Sounds like "Saabing"

I had planned to write a whole specially crafted post about the next step in Emily's diagnosis but after a whole day of explaining it to person after person for reason after reason I simply don't have it in me. The clearest, simplest explanation I've given today is to my parents so I'm going to cut and paste that e-mail in here to let you know what's going on. I've got posts in the works for days to come and I'll keep plugging along but no matter what you read here, make no mistake, this is all I'm thinking about.

Not sure where I left off with either of you so I'll run down the whole thing. Took her in because she wasn't eating. Got her some anti-inflammatories for her supposed arthritis and an appetite enhancer. The appetite enhancer made her anxious and I found other ways to get her to eat so we stopped that and used the anti-inflammatories alone for a few days. Her blood work came back with some elevated liver levels so I thought the doctor was going to diagnose liver failure. We spoke again this morning and it turns out that, though the liver info isn't fabulous, given her lack of reaction to the anti-inflammatories and her current physical challenges (stumbling, knuckling over onto the top of a foot, moments of forgetfullness, etc.) her primary ailment is neurological. We don't know exactly what it is but the possibilities are tumor, stroke, inflammation or something else we don't know about. The only way to find out for sure is with an MRI or a CT scan. For that they'd have to anesthetize her which is very risky at her age and it wouldn't change the course of treatment or give us a chance at some miracle answer so I'm not going to do it. We've taken her off the anti-inflammatories to bleed them out of her system so we can start a course of steroids later this week. In the case of a tumor the steroids might shrink it. In the case of a brain bleed they might help her body clean up the extra blood. Her inflammation levels are just barely above the high normal range so it's not likely to be that. My money is on a stroke given where her physical limitations are showing up. So we're not looking at as drastic and disgusting a demise as liver failure (though with steroids in the mix we may get that later) but the future is uncertain. She may decline slowly and come up with new challenges along the way. She may have a bigger stroke and go all in one fell swoop. In the mean time we'll see if the steroids help and I've talked with the homeopathic guy so she's got immuno boosters and hepatic support vitamins and I'm cooking food for her and hand feeding her as necessary to keep her strength up. She's getting even more spoiled and she's loving it.

Probably doesn't need to be said that I'm heartbroken and hating the high level of uncertainty but the girl is pretty happy and comfortable so I'm calling it a win. For now.