The Cancer Tour de France

I've decided I prefer to think of this as the Cancer Tour de France, rather than the Cancer Iditarod. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy the Iditarod. We used to love it when they televised it, back a few years ago. Love the dogs and their over-the-top tongue-wagging joy as they pull those sleds through that crazy-harsh countryside in their little bootied feet. Both the Iditarod and the TdF are hard slogs through the countryside; both are serious tests of physical endurance; both have made idols of cancer-butt-kicking Lances (Mackey for one and Armstrong for the other). But... the Iditarod mainly brings up images of scenes that are generally cold and dark and for the most part seem pretty inhospitable. On the other hand, the Tour de France, which is my favorite sporting event of all, brings with it lots of beautiful imagery: the hillsides covered with lavender, fields of sun-worshiping sunflowers, the rainbow colors of the peloton streaming by.

So, the Cancer Tour de France... it's got mad-dash sprints, gut-wrenching climbs up towering mountains, and beautiful days in gorgeous countryside. And last week while I was having a meltdown, that was sort of like one of those hard mountain stages. But I've mellowed out and hopefully we are in for a long stretch of beautiful days. Although... today wasn't exactly one of those. At least it didn't start out that way.

It was spitting here this morning at the house. Kept waiting for a break in the weather to take Abby for a quick walk, but it wouldn't let up. I figured if she was going to get wet we might as well go to Fiesta Island since she gets wet there anyway running in the water. Well, it was not just spitting at FI; it was raining pretty good and being driven by plant-your-feet-&-hold-onto-your-hat wind. As soon as I opened the car door, I knew I was in trouble, but by then there was no turning back. Abby had already jumped out of the car and ran down to the beach, looking back like "What's keeping you??" It was cold, it was windy, I was not at all dressed warmly enough. There are usually dozens of folks/dogs down there, but there were only 3 or 4 other crazy souls down there today. But the dogs were all quite happy. They don't care. Abby had a great time. She ran, she romped, she chased seaguls. What's a little rain?

My toes are still not quite warmed up again, but at least Abby had fun. (And I got some exercise, so that was a bonus.) I was thinking that if one of us is to be blissfully unaware and happy, and one of us has to be painfully aware, I'm glad I'm the one who knows she is sick and she doesn't, and not the other way around.

Oh, and that diarrhea the other day ... that started my whole freak out session... (sorry to bring up her poop again...) anyway, I'm not really sure it was caused by the Palladia now. The other day we caught her in the yard tossing around and nibbling on something small, clumpy and brown. The hubster and I both looked at each other and said at the same time, "Is that...poop?" Thank god it wasn't! On closer inspection -- but not THAT close cuz we were afraid it really was poop -- we realized it was an oxidized plum off one of our trees. We are new to this whole fruit tree thing, not having had any at our old house. Well, that got us wondering if the fruit was ripe enough to pick and we went around to the side of the house where the trees are hiding, and Abby came along and did this:

Yep, she's standing on her back legs, trying to help herself to the not-so-low-hanging not-fully-ripened fruit. So... I'm thinking that could be the cause of the diarrhea, and I went ahead and re-started the Palladia. We'll see how it goes. 

I'll let you know how the follow-up appointment goes with Dr. V. on Friday. Plan to ask him about making her diet more starch-free (instead of just mostly grain-free, like it is now) and about adding in some of the more holistic supplements suggested in Dr. Dressler's book. Hoping he'll be cool with the idea of being a bit more East-meets-West-esque.

The Cancer Iditarod

I know I sounded all optimistic about Abby and how she's doing in yesterday's post... but then this morning (after only being back on the Palladia for one dose) her diarrhea troubles were back. Damn. So I started worrying about having to take her off the Palladia (we are definitely not taking it again - at least until I talk to Dr. V. at her next appointment Friday the 20th) and then I started to worry that The Lone Met would turn into a big ol' bad-ass tumor without Captian Palladia there to keep it bay. Worrying worrying worrying.

Then, also today, some holistic options came up via various channels... and then I started freaking out that maybe we never should have been giving her the Palladia/Cytoxan in the first place! Saw some info online (not the actual research but comments on research) that chemo can do more harm than good because basically, whatever cancer cells survive the chemo become even more aggressive and actually end up promoting metastasis. [Also found what seemed to be the original research about that later on on WebMD. It said, yes, the cancer that survives becomes a "healthier" form of the cancer - but it also said it doesn't mean chemo doesn't work - just that you need new, additional treatment options. But...who knows, maybe the drug companies that makes the chemo paid for that article.] I also saw online that supposedly 80% of oncologists in a survey said they would not choose chemo for themselves, even though they recommend it to their patients. No clue if that is really true.

That all prompted a little melt down/freak out. Spent hours on end in front of the computer researching/reading and continuing to freak out. Posted a comment on the Tripawds site and some folks there tried to talk me down from my nuttiness. Tripawds recommends the "Dog Cancer Survival Guide" from Dr. Dressler - who funnily enough works out of Kihei in Maui - which is exactly where we just were... So, I downloaded that and need to start speed reading through it. Seems like there is a lot of good advice in there. I'm also considering doing a phone consult with a holistic vet that comes highly recommended by some of the Tripawds' folks... Adding to my freak out was the thought that we should have been doing more holistic stuff (diet and supplements) from the get-go. Trying not to think "We wasted 6 months when we could have been doing more!!" Trying...

Anyway, not sure where all this will lead - most likely to: dropping the Palladia, rethinking the Cytoxan (although I'm kinda afraid to go wholly holistic - maybe we'll go "halflistic"), maybe to adding some new supplements to her diet, and getting very strict about the grain free/low carb stuff. (She's on a kibble, Blue Buffalo Wilderness formula, that is supposed to be good, but I need to research it more.)

Ugh. I reread this post and it's just a big jumbled mess, but that is how my brain has been all afternoon. This stuff is all so confusing and its hard to know what info you read is right and what is just hype. Thought about not even posting it, but, well, this is the roller-coaster ride we are on. (Dr. Dressler calls it the Cancer Iditarod, which I've stolen for the title of this post.) Will keep you posted on what changes we make to her routine. I just want her to be around as long as possible -- as long as her quality of life remains as good as it's been. (She has a pretty darn awesome life at the moment...)

Speaking of her awesome life, we went to Fiesta Island this morning, as we've done every morning now since we got back from Maui, and she ran like crazy on the beach with Dakota. Then this afternoon, while I was freaking out and doing research on the computer, she was happily napping, oblivious, in the other room.  

For today's photo, here's an update on her new toys: (The 7-rated shark has an even bigger hole in his head; the squeaky dog has lost all of its limbs - but it keeps on smiling.)

Trying to keep smiling and have a called a moratorium on freaking out.

And... We're Back

Sorry about the lack of blog update last week, but we were away on vacation. While we were away, Abby stayed with my sis, Terry, and her hubby and their corgi, Abby's cousin Lou. She had a good time there, and even learned to master their doggy door - which is pretty amazing since she is all legs and he is height challenged, as you may remember from the classic "Stubs & Stilts" photo. It's a bit blurry, being an action shot, but below is a pic of her coming in through the doggy door. There's also a pic of her cramming herself into a tiny space in their kitchen behind their table. Not sure what that was about, but she does seem to enjoy tight cozy spaces, as evidenced back when she was a pup and climbed into the kitchen cupboard. (Yes, if you linked to the pic, those ARE her dirty feet in my frying pans. I promise I washed them after... Then again, maybe I didn't...)

 Speaking of feet, here are my pink-toe-nailed feet on a gorgeous black sand beach we went to in Maui, plus a bunch more Maui pics (muy Maui pics, you might say):

Black sand

The black sand beach from afar

Two of the many pretty beaches we visited:

One of the MANY shave ices we ate...

A gorgeous sunset (love how the hubster's shoes are glowing)

Hiking the crater -- sorry, "erosional depression;" it's NOT a crater -- at Haleakala National Park

But enough about us... back to the dog, which is why we're all here. Back home, we gave Abby the shark we bought her as a sort of sorry-we-went-away-but-we-know-you-didn't-really-miss-us,-hanging-out-with-your-aunt-and-uncle-and-tormenting-Lou-and-going-on-your-three-walks-per-day! gift.

Dog Bites Shark

We thought a shark had a sort of Maui-esqueness to it (even though the only scary sea creature we saw was an eel... oh, and that naked old man at Po'olenalena Beach.... Don't go over the lava rock to the far right end of Po'olenalena... Just a warning. I mean, unless you're into that sorta thing...) We also bought her the shark because it sported a little tag saying it was rated a "7 on the Tuff scale" (a regular ol' store bought stuffed squeaky dog toy gets only a "2" rating). We knew she probably really needed a "10", but they didn't have any, and we thought the thing was SOLID. It's HARD - you could hurt someone with it, and it's triple stitched. 

And...here it is a mere 15 minutes later. She did exactly what you are supposed to do when confronted with a shark - went for it's vulnerable part: it's nose. (We probably should have suspected that anything that rates toughness on a "tuff" scale was not actually going to be all that hard of a nut to crack...)

 Spoiled little girl ALSO got a pink stuffed doggy from her aunt Terry.

Here is what that doggy looks like two-days after: It's missing an ear, and two of it's legs have been gutted and de-squeakerized, but it keeps on smiling.

Actually looks pretty good for a 2 on the Tuff Scale (think the shark has deflected some of the chewing...)

In a final bit of news, Abby started back yesterday on her full metronomic protocol of Palladia/Cytoxan on alternate days. Yes, she's a solid citizen again. Hopefully she stays that way and continues to benefit from the meds. Take that, Lone Met! 

Keep smiling!
 

No New Mets!!!

Abby had her follow-up x-ray today, and while the results weren't miraculous (no, unfortunately the lone met did not disappear...) they were still pretty darn good: that lone met is STILL a loner. None of his rat-bastard friends have come to join the party! Hoorah! Hopefully he STAYS a loner... although I guess that's kind of a long shot. Dr. V. said it's very rare to have just one met--I guess they are like potato chips or something. 

The slightly bad news was that the Lone Met (I've decided to start capitalizing that...sorta like he's the evil villain in a B Western...) had gotten a little bigger in the almost-three-months since the last x-ray. He went from 1.0cm to ~ 1.4cm. The good news is that The Lone Met lives in a "good" spot in her lungs. Apparently the location of the mets can have a big impact on longevity, for instance you don't want them up by the airways. Our Lone Met is hanging out in sort of the "back country" of Abby's lungs, so nowhere near up where all the action is. Phew. 

Dr. V. says if we keep doing what we are doing with her metronomic therapy (maintaining her every-other-day doses of Palladia/Cytoxan) we should have her around for "a good long time." Which, with osteosarcoma, is still not THAT long in the grand scheme of things, and it's impossible to really put a number on these things, but... there is a dog on the Tripawds site who is on metronomic protocol, AND has lung mets (plural) and has been going for 2 years that way! Another two years (at least) would be awesome. 

And, I ask you, does this look like a sick dog??? 

[No animals - or humans - were harmed in the making of this video, although all three of us did end up quite wet.]

Oh, one other thing... Mike was asking, Why can't we just cut that damn Lone Met out? Dr. V. did address that -- it is possible that we could cut it out, but it's pretty rare to do because it's not worth it unless the dog meets three criteria: (1) the met has to be stable (it can grow some, but not a ton -- as it is now, he said we could actually call her met "stable," so check on that one), (2) it has to be a Lone Met (check), and (3) it has to remain a Lone Met for a year (so, we need to keep waiting and see what happens). We'll see if we make it to another six months and The Lone Met still rides alone. It's pretty major surgery, so I dunno... Hopefully we'll someday be at a point where we need to make that decision. 

P.S. She is still having minor diarrhea (still not entirely a "solid citizen") so we are on a little break from her meds until her system settles down again. Hopefully she'll be back into her routine very shortly.  

A Quick Update to Yesterday's Post

My iPad2 camera has a "thermal" setting. Fun, eh?

I talked to Dr. V. this morning, and he said not to worry too much about the bit of blood I spotted... Unless I continue to see it. She hasn't "done her business" yet today, so I guess the diarrhea is under control from the Flagyl (that stuff really works like a charm on her) so that's an improvement anyway. I'm keeping an eye on her, and hopefully she'll be fine again in a day or two. In the meantime, I'm supposed to lay off the chemo pills for a few days until she's fully back to normal, but keep giving her a daily Prilosec to help with any little ulcer she might have in her GI tract. 

I'm wondering if maybe part of the problem is that I varied her routine a little... I'm supposed to mix this probiotic powder into her food at every meal to help keep the GI tract in balance. Well, I'd had it sitting on the counter so that I'd remember, but then my mom was coming to visit so I put it in the cupboard so everything would be clean & pretty, and then of course I kept forgetting to mix it into her food! Hopefully once I start it up again, and get her back on her normal diet (she's on chicken and rice for now) she'll be fine again.

In other news, she's as active as ever. We went to Fiesta Island this morning with her good pal, Dakota the boxer and they raced around like maniacs. She's crashed right now, taking a nap in the best chair in the house. 

In icky news from FI, today Dakota's mom and I threw away a dead mole-ish, rat-like little thing that Abby had picked up and been running around with (AGGGGGHHHH!) yesterday when we went there. It took the two of us, plus a clump of seaweed and 2 poop bags to get the thing under wraps. Eeesh. At least Abby didn't notice it today! [When we got home yesterday and Abby ran to give my mom some kisses, I, uh, didn't mention to Grandma that Abby had previously been carrying a dead mole/rat-like thing around in her mouth.... Um, I think we can keep this just between you and me... No one let her read this! And heck, I still let Abby kiss me!]

The Super Model Comes Thru Again (& and some not-so-good news...)

Good News Department: Remember I posted about the Fido Friendly magazine Peep's contest? Well, the super-model dog came through again and we actually won something! I was amazed because some of the pics people submitted were pretty darn cute and even though our picture was fairly creative (very few entries actually fashioned wearable art out of Peeps!), the photo itself was not the best. Basically we tied for what would effectively be "fifth place" (not bad with almost 100 entries) and Abby wins a "BlanketID", which at first I thought was going to be some sort of blanket, but is actually a sort of ID tag. You can view all the winners, including our girl, here.

The truly amazing thing about the win is that we didn't even go for sympathy by playing the cancer/three-legged card! You can't even tell she's a tripawd in the photo, and she still won! (Maybe if I'd played up the cancer/tripawdness, we'd have placed a little higher... Must remember to milk this more.)

Not-so-good News Department: Abby's had a bit of diarrhea, which she gets occasionally (maybe once every third week or so) and which is usually very easily controlled with a single Flagyl pill. But today, when I got home just now and was celebrating the Peeps win, I let her out and noticed what might be blood. I called Dr. V. at the Vet Cancer Group right away, but I didn't realize the office is closed on Thursdays. The message seemed to say they will call back even though they are closed, so hopefully I can get some guidance/info about what this means. I hope it doesn't mean we are at the end of our metronomic therapy. Hopefully we just give her a break for a few days and then she'll be fine... Wish us luck! (I'll post an update or comment when I know more.) Also wish us luck with her upcoming follow-up x-ray, which is this coming Wednesday. Keep positive thoughts for our girl!!! No new mets, no new mets, no new mets!! (And hopefully the old met will be stable - or better yet, even smaller!!!)

Because Every Post Needs a Pic Department: And now, since it really wouldn't be a decent post without a cute pic of Abby, here is a little Happy Easter greeting from our girl: 

Pretty much the most worried-looking Easter Bunny ever.

Oh, and P.S. If you read the comments from the last post, she is digging the braunschweiger! No problem getting her to take her pills when I ball them up in a lump of that stinky stuff! (I just hope she gets to keep taking them, and that they are doing the trick...)

A Dog's Breakfast

I never really understood that phrase until recently. (If you are not familiar with the phrase, since it's mainly a UK thing and we heard it a lot in Bermuda, it basically means whatever you are describing is an unappealing mess.) I've always lived with dogs that ate dry kibble, maybe enhanced with a wee bit of water, so the "dog's breakfast" just looked somewhat like a bowl of, say, bran cereal without the milk. But now that we have an odd dog who is not at all food motivated, and whom we have to entice to eat (since her pills are to be taken with food) with all manner of added goodies in with her kibble, well... now I understand the phrase pretty well. 

Some of that canned food is way nasty looking. And it seems like the more expensive, more organic, more high-end doggy chow it is, the grosser it looks! (Especially the Newman's Own Organic Beef & Liver canned food she gets...) There is also the added fact that we nuke it for a few seconds (the smell comes out more, which is supposed to entice the dog to eat...) so you've got the "dog's breakfast" look plus the smell. Bleh. 

I talked to Dr. V. about her not really wanting to eat her breakfast and what I should do about it, because of the whole pills with food thing. He said it doesn't have to be a lot of food - just a little something. He suggested hiding each pill in a chunk of hot dog. Here's how that went:

Here she is, readily accepting her hot dog chunk! Yum!

And here she is munching the hot dog after spitting out the pill (yes, that little pink spot on the rug is the pill)

Anyway, he said not to worry about her not wanting to eat breakfast. He said some dogs just want to get up and get going and see what's happening and they don't really care about food until much later in the day when all the excitement has died down. (Lest you worry that her appetite is failing because of the cancer, she's been like this ever since we got her. Just not really interested in breakfast -- although she does usually eat it by dinner time. Then wolfs her dinner down shortly thereafter.)

She was keen on the hot dogs for a while, and I could at least get her interested in her breakfast if I threw some chunks in (then I'd give her her pills in the standard scoop of peanut butter) but now she's even bored with the dogs! Oy. I mean, what kinda crazy dog doesn't want to eat a hot dog??? Our special girl - that's who. Right now, at 6 p.m. there is still a bowl full of Blue Buffalo kibble, mixed with hot dog chunks and water, sitting in my kitchen and it looks like a total dog's breakfast. 

P.S. I found out there's a feature where I can designate a short list of people to get each blog post via email, so you don't need to check the blog - you'd just get an email instead when there's a new post. If you want me to put you on the list for that, let me know.  

Sleeps & Peeps

Decided to re-do the "Spring" pic from her "good side"

Sleeps: We have not been sleeping well at our house! There's a squirrel or some other critter that has made a nest under our fence and said critter creeps out at night to taunt watch-dog Abby into a barking frenzy. We tried making her sleep in her bed in our room (instead of the Big Comfy Chair in the sunroom, where she usually sleeps) so that she wouldn't be able to see the stupid critter in the wee hours, but somehow she still senses he's out there. She gets up and starts beating on the door to be let out, so we still don't sleep.

Looking unenthused about the process

Last night, though, the three of us all finally slept! I'm not sure if that was because she's succeeded in scaring off the critter (oh, I so hope that's what it is! The people who lived here before didn't have a dog, so obviously the critter population has gotten a little too used to doing whatever the hell they damn well please in our yard. Not anymore!) or if it's because she was also too exhausted to care. Guess we'll see what happens tonight... 

Peeps: Every year my family threatens to enter The Washington Post Peeps Diorama contest, but we poop out when it comes to actually constructing the Peeps diorama. (We do have a good idea and SOME DAY we WILL enter! We even have some stockpiled Peeps, which you can do because they have a shelf life of like 2000 years.) But, in the meantime - since we missed this year's deadline again - I instead entered Abby in the Peeps Fido Contest through Fido Friendly magazine. The contest is not nearly as labor-intensive as the Post one is, and you only have to submit a pic, as opposed to the actual diorama for the Post. As you can see, I made her some bunny ears out of Peeps bunnies. It's not the best pic ever, so I doubt we will win, but it was not easy to get her to wear the Peeps bunny ears (she wanted to eat them...), so this was the best I could do.

That's pretty much all the news. She's continuing to do really well - very much a crazy puppy. I posted some pics below from resent Fiesta Island visits - and I threw in a sunset shot just cuz it was so incredible the other night!

Laughing and having a grand time at Fiesta Island

Again, laughing (or maybe sneezing) amongst the daisies

I just like this one cuz it's sparkly...

If you did a painting like this people would think it was ridiculously gaudy!

Thanks for reading!

A Good Checkup!

Super model, ready for spring

Abby had a checkup yesterday with Dr. V at the Vet Cancer Group and so far, so good! He said her lungs and heart sounded great (this is good news, as the lungs can start to sound wheezy I guess if things are starting to get bad in there...) and she'd gained almost a pound. I never had a dog before who was so uninterested in her food - even back before she got sick - so I was glad she'd gained a little bit of weight. (So hard to convince a super model to eat!) They also took some blood and sent it off to the lab for a thorough check. They called back today and said everything looked good, which is important since she's on so many drugs. Dr. V. sent us home with enough drugs so she doesn't have to go back for a month. When we go back on Apr 27 they'll do another x-ray - that's going to be a BIG day. I'll post before we go to remind everyone to send positive thoughts that the lone met is still sad and lonely in there - and hopefully getting punier and punier!! If all is going well, she'll do 6 months total on the metronomic protocol and then take a break.

Playing life guard at Fiesta Island

In other news, the Orvis Cover Dog contest ends today, March 31. As long as there's no crazy last-minute voting surge, Abby will finish it out firmly on the podium in 3rd place for "Most Unique Voters." She also ended up 18th for the "Most Money Raised". Not bad, considering there were almost 14,000 dogs entered!! Now the "real" judging begins. The winners of the online votes contest will be posted on the web site (I'm not sure if they'll post the whole podium... maybe just the winners). But since she did so well, I'm sure the judges will see her photo and maybe she'll win and be on the cover of the fall catalog! Not sure when they announce that stuff, but I'll be sure to post if we hear anything. The site says the contest raised over $300,000 for canine cancer research! Abby did her bit, bringing in $590! Whoo-hoo!

Finally, on March 29 it was Abby's 5-month Ampuversary. Hopefully she'll have many more to celebrate! 

Even though we won't have any official vet news for another month, I'll try to keep posting at least once a week. After all, she usually does something cute/funny at least every day, so I should have material - and possibly photos and videos. Also, if we ever get our living room organized, I'll post the before, during, and after pics of our construction project. (Seems like it ended so long ago... just taking forever for the furniture to arrive!!)

A Fake Cover & A Crepe Caper

No real news about Abby, but thought I'd share some funny/cute pics of her. 

First of all, last week The Bark magazine had a virtual party on their Facebook page to celebrate hitting their 10,000th fan. You are probably wondering how you can have a party on a website (and what sort of odd antisocial loner weirdo would attend a virtual party... uh, this girl!) but it was actually pretty fun. They had different dog-related authors/artists, like the guy who does the Mutts comic strip, on their Facebook page at different times during the day and people could post questions and comments and have a little virtual chat. They asked their fans to submit pictures of their dogs with a list of things that the dog loves and then the Bark folks selected some of the pics to make pretend magazine covers. Well, of course beautiful super-model dog Abby got picked! Here is her cover: 

I wish I'd sent in the higher resolution version of this so it would have come out better, but oh well... There are also some typos ("live live" instead of "live life," and I would have said "tripawd" not tripod!) but still, it's cute and a fun "pimento" of the party.

Another thing I wanted to share was the crepe caper Abby pulled off this weekend. It was my birthday last week, so I asked Mike to make me some of his famous (famous amongst the two of us anyway) crepes for me on Saturday morning. They were delicious! We gave Abby one and she played with it a bit at first, but then finally ate it. (It's hard trying to keep a super-model fattened up!) We had a couple of leftovers and pulled one out Sunday morning, tore it into big chunks and gave to her. She ran off with the pieces, and at one point I caught her trying to hide one of the hunks under my pillow. Not cool, really. I convinced her to eat the thing instead. 

So, we thought she'd eaten it all and we went on our way for our usual weekend walk at Fiesta Island. We got home and she immediately jumped up on the sofa (the old sofa in the den - she is not allowed on the NEW sofa in the living room, even though she and Mike are both trying to wear me down on that one...). Anyway, she jumped up on the sofa, and I saw she had hidden a piece of the crepe behind the cushion! A perfect little post-FI snack. 

I'm just glad she ate it and didn't leave it there for a week!

This Wednesday she has a follow up appointment at the oncologist to see how she's doing on all her meds. She seems to be OK. I did skip the pills on Sunday because her appetite was a little off on Saturday so wanted to give her a one-day med-vacation, but other than that she seems fine so I'm expecting a good check up. Will let you know how it goes. Thanks for reading!

Pills Schmills

So, just like Abby said "Chemo-schmeemo" to her IV chemo a few months ago, she now seems to have a "Pills schmills" attitude to her daily doses of drugs. They really don't seem to be bothering her system much, if at all. (Um, I hope I didn't just jinx us...) She definitely enjoys taking her pills, since they are delivered in a big ol' spoonful of peanut butter. (I am giving them to her in extra big spoonfuls lately because we are on a mission to get a little more meat on her bones. The last few times we've been to the vet, her weight has been just slightly lower each time, and we want to reverse that trend!)

Here she is enjoying Monday's batch of pills:

OK, I admit that it's not the most exciting video ever; it certainly can't compete with the "Guilty Dog" video making the rounds these days (LOVE that video)--but what's not to like about a video of a dog eating peanut butter? 

Not much else to report, so I'll just post a pic I took at Fiesta Island this week, trying to be artsy. I kinda like it:

I also took this one. I don't even know these people, but the flowers and the sky were incredible at FI this weekend. When I get my new iPad2 (my most excellent hubby is getting me an iPad2 for my bday!) and my Brushes app, I might try to do a painting of this - minus the random strangers. I'll probably insert a cute dog, like, oh, maybe Abby, in their place.

Thanks for reading and keeping good thoughts for our girl.

Taking Pills & Making the Podium

No, the dog is not doing performance enhancing drugs to win a race. The two parts of that title don't actually relate to one another. Let me 'splain. (Or perhaps, just sum up.)

PILLS: Today Abby had a follow up appointment with Dr. V. at the Vet Cancer Group to see how she was doing on the Palladia. Since she's doing well (only lost 1/2 a pound and has had only mild GI trouble, easily controlled with a couple of doses of Flagyl), we decided to add additional drugs to our cancer-butt-kicking arsenal. As shown in the photo, in order to keep track of her myriad pills, I had to get her one of those things like grandma uses (no offense to anyone out there who is NOT a grandma and uses one of these things... Like, oh, my hubby - not cuz he takes a ton of pills, but cuz we are forgetful...).  

The main things we added are: Cytoxan (another low-dose chemo med, but it attacks the tumor differently than how the Palladia does, so it will be a one-two punch to that damn met) and Piroxicam (an NSAID, which apparently helps starve the tumor of the blood supply it feeds off of). To help with side effects, she gets Lasix on the same days as the Cytoxan plus a generic Prilosec each day. The plan is to try this for the next 2 weeks and then Dr. V. will check her blood and see how she's doing. It sounds like a lot, but others I talked to on the BoneCancerDogs Yahoo! group are also doing the every other day Palladia/Cytoxan thing, and apparently their dogs' tummies are handling it all well, so hopefully Abby will too. [I don't know if I mentioned it before, but basically this is called Metronomic Chemotherapy, which they explain quite well here if you want to know more.]

PODIUM: So, on to funner things. First of all, if you've been reading along, you know I entered Abby in the Orvis Cover Dog Contest. Well, as of today (the contest ends March 31) she is squarely on the bottom step of the podium for "Most Unique Voters" all by herself (for a long while she was sharing that last step with another dog). Yes, she's THIRD out of what is now up to a pool of 12,800+ dogs! That's a lotta poochness, and our girl is shining! Thanks to all who Vote(d) for Abby. As I've said (what, like a dozen times now?), one vote = one dollar and all the money goes to the Morris Animal Foundation Canine Cancer Research organization.

PICTURES: In other news, Mike and I went away this weekend with his brother and his brother's wife for a quick visit to Santa Barbara. Abby stayed with her aunt and uncle and her cousin, Lou, as she usually does. Her Aunt Terry took these very cute pics of her, anxiously awaiting the return of her parents. (Which is not to say she doesn't have a great time there, cuz she does... I think the main thing she likes is pestering Lou.)

"Are they back yet? Thought I heard their car..."

Isn't it cute how you can just see Lou's little Shmoo head in the background?

PEDICURE: In one last bit of fun news, we stopped by her regular vet office today, just to say hi. Everyone there was SO happy to see her, as this is the first time they've seen her since she got her stitches out way back in Nov. Dr. Shaprut, her regular vet, came out to love on her, but I could see him giving her the 'vet-once over' - surreptitiously checking her gums and whatnot. He noticed her back dew claws were getting long, so offered to have a tech cut them for free. He said "Anything for our Abby!" So, we just stopped to say hi, but ended up getting a free pedicure (peticure?) as well. 

Rock Star!

Today's post is about a bunch of random things. (Well, not really random, since they are all related to Abby, but you know what I mean.) 

#1) This week Abby started up her M/W/F Palladia routine again. All went well until Friday afternoon, when she was not exactly a "solid citizen" (as her Uncle Jon says) on her walk. So, this was sorta like last week only better - better because this time it took 3 doses before her tummy got upset (compared to only 2 last time) and also because this time she was fine by this morning (last time we had 24+ hours of...issues). This time Dr. V. had given me some medicine to give to her, so a couple of doses of that and she was back to normal. She should be fine to start up the Palladia again on Monday.
 

#2) Despite the minor blip of tummy trouble, she's as full of energy as ever and has a great appetite. We went to Fiesta Island for 90 minutes this morning and she had a great time. We met another tripawd there - named Ted. He is a tripawd due to an accident though, or so his parents presume. (He was already a tripawd when they got him.) He's a handsome boy, as you can see. Like Abby, he darts around a lot and was tough to get a good pic of. As you can also see, he's a back leg amp, which is supposed to be easier on the dog, but Abby certainly does fine with her missing front leg. Ted's parents were impressed with how she was darting around.

#3) My sis, Jean, got a new iPad and has been playing with a "painting" app. She sent me the two paintings of Abby, below. (They are super cute and this makes me totally want an iPad, just so I can 'paint' too. So much easier than dragging out all the paper and paints and cleaning brushes!) The first is a recreation of the Stubs & Stilts photo, which you may remember. The second is from the photo I sent in of Abby for the Orvis Cover Dog Photo Contest. Speaking of the contest, Abby is doing really great - she is FOURTH out of over 11,700 dogs (!!) in the "Most Unique Voters" category. If you would like to VOTE FOR ABBY, maybe we can get her up into 3rd place. (Mike hopes she'll "make the podium"). All the money goes to the Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) Canine Cancer Research org. (As a side note, there is a scientist studying canine osteosarcoma on the "bone cancer dogs" Yahoo! group that I'm on. She said that MAF is funding a research project in her lab, so the money you donate really does go to trying to find cures and better therapies.)

#4) This woman stopped her car in the middle of the street the other day while we were on our walk, rolled down her window and said, "I just have to tell you how much we love your dog. We see you out with her a lot in the neighborhood, and every time we say, 'There's our dog!'" Yes, she has a following. She's a rock star. An adonis. She has tiger blood running through her veins. (OK, enough with the Charlie Sheen references...)

That's it for now. Thanks for reading! (Some day when we FINALLY have our furniture, I'll post befores/afters of our construction project...)

Back on Track (?)

Abby started back up on her Palladia today, so hopefully we won't have any tummy problems this time. Keeping an eye on her, so we'll see how it goes. Last Friday she had a check-up with the oncologist and he said her lungs sounded great, so that was good. I had mentioned that we'd need to keep an eye on her weight, and she'd only lost 1/2 pound so that wasn't too bad, especially considering the 24-hours or so of tummy troubles she had. 

This weekend we took her to Fiesta Island both days and interspersed her walking/playing with bits of running. On Saturday, she was still spunky enough when we finished (after over an hour there) that she tried to take off, running down the beach away from us. She did NOT want to go home yet. So the next day we really tried to wear her out and walked/ran/played for 90 minutes! Here's a little video of her running, and leaving Mike in her dust:

And here are some cute pics I took of her. 

"How cute am I in my new collar?"

"Do we have to go home?"

"After a run, I recommend a recovery smoothie."

Today I took her to FI again by myself and ran into two women back to back, about 2 minutes apart, who had both lost dogs to osteosarcoma. The first woman sort of rubbed me the wrong way. I guess she must have had a bad experience, so she was giving me advice I didn't ask for - telling me to research everything (Hello, librarian here. Used to get paid to research everything...) and not let my oncologist talk me into anything. Anyway, the second lady was much nicer, but she had me in tears. Her poor doggy got bone cancer after she'd only had him 7 months (she adopted a 'senior' dog - I think she said he was seven). But she had him another 18 months after his diagnosis, and she said he was a "special gift." Just like Abby is our special gift.

Oh, one last thing... Abby is doing well in the 'popular vote' for the Orvis Cover Dog Photo Contest - she has made the first page (out of over 500 pages - not 500 dogs, 500 pages, with 21 dogs per page) for "Most Unique Voters," so thanks to everyone who voted. [The dog who is winning for "Most Money Raised" looks like she was a very sweet baby. A sweet baby who had some very rich friends.] I think the voting is open until end of March, so if you still want to donate/vote, click here: Vote for Abby There's a minimum of $5 to vote and each $ = 1 vote and all the money goes to fight canine cancer.

Taking a Break

So... after 3 doses of her palladia, Abby got hit by some fairly bad diarrhea starting yesterday. I called Dr. Vancil and he said to skip today's dose. (BTW, someone asked why there were 2 pills in the pic on my previous post - in case you wondered too, it's because she's taking 60mg, which comes as one 50mg pill + a 10mg). Anyway, he said not to worry - he's seen other dogs take a little while to adjust but then do fine on it.

I told him that part of the problem could be the wide variety of things she ate over the long weekend. (What with people handing her treats left and right at the the Canine Cancer Walk Saturday. Plus she got another Flying Dutchman on Monday night... I mean, come on, it was a holiday!... Oh, and there was the salmon I made for her on Sunday... We are bad pawrents...) Anyway, today she is on a bland diet and she seems to be improving in terms of how often she needs to go out. Even w/ the diarrhea, she’s still hungry and still FULL of energy (Monday we went for a 90 min. walk/run at Fiesta Island. 90 minutes!) So overall I’m not too worried about her (yet…). Hoping we’ll just have a little palladia break here for a dose or two, and then be back on it. Hoping that with greater consistency in her diet she’ll adjust a little better to the pills and do well on them.

In related news, I entered this pic of Abby in the Orvis catalog cover contest. (As I've blogged about before, Abby has a cozy "deep dish" Orvis bed, which she loves and I've posted some pics of her in it during her recovery.) There are two different aspects to the contest: one part (for the cover) is just for the Orvis judges to vote on, but the other part is a ‘popularity’ vote to have your dog's pic included on the Orvis site. In order to vote, you have to make at least a $5 donation ($5 = 5 votes), but all the money goes to the Morris Animal Foundation’s Cure Canine Cancer campaign – the same folks behind the Canine Cancer Walk we did. So… if you want to donate money to that cause anyway, please consider donating it via votes for my pretty girl. Click here to Vote for Abby! I know folks hit you up for money probably every other day, so seriously - no worries if you don't wanna/can't donate. Just thought I'd post in case you were interested. Thanks for reading and keeping good thoughts for our girl!