Healing TTouches

This has been the year of Nestle and his Sterile Nodular Panniculitis which raised its ugly head late last March.  In addition to the knots that popped up all over his body he also had dangerously high fevers that honestly frightened the crap out of me.

Nestle was prescribed a mixing bowl of medications including Prednisone to suppress his immune system.  He'd begin with a high dose and begin the long process of reducing the dose every couple of weeks.   About six weeks into this and at a certain point in his steroid reduction he'd experience a resurgence of the Panniculitis fever and back we went to the full dose to begin the long process again, and again.  In the mean time the steroids were having their affect on the poor little guy and essentially he was getting weaker and weaker.

In October as the Prednisone dose dropped to that "milestone" level, the fever came back.  Nestle was done.  I was done for him.  It had been six months of torture already.  But!  The vet changed his steroid and I was to continue the long slow drop in dosage with the prednisone till it was done.  Every two weeks I would give one quarter less of his pill.  At first the continued dosage drop looked great, his energy was increasing and the abdominal swelling began to reduce.  Then as the last two weeks of his long drawn out Prednisone experience he really got weak.  Nestle had a hard time maintaining his balance and often times would fall over, and he always had a very hard time getting up.  There were good days and there were worse days, but the issue of his ability to maintain motor control was certainly there, not painful, just weak.  I asked the vet about this of course, as I was very concerned.  I was asked to give it some time; Nestle's been on steroids for a long time and his body has been through a lot.

Naturally Nestle has gotten a lot of TTouch and energy work during this time.  The picture above shows him wearing two wraps, the Half Wrap as well as the Buckle Wrap to bring awareness to his rear end, hips, and spine, while offering the most gentle of support.  The wraps aren't snug at all, he's just little, so they're slightly loose.

He slept a lot the first week of his Prednisone-free life; a lot, a lot.  It occurred to me that he was sleeping as much as a being recovering from intense illness or surgery.  So, I let him rest, kept him warm and did loads of TTouch work on him.   After that first week Nestle began to "wake up" a bit, he has been more alert with each passing day as well as more mobile and much more steady on his feet.  The magical spark of my little man has begun to shine again and I am forever grateful as Christmas day approaches; after all, it was only a couple months ago when Nestle pretty much let me know he was "done", and I didn't think I'd have my little friend around for the holidays.