevated white blood cell count with a preponderance of lymphocytes but surprisingly little else and that went the same for the x-rays. there might have been a mediastinal mass but it also could have been enlarged lymph nodes from infection, pressing on the trachea causing the respiratory difficulty. no bladder, kidney or ureteral stones or masses either. no lung masses. the liver looked slightly enlarged, possibly from congestion. in any case, dr. klein told us that when he first saw consuelo, he thought she was done but after seeing the results of the tests, he gave her a shot of Baytril, which is enrofloxacin - doggie Cipro - an antibiotic, and we got sent home with a five-day course with instructions to return on monday for a followup. the plan was that if she did not get better, we would call it quits. the change in consuelo that afternoon and evening was quite dramatic. she was still wheezing but she looked much brighter. she was also hungry. we all slept a bit better that night. poor tom had a cold and not sleeping the night before did not help at all. the next day, sunday, she was even better and we went home to the boat after breakfast. on monday, it seemed like she had more or less plateaued and we took her back to dr. klein in the afternoon. another blood count was done and the white blood cell count had gone down as expected. so we are to continue the antibiotics - we were given more - plus a bronchodilator and a nonsteroidal. yesterday, tuesday, she showed quite a bit more animation - a good day. the other thing is that her right eye is much better and i do think that she can see out of it now. however, today, wednesday, she barely ate and her breathing is rapid and shallow although there is no wheezing or stridor. she looks exhausted. even so, she insisted on walking the dock all the way to the grass outside the gate. i carried her back and she struggled to get away like she always does. she was not happy about being carried. there is plenty of fight left in that little body, that's for sure.
i have no illusions. she has been losing weight and has been getting slower and weaker. although there is no tissue diagnosis, a malignancy is really the first thing that comes to mind. consuelo is 14 - a grand old lady in dog years - her body will fail her anyway, whether it is a cancer or something else. in any case, the thing here is to keep her comfortable for however long it takes, until it is "time," whenever that may be. so, we live from day to day here from now on. good days and not so good days - it is what it is.
the day you bring that cute little ball of fluff home, you already know that she will eventually break your heart but you do it anyway because what she gives you in return is priceless.
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