One of our biggest issues since her diagnosis has been her inability to tolerate her medicine called Cyclosporine.  This med is critical to her immune-suppression protocol because it stops her t-cells from attacking her bone marrow (which is how her bone marrow came to the point of producing at less than 5% what it was supposed to be producing).  By inability to tolerate, I mean she cried as soon as saw the box of medicine being pulled out of the cabinet; she screamed and kicked when I got close to her; she begged and pleaded me to not give it to her; she gagged as soon as it hit her mouth; she threw it up more times than I cared to count – mostly late at night when we were exhausted, or early in the morning when I was trying to get back to bed.

We tried changing the time of day she got it, moved it before meals, after meals, the middle of the night, right before bed, first thing in the morning, etc.  NOTHING has worked and we were all in tears most day over what we have coined “psycho-sporine” because it was making us all NUTS!

Due to her being so small and having such a low dose, she had to stay on the liquid solution and could not change to capsules.  She even offered to endure a second injection each day if she could just not have to take the liquid solution.  But, alas, the liquid was all we had for her….

So, Micayah, the hero he is, came up with a perfect solution – empty gelcaps that we fill and let her swallow.  So, it took 4 empty gelcaps to use up her nightly dose of cyclosporine and……  I am proud to announce that we have gone 3 days with no vomits, screams, or kicks at psycho-time! She can take it right after a meal, or anytime really.  The issue was the taste hitting the back of her throat and triggering that gag reflex.  It has been such a relief to have those sessions tamed for the lioness.