AWESOME NEWS! I had the followup for my ER visit with my ophthalmologist, and he said, “Asa’s reevaluation today showed excellent resolution of the retinal hemorrhage!” In fact, the hemorrhage that was detected at my last scheduled appointment with him in March is now reduced to a “fine ribbon,” and there is no sign of the scleral hemorrhage in the white part of my eye, which led to the ER visit last month. That’s all fancy talk for my eye is heading in the right direction!
In fact, my eye doctor believes now that my hypertension is under control, intraocular hemorrhages should no longer be an issue. So once again a special shout out to the ER vet who helped find the missing piece for that diagnosis! However, I also saw my primary vet last week, as he continues to monitor my blood pressure. Right now my blood pressure readings in the office are on the high end of normal. He kind of would like to see the readings a little lower, but he does not want to risk dropping my blood pressure too low for when I’m home relaxing. Low blood pressure can be just as dangerous as too high. Based on the hemorrhage healing my eye doctor saw, with no new ones developing, my two doctors decided I probably have “white coat syndrome.” This means my blood pressure gets elevated at appointments, and I’m probably fine at home on the current dosage. White coat syndrome is when a dog gets super excited or scared at an appointment, which in turn affects blood pressure. You can probably guess, my issue is on the super excited end of the spectrum, because I love going there to see my friends. It is in my chart now to not get me revved up with squeaky high pitched welcomes, and lots of treats and cuddles. We have to keep things all business, until after the exam is finished. My primary vet will continue to monitor my blood pressure, so I will return in two weeks for more readings.
My primary vet is also monitoring my kidney function, which goes along with the high blood pressure. While we were away on vacation, the previous lab results came back, and the news wasn’t good. However, I had only been on the new blood pressure medicine for two weeks at that point, and my vet optimistically cautioned not to worry just yet. He also noted in that phone call that my liver values had become significantly elevated since my annual blood work results taken in March. Again, being an optimist such as myself, he said let’s just give the body time to adjust to the new medicines and recheck it. Well I’m happy to report, we repeated the tests last week, and now that I’ve been on the medicine for a month my kidney function is back to the normal range, and my liver values are where they were in March! I didn’t even have to study for that test to get good grades! He’ll repeat the tests again at my blood pressure followup to ensure I’m still on the right track.
So where do we go from here in terms of my eye? Well I’m not completely out of the woods, because as we know from my left eye, the Golden Retriever Pigmentary Uveitis (GRPU) can quickly escalate. Monitoring will continue with routine eye exams. The development of hyperreflectivity in my retina is also being watched. Due to my love of all things sparkly, and Mom’s insistence that I wear a reflective vests on evening walks, I thought hyperreflectivity was a good thing. Apparently it is not. It means that my retina is damaged, probably from the hemorrhages, and that I may experience impaired vision at night. This could explain my recent hesitation going upstairs to bed at night., and my tendency to bump into things in low light. Mom and Dad are going to make sure I have more light to help me see.
The biggest concern moving forward though is monitoring for cataracts. I’ve been on steroid eyedrops for a while, and longterm use can lead to cataracts, which was detected during my ER visit. At that time, they prescribed different eyedrops, that also has a steroid in it, but is less and may slow the cataracts. So basically, as my ophthalmologist explained, we are in a delicate balancing phase to prolong my vision from GRPU, but also trying to prevent the onset of cataracts, which can be caused by treatments for GRPU. However, both my ophthalmologist and primary vet are happy at the moment, and said I’m heading in the right direction!
