11/11/2022
❤️
My dear, sweet little girl, Casey. She saved my life. I was taking Bactrim for infection and on my final day of the course prescribed. While getting ready for bed, I found a little zit-like thing on my abdomen. I didn’t think much of it, maybe it was a bug bite or something. So I went to bed at about midnight. At 2am, Casey was standing on me and pulling my blankets back. Now that was unusual, she liked to sleep, as many Clumber spaniels do. I got up and went to check on my son, he was fine. Casey followed me. When I got back to my room, she blocked the way to the bed and pulled on my PJ pants to try to drag me into the bathroom. I wasn’t feeling so great, everything hurt and burned, so I thought I would take some Tylenol. I went to the bathroom, turned the light on, and found myself covered in hives. I’ve had them before but never this bad. So I took Benadryl, the maximum dose, and Pepcid to fight off the allergic reaction. It took the edge off. Casey would not let me go back to sleep. Eventually, my skin burned so bad I ended up in the ER of a local hospital. It turned out I had a Stevens-Johnson reaction to Bactrim and the ER doctor and the hospitalist all said if Casey hadn’t woken me up, I would have likely died. I had hives down my throat and it was hard to breathe for a while.
The hardest thing I ever had to do was put Casey to sleep. She was just shy of 16 years old, she had always struggled with weight issues and I had to watch her diet. Suddenly she couldn’t keep her weight on and she started having accidents. She VERY clearly told me it was time. That was on Friday, the vet was closing so we arranged to do it at noon Monday. That weekend was Casey fest. She went to visit all her beloved grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Everyone gave her a treat she would love: summer sausage. Bacon. Ice cream. Everyone got to say a private goodbye to the sweetest dog anyone ever met. Before I took her in, we went on one last walk on the beach of Lake Michigan. I carried her nearly the whole way, but she perked up when she got to the lake and put her paws in. We stopped at Starbucks and our favorite barista gave her a Venti cappuccino. And we stopped at Culver's for a plain cheeseburger. She knew what was happening when we got to the vet and she gave me kisses. And….I just sobbed writing this.