Post date: Oct 13, 2009 3:15:02 PM
I haven't written in a long time. As my sister put it recently, she hasn't been able to get back on her feet since we lost our sister-in-law Susie to breast cancer this summer. When I got back from Susie's memorial service in Vancouver (after spending a week there previously, when Susie was terminally ill in palliative care), I was not only profoundly depressed and way behind on everything in my life, I felt completely used up. It was like aliens had sucked the very life force from my body--I felt like I had no serotonin left in my brain. I found myself unable to deal with anything beyond life's basic requirements. I went to work, I came home and slept. Things have gotten slightly better in the last month or so, but only slightly.
Here is the memorial website I created for Susie. Her death is a cosmic knot that my subconscious will never stop trying to untie. I can't be reconciled or move on. I don't know where to go from here.
Obviously our family has to go on, but it isn't clear yet how we're going to do it.
People have been asking me how Rowan is doing. He has an autoimmune condition that is most likely masticatory myositis. The other side of his head caved in and he seemed to be having problems with his jaw, so we increased him to the maximum dose of prednisone. That seemed to bring him relief. Now we are slowly reducing his prednisone and keeping our fingers crossed that he doesn't relapse. So far so good.
Otherwise Rowan is enjoying a normal doggie life, besides his all-consuming obsession with food. It's like living with a drug addict.
Here's a shout out to our awesome neurologist at the Animal Care Center in Rohnert Park, Dr. Diccon Westworth.
When life goes to hell, hobbies are a godsend. October is a big agility month in Northern CA. We just got back from Carson City, where Trevor double-Qed all 3 days and got his most points ever in a single trial. He's now up to 26 double Qs and 480 points. Hopefully we can keep up the trend and finish his MACH. He will be 3 years old at the end of November. Good boy, Trevor!
Researching PRA continues to be my REAL hobby.
Recently I received email from a woman in Taiwan who just learned that her toy poodle has prcd-PRA. She found me through Trevor's website. She told me that her eye vet prescribed an antioxidant supplement called Meni-One Eye. This supplement was developed in Japan specifically for PRA because, as she put it, so many dachshunds there have the disease.
The main ingredient in Meni-One Eye is astaxanthin. It's responsible for the pigment in salmon and other seafood. I did a web search, and I could only find a few studies of the effects of astaxanthin on the retina. It's readily available in the US as a supplement, but I don't get the impression it's widely used for AMD (macular degeneration) or RP (retinitis pigmentosa)--any benefits it might have seem to be purely anecdotal at this point.
Meanwhile, the annual Vision Quest conference recently wrapped up in Toronto. Check it out. This year's hot topics:
Last year's Vision Quest "current state of research" presentation mentioned antioxidant supplementation as one possible therapy (not as a cure, but as a way of delaying onset). And in fact, the RetinaComplex clinical trial has shown enough promise to be extended another year. But at this year's Vision Quest, presenter Yves Sauvé put more emphasis on eating a diet rich in retina-friendly foods. See Nutrition and Retinal Degeneration.
Where does the truth lie? How can there be a PRA supplement offered in Japan that no one in the west seems to have heard of? Do any of these antioxidants actually make a difference, or are they just a way of making ourselves feel better?
It's impossible to say. I'm fascinated by the way that medical reality seems to be every bit as subjective and malleable as other kinds of reality. This is not to say that one never arrives at hard facts. But the path to getting there seems to be pretty circuitous.
In any case, I'm hoping to get together with my old holistic vet soon to refine Trevor's diet and supplement regime. We've been at this for a year. Trevor is about to get his annual CERF exam. It's time to take a step back and re-evaluate.