Pediatric Heart Picnic 2012

I had such a great time at the Inova Fairfax and CVCA Heart Picnic this weekend. AP and I drove to Clemyjontri park and got to hang out with some of my heart friends from last year. We have all had heart surgery at CVCA and we get together every year to have a picnic with kids who have also had heart surgery. Kids are my favoritist things.....

My buddy Buoy was there

Buoy -I missed you

Hello

and his friend Jetty

and the two Collies Sugar and Annie

Sugar and Annie

This year we have a new friend join us and he was taller than me. His name is Gunner and he is a Great Dane and is still a puppy.

I got lots of love from all the people that were there.

I will stand here in these wheels all day as long as you pet me



Let me tell you a secret

We had to pose for pictures



Buoy and Jetty

Tonka and Buoy

and of course I got to hangout with awesome kids

Liam had to check out my spidey tape on my boots

I love you guys!

 

I love to be petted - specially around my ears

Happiness!

The kids are always so much fun








Buoy was all about the cookies

Did someone say COOKIE

Hey whats in the Bag?

Seriously - whats in the bag?

I met a new little friend Zack who was just there to visit

Dude U R Huge

R U A Bear?

I always have a great time at the picnic - thanks to CVCA and Inova Fairax Hospital for inviting me.

for more pics check out the CVCA FaceBook site https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151169486758001.461289.315341248000&type=1&l=c19f798abe

PICNIC

On Sunday AP and I got to go to a really cool park and meet some new friends and some of our old ones. The new friends were dogs and kids that all have had heart surgery like me. It was a great day and I got to forget about my medical problems for awhile. It was put on by the great people at Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children and the Chesapeake Veterinary Cardiology Associates. 

I met a Collie named Annie

A Newfie named Bouy

Bouy and Annie are also therapy dogs.

I got lots of love from everyone.

The kids were all great and some of my Doctors were there. Dr. Rosenthal was there along with Cari who took really good care of me and AP got to meet Dr. Schmitt who was also in on my surgery

A really cool kid liked my bionic eye.



 It was a really fun time and I loved all the head pats, ear scratches and belly rubs from all the great kids.

Thanks to CVCA for inviting me and to Bouy's mom for the chicken.

p.s. AP borrowed 2 of these pictures from the CVAC Facebook site - we hope that is OK

Tonka Loves a Good Picnic

I got an invitation to a picnic coming up in October. The great people at Chesapeake Veterinary Cardiology Associates sponsor a picnic with the Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children every year. It's the pediatric heart surgery CELEBRATION. There will be my favoritist things in the whole world there "KIDS". They will have had heart surgery just like me and we get to hang out and have a picnic. AP says there will even be hot dogs - whats better than KIDS and HOT DOGS. I can't wait.

Tonka update

AP here:
Tonka and I returned to the CVRC at 7:30am this morning and the minute he got out of the truck he started sneezing blood everywhere. They hurried him to the back to take care of him and I setup camp for the day in a corner chair. Dr. Gonzales http://www.atlanticvetintmed.com/pages.aspx?content=35 was not free to talk to me until about 11:00. They put Tonka and I into an exam room and he checked him out and made him sneeze a few times. He then explained how the rhinoscopy procedure would go and what they would be looking for. He was very thorough and wanted me to understand that it would not be a fix for the nosebleeds unless they found a cause such as a tumor, polyp or foreign body. He would take some biopsies to send out to a lab to look for other cases such as fungus, allergies or a blood disorder. There is a rare platelet disorder that is found in Otterhounds and Great Pyrenees. http://ahdc.vet.cornell.edu/clinpath/modules/coags/Glanz.htm . Since Tonka had trouble with his femoral artery and bleeding during his heart surgery he wanted to make sure I understood that the scope procedure could become messy. He wanted to do a clotting test before doing the procedure and take some skull x-rays. I started to think that perhaps we should wait and do another week or so of medicines and see it that would stop the nose bleeds but it also seemed like it was the perfect time to do it if we were going to do it. The Cardiology center CVCA is part of the same group and Tonka's heart surgeon Dr. Rosenthal happened to be working at that location so I consulted with him as well.  In the end we had the procedure and this is the update:
No nasal tumors, no polyps, no foreign body,l no obvious cause of nosebleeds
Took biopsies to send out for infection and possibly some rare platelet blood thing that Pyrs can have.
He did real well with the anesthesia - heart was solid- some bleeding still so can't come home till tomorrow.

Now we wait

Home Again

AP here:
I got to pick Tonka up and bring him home today. It is amazing to think that just yesterday he had heart surgery and today he is home. I cannot say enough great things about CVCA and the care that he received. I met with Dr. Rosenthal today to discuss his post surgical care and he answered all my questions and really put me at ease (heart stuff is scary stuff). Tonka was very happy to "see" my dad and had a good time in the waiting room with a very nice couple fussing over him.

Happy Boy

Smiling

He came home and slept on the landing for a little bit then went downstairs and wanted to eat so I fed him a small bowl. He wanted to go outside so I opened the door and he walked out and went potty and then just stood there looking a little lost. I went and got him and we came up the ramp and into the kitchen and that is where he has been the rest of the day. He is still a bit groggy tonight but he never does real well with medication.

It took me a little while to clean up all the gel from his armpit and chest where they did echocardiograms yesterday and today. That stuff is really sticky but I got it washed off and blew him dry with the hairdryer and he was loving being brushed -even though he was half asleep. I am going to try and scan the echo pictures to post. The pictures show the blood flow before the occulder with the leak and then after the occulder with no leak - very cool.
He has not messed with the very large incision and stitches on his hind leg but has been interested in grooming the shaved spot on his front leg. I'm sure he will eventually get interested in the stiches and I will have to break out the comfy cone which will make him mad. 

Incision 

His Aunt Carol came by this afternoon with a large caterpillar toy and that perked him up for a moment.


New Toy

He finally got up with a lot of coaxing this evening and had a little dinner. His leg is bothering him so I gave him some pain medication to make him more comfortable and now he is back to sleep. I have a feeling I won't be getting much sleep tonight but I am so glad he is home and doing so well.

Stop the Leak

AP here - a very tired AP.
Today was Tonka's heart surgery and the amazing Doctors -Dr. Peckens and Dr Rosenthal http://www.cvcavets.com/ successfully plugged the 6mm hole in his heart with a 10mm ductal occluder. Tonka has a fairly large incision in the crease of  his back leg where they accessed his femoral artery for the catheter. The placement of the occluder went very well but the artery did not want to stop bleeding right away so it took a little longer than I thought it would. The staff were awesome and everyone took really good care of my boy especially Cari and Heather. Cari called me this evening when her shift ended to give me an update on him she said he is still groggy but alert. This is what he looked like when I left this afternoon.



Still out from anesthesia

 The leak is plugged and the murmur is now quiet. I cannot thank everyone enough for all the well wishes and prayers. Some rest and recovery and he will be blippity blopping and back to wrestling with his friends.

Be Still My Beating Heart

I went for a long ride today with AP and her Dad. We went all the way to Leesburg VA to the LifeCenter and Chesapeake Veterinary Cardiology Associates to see Dr. Peckens.
https://www.cvcavets.com/doctor_directory/neal-peckens/

His assistant Heather met with AP to take my history and she was nice enough to keep me from hitting my head on the exam table. Dr. Peckens came in and listened to my heart, and listened to my heart, and listened to my heart and when he was done he asked AP if I had ever been diagnosed with a heart murmur. AP told him that the very first Doctor I ever had diagnosed that but everyone since had said no so it was thought that I had outgrown it (we dogs do that). He said he definitely heard one and told her he thought I had a PDA but we would know for sure with an echo cardiogram. He asked if I would be OK up on a table and AP told him that I am not a fan of heights and about the time I got up on the couch by accident and was scared to come down. They all agreed to try me up on the table but if I got stressed we could do the test with me standing.

We went into the other room and Heather and Dr. Peckens lifted me up and put me on a table that had a panel in the middle. The panel comes out leaving a hole for the Doctor to put a device called a transducer through to move around on my chest. They put electrodes on me and then used ultrasound and the transducer to put images of the inside of my heart on the screen of the echo cardiogram machine. I was a really good boy and stayed real still - except for the few times I tried to push some buttons on the machine.

Dr. Peckens and Heather

What does this button do?

Let me roll the ball.

He showed AP and Dad the images in color to display the problem with my heart. It is called a PDA or Patent Ductus Arterious and is congenital which means I was born with it. Most PDA's are caught early in puppies and taken care of. If it not caught 50% of puppies with it never make it past 1year -so I have beaten the odds so far. Basically I have a hole that was supposed to close when I was born and it didn't so now I have an over circulation that has made my heart get large. The other day my heart went wonky and into Atrial Fibrillation and my heart was beating really, really fast which is dangerous. Thanks to the medicine I am taking my heart rate is back to normal and has gone back into a normal rhythm so I am at low risk of heart failure until they can fix me. The Doctors at CVCA all meet at a big thing called rounds and discuss all the cases they have seen and put their heads together for the best fix. Tomorrow at the round thing they will talk about me and the best option to help me. I am hoping that option is the amplatz ductal occluder because that surgery will allow me to be up and around quickly and they won’t have to open up my chest. It's a plug that they can use to stop up the hole and my heart can get back t normal size. There is a handout on CVCA's website that explains the problem and the solution if you want to read it https://www.cvcavets.com/diseases-conditions/patent-ductus-arteriosus/

Right now I am a very happy boy because I can now go for a walk as long as I don't get carried away. AP is happy because my heart is not all wonky right now and we know what the problem is.