Shitty Tuesday

Perry has had a couple of hard days with the eating and diarrhea.
I woke up this morning to a liquidy mess on the kitchen floor.
Last night he wouldn't eat until I started hand feeding him.
I am so depressed.
The highs and lows are really killing me.
We have changed his diarrhea medication a few times, and nothing seems to be working. We have never gained control of it, we may never.

I called the oncologist, he said that friday's chemo treatment will be a super strong one. Very aggressive drugs, the most aggressive so far. If there is no improvement after this next treatment, Scott and I have decided to stop the chemo. I am not convinced that it is doing anything at all at this point. I will still keep my fingers crossed for fridays treatment, but I am afraid that it may be his last.

All this sounds so bad, and it is, especially since Perry is still not acting like a sick dog. This is what kills us. He just looks skinny, won't eat, and has no stool to speak of, only brown watery diarrhea.

I wish I had something positive to say. Sorry for the bad news.

World Series Champions 2007 The Boston Red Sox

I am not a huge sports fan, but I have been watching this series and the games that they won to make this possible.
I am so proud of the Sox. They won fair and square. They are a great team even if I don't understand all the stats that are thrown around.

Yay for the champions, the 2007 Boston Red Sox.

I thoroughly enjoyed this game, does this mean I am a sports fan? I love the Sox!

Fancy Earrings

Aquamarine and labradorite



Turquoise



Garnet, ruby and carnelian

Simple Bracelets

I made so many earrings and bracelets yesterday, that I thought I would finally make a jewelry post with some new items.

I found these awesome stones at my LBS when I went in to purchase some gold wire. I try not to impulse buy at bead stores because I could go broke quickly, but I just had to have these!



I am in love with this stone!
I made this bracelet for myself with my favorite bead from the strand...although I love them all!

I also made two similarly styled bracelets with a couple of lampwork beads my friend Liz sent me ages ago. I never knew what to do with them before, because they stand on their own so nicely. I love these beads, too! It's hard to believe that these were just 'practice' beads, she is so talented.


Here is another of the green vein jasper, I listed this one on etsy.


I also made a bunch more bracelets, and a bunch of earrings. I will post some of the earrings in a while. I am gearing up for my small show with the WIB gals. Open house on November 4th. I will have a lot of new stuff to show and hopefully sell.

Friday

Perry's appointment today went well.
He had another IV treatment and didn't fight much this time. I think he knows it is helping him. He gave Jessica some loving afterwards and she gave him treats. He knows the drill now.
He slept almost the whole car ride home. When we got home, he ate. Yay!

Red Sox

The Red Sox won the first game in the World Series against the Colorado Rockies.

Good game, although I am not sure they won because of how great they played as how bad the Rockies played. The Rockies had a really bad game, they actually let 5 runs score in just because of balls in ONE (5th) inning! Geez. That is pretty bad.
Josh Beckett was unbelievable tho.

The Rockies got their asses handed to them. Seriously!

13 to 1! Congratulations Red Sox!!!!

I am happy, and tired.

Perry continues to do great this week.
I was getting worried there over the weekend and into monday, but now I have a hungry fiesty dog that doesn't want to sit still. He is rubbing for hugs, wants to chase things outside, and keeps going back to his bowl. I am super happy about that.
At the moment he is nudging my arm to pet him, it makes it hard to type!

I worked this morning for Jake, went to the police station to get fingerprinted for work, went back to work, did some work, then came home. I was super tired, so I took a nap. Then I went to work at the Gallery and got home at about 9:45pm. Welcome to the real world, Nancy. This is really cutting into my crafty time.
I have to do it all over tomorrow, although I will not get home so late.
The good thing about this situation is that I can come home between jobs for a while and spend some time with Perry. He took a nap with me today on the (Scott, look away!) BED. Hahaa!

Perry's feeling better.

Perry has been feeling better today.

He had such a lousy weekend and monday was no better.

Today on the other hand has been completely different. He was actually eating dry food. He was still hungry after I fed him his wet food that I thought I would just put some dry in it and see what happens. I couldn't believe my eyes when he ate some. He hasn't touched dry food in ages, unless it is someone elses food (Raven). This is a very interesting turn of events.

Let's see how he is tomorrow. Another day like today, and he just might put on another pound before his next oncology visit.

Red Sox Won the ALCS!

I won't be seeing Scott tonight.

I am happy, but poor Scott is working and won't be coming home until the streets are cleared.

I on the other hand am going to bed right now. I plan on getting a good nights sleep.

Congratulations to the Red Sox!!!!

Pictures, not that great since it is late.

I took some pics of P tonight.

Here he is in all his glory!

Here is Perry frolicking at Raven's house tonight. He actually ran around for a bit.

He wants Suzannes attention...He is soooo cute!

At home, he sits and waits for 'something'.

He is such a good boy. He just wants to please. I love him so much! Don't mind the mess behind him. Pretend you didn't see that.

What a good boy! I have many more pictures, but I can't post them all here. Or can I....

Sunday. More of the same.

Perry's not been feeling so great.
He hasn't really eaten much the last couple of days. I will call the oncologist in the morning and chit chat about that.

Today, we took a car ride to visit with Raven, Suzanne and Jape.

Perry is ALWAYS up for a car ride. He was playful at first when we got there, but when he wanted to leave, it was definately apparent to me. We left after a little more than an hour.
When we got home, I tried to feed him again. He ate a little bit, but was not that interested to finish it. He did get some treats at Raven's house, so I know he got 'some' food today.

He is still looking pretty good, and still spunky when he wants to be. I am rooting for him big time!

In other news, Scott is working forced overtime tonight at the Red Sox game against the Indians at Fenway park, this is the crucial 7th game in the ALCS series. I hope they win, but that would mean that Scott may not come home until the crack of dawn, so I am also oddly torn. Maybe they will let him go in late tomorrow morning.

Lastly, I am taking Perry to work with me tomorrow. There will not be so many distractions as on saturday since I work alone on monday.

Saturday night update

Perry ate some dinner, he is finally feeling a bit better.

While we are on the subject of updates, Marsha had her surgery on friday.
Total thyroid removal. She is doing good, considering one half of her thyroid was the size of a pear. :0
I spoke with her yesterday after her operation and again today, at the hospital. I also spoke with Jimmy (at the house) and heard him yelling at Jack while he was on the phone with me. I had to laugh at him for that. He is not used to being the sole caregiver.
She is spending another night in the hospital, she will get some much needed rest, even if she doesn't look at it that way.

Good day, lousy night.

Friday was Scott and my 16th wedding anniversary, and we celebrated by taking Perry for his 3rd chemotherapy treatment together.

We thought he was getting a treatment, however, it was just a check-up with blood tests and a talk with the oncologist. Things went well. We were given Perry's third treatment to administer at home this morning. This treatment consisted of 4 pills of a very toxic nature, and two diuretic pills. The four pills were to be given (wearing surgical gloves) in the morning along with one diuretic, and then lots of drinking water and peeing. The second diuretic I will give to Perry tomorrow morning.

I took Perry to work with me today following the chemo pills, he was fine all day. He drank a lot and peed a lot as he was supposed to. He met a lot of people and got a lot of petting. He also slept by the back door and soaked in the sun, I think he liked that, but now I am thinking that maybe it was just a bit too much for him.

Tonight he is not doing so well. I think he is nauseous because he didn't touch his food. He has been laying low, too. Not up for anything really.
This is the first noticeable discomfort that Perry has experienced with his chemotherapy treatments. This treatment was not supposed to have any side effects, except the drinking and peeing.

I hope he perks up tomorrow. I hate to see him uncomfortable.
He did have a great day, tho. Tonight, not so much.

Ladybugs!

Today I came home from work to a swarm of ladybugs on my front porch. They were everywhere. This happens sometimes this time of year, but today it was just incredible. If this happens again tomorrow I really need to get a picture.
I let Perry out the back door, and they were flying all around back there, too. Three came in and stayed on the screen, but I was able to scoot them out.

Perry remains hungry from the drugs, I can't sate him at all, poor thing.
He has his third treatment tomorrow afternoon. They will just administer some pills tomorrow, so no IV thankfully. He continues to feel good, is feisty, hungry, and in excellent spirits. I witnessed his bowel movement this afternoon, and it was actual poop this time. I hope this is the end of the constant diarrhea.

New Job

I started my new job today working for Jake as his assistant.
I think it is going to be very interesting. I will learn the world of finance. It will be like learning a foreign language. Some things started to make sense, but I can tell that this is a learn as you go situation. Jake can talk finance until the cows come home, it is his passion, I will learn a lot from him.

I was hoping for some extra cash taking this job, but now it will partially fund Perry's chemo treatments. So, there is some good timing for us. Nothing like getting a second job just before you need it.
Between the gallery and Jake, I may just hit 40 hours a week. Imagine that! Scott is thrilled, as I imagined he would be.

This would not feel right without giving a Perry update, so here it is...He feels great! He is frolicking and eating. His poops still are not what they should be, but I am still hopeful. I promised him I would take him for a walk tomorrow, I hope he doesn't peter out quickly like he did the other day. I may just walk him around close to home so when he is ready to go in, we aren't still 10 minutes from the door.

The good continues...

Perry had his second chemotherapy treatment this afternoon. He did well considering the technician (Jessica), a helper, and I had to hold him down muzzled and yelping because this treatment meant a catheter in his leg. Perry has foot issues for those of you who don't know. He obviously knew we were holding him down to help him, because in the end he gave up and let the peeps do with him what they would, and we did.

He got three injections into the catheter in his leg. Each subsequent one was easier for Jessica to administer. When the treatment was over (a matter of minutes) the muzzle came off, and he was jumping for some love from Jessica...he knows, she gives him treats!
He was a bit lethargic on the ride home, but all in all came through with flying colors! We even went to visit friends (Jape and Suzanne) and he chased a cat (Marvin), played a little with his friend Raven, and stole one of Ravens toys and ran around the house with it, repeatedly. He is doing remarkable. I am so happy.

Another happy incident...Jape gave Scott got some tips on restoring his computer which has not been working for the last two or so months. He has tried various fix it discs to no avail. I was thinking he got a fatal virus from some evil website, but after about an hour of restoring, it seems to be working. He lost everything on it, but he has internet access once again, so he is happy. The computer also seems to be much swifter, I don't know why, maybe it was bogged down, but now it seems speedy quick.

Scott is happy, Perry is happy, so I am happy. Yay for another good day!

A good day

Perry's behaviour has improved 100%.
I can't believe the shift in mood, appetite, even appearance.
The prednisone was supposed to give him back his appetite, but it has literally made him ravenous. It has taken a ton of willpower not to overfeed him today.
I love to see him eating!
His poops have seemed to firm up too.

We took a short 25 minute walk today, I think that was about 10 minutes too long for him. He started trying to walk up the walkways of all the blue houses after 15 minutes, thankfully we were already headed back home anyway.

Tomorrow afternoon we have his second chemotherapy treatment.

Perry eats!

I think the prednisone is doing its trick.
Perry ate this morning, a chicken breast and some broccoli.
Then tonight I cooked him up some hamburger meat and mixed in some sweet potato baby food, he ate that too.
It's so good to see him eating. He also ate a bunch of milkbone biscuits throughout the day.
Hopefully this will be the end of his drastic weight loss. He may even put on a pound or ten!
Yay for steroids.

And this is the 5th anniversary of my two great friends Jape and Suzanne...
Happy anniversary J and S!!!

It's a good day!

Chemotherapy

We have decided to start Perry on Chemotherapy.

The way he will respond to this treatment remains to be seen.
He had his first injection today, Elspar (L'asparaginase), he did well and we should not see any type of side effect with this drug.
He is also on prednisone therapy, and will still be taking his metronidazole to treat his diarrhea.

We are starting this with the knowledge that he may be on this treatment for the rest of his life. If this treatment does not seem to be working after 3 weeks, we will stop and just try to keep him comfortable until his quality of life suffers.

The oncologist gave the treatment 30-40% that the cancer will go into remission for 8 - 12 months. We should see signs that it is working within 2 or 3 weeks, if it is working, we will continue, if not we won't.
Simple as that.

Perry may look skinny, but he is super strong and playful. He is not acting sick except for the weight loss and diarrhea. These were strong factors in our final decision. He has very good quality of life at the moment, so if we can keep that going, I think it is worth it.

We will be tightening our pursestrings as this is very expensive, we have already spent $2000 on diagnosing this ($700 at the vet over the last month, $1300 at the hospital), and we spent another $300 today for his first treatment. Subsequent treatments will be between $200-300.

Let's hope it works!

Oncology appointment tomorrow

Scott and I are taking Perry to the New England Veterinary Oncology Group (NEVOG) tomorrow for a 12:45pm appointment.

Dr. Philibert will meet with us and discuss Perry's options.
I have to pick up his x-rays and ultrasounds at TuftsVETS because they could not be faxed (they faxed all his other records), but that is a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things.

Perry ate a bit tonight, some boiled hamburger meat mixed in with a jar of sweet potato baby food. I fed him half of it earlier, and he ate it up willingly. I just tried to give him some more tonight, and he only picked at it. I got him to take his metronidazole this morning in a piece of deli turkey breast. I have another dose to try to get him to eat this evening, I will try the turkey again, hopefully with success.

So tomorrow will be very enlightening for us, we will decide what measures we will take for his healthcare and well being.

I just want to keep him comfortable at this point, and if I can give him a few good months, I will do what I can.

My sweet P.

Marsha and her thyroids

I was supposed to be heading to Mississippi in just over 5 hours.
My flight was at 6am.

Needless to say, I had to cancel my flight. With Perry being so sick, and Scott and I not knowing exactly how we will treat or maintain his terminal illness until we speak to an oncologist, I had to postpone my trip.

I feel horrible, but I had to choose what's best for my family, and this was it.

Marsha postponed her operation until October 19th, she is having her overgrown thyroids out. I know that ultimately this will make her feel better, but the fact that she has no solid help really leaves me feeling shitty. I really wanted to help with the kids, the cooking, the yelling...etc. I love her kids, they are great monsters.

This leaves me feeling a bit empty as I sit here with my sick dog and try to make sense of all this crappy timing. People say that things happen for a reason, but right now I wonder what could be a good reason for all this bad timing?

Lymphoma

Perry's tests came back 'no question' intestinal (GI) lymphoma.

The prognosis for this type of lymphoma is 2 weeks to 3 months if left untreated after diagnosis, using prednisone therapy. It sounds like a treatment, but it isn't.

Another road we can take would be chemotherapy. Hopefully pushing his lymphoma into remission. We are seriously considering this route, although there are no guarantees.

I have just spent over 1/2 hour writing these short sentences and erasing and writing again. I started to debate here all by myself, and to see the words in print here makes me erase it. I cannot explain why we are considering chemotherapy at the moment, but we will be consulting an oncologist hopefully tomorrow and I will have more answers.

I just want Perry to be as comfortable as he can be.

My Littlest P-love

Scott and I went to visit Perry at the hospital early this evening.
He was happy to see us, got a lot of petting and loving and a couple of walks around the grassy parts of the parking lot.

He has not eaten anything since sunday. He is getting fluids through a catheter IV in his arm. He had a bout of diarrhea this afternoon about 1/2 hour before I called to see if we could visit him...poor littlest P-love.

We are waiting on a test of his lymph nodes to come back tomorrow afternoon. I am hoping for the best, expecting the worst.

Perry

Perry was admitted this afternoon at TuftsVETS hospital.

Hopefully I will hear something of his condition by tomorrow.

A small Success!

Perry got his meds down tonight with Provolone cheese.

It was touch and go for a few minutes, but in the end he swallowed them down, albeit a little apprehensively.

So, how can a dog who used to love any kind of cheese determine the difference between provolone and cheddar? I have no idea.

It boggles the mind actually.

Tomorrow is our visit at the specialist hospital...stay tuned.

P-Love...again

Today was a really hard food day.

I tried to feed him this morning, and he wanted nothing do to with anything I tried to give him...including a can of Mighty Dog. So I guess he has lost interest in the most loved junk food for dogs now. He still had interest in treats, especially the crunchy kind. Scott tossed him a few rice crackers, and he was all over those, but it is hard to hide a pill in a rice cracker.

I tried to get him to take his medication with cheese once again, and between the two pills he caught on to me. He took the first pill in cheese, but the second one was not as successful at all. He never did get that second one in him, even after many attempts to fool him with various things. The cheese, some bread, a peanut butter treat, he was on to us. I have another dose of the two medications to try to get into him tonight, I don't know how I will do that. More importantly, I don't know what good these meds are doing in the first place.

The Mighty Dog stayed in his bowl untouched all day. I threw that away tonight, and cooked him up a chicken breast, some broccoli, and mixed in some basmati rice from a couple of days ago. He actually ate. Not the whole thing, but all the chicken anyway.

We are going to TuftsVETS tomorrow, so maybe they will give him some fluids. I fear he is getting dehydrated from all the diarrhea, and even tho he didn't vomit today, the last two days he did, so that can't be good either.

I am sick just thinking about all this. At this point I am just thinking of this blog as good documentation on his food intake and diarrhea expultion.

Perry, what else is there to talk about?

I just took him out to 'go' and witnessed watery diarrhea once again.
Kathy called me today, and although she may not know it, she scared the hell out of me. She has had sick dogs in the past, and has two pugs with various health problems right now. So, she encouraged me to look into other options for Perry. I was thinking that his vet is doing all he can, but since the diarrhea won't stop, and the last two mornings there was also vomiting involved, I better get him some different help.

I called TuftsVETS today to see about an internal specialist. None are on duty on the weekend, so I will take him there monday after work.

I will call my vet on monday morning, and hopefully have him call them and send Perry's records so they can expect him.

Perry has not gotten any better, and I fear he is getting worse.

I cried alot yesterday, and a little today. I need him to get better, or at least gain some control over this.

Perry ate a can of Mighty Dog

Since the vet said that eating a twinkie is better than not eating at all, I fed P-love a can of Mighty Dog tonight. He likes it cause it is smelly.
This wasn't before I tried everything else, including baby food (a suggestion from the vet's nurse). He has lost interest in anything that I cook for him. I wonder how long before he loses interest in the Mighty Dog.

A bit of reference here for anyone who doesn't know Perry, here is a pic of him on July 14th, 2006. He looked similar to this at the beginning of this summer.


Here is Perry two days ago.


My P does not seem to be getting better at all.
I speak to the vet often, give updates, get advice, we are all stumped. More tests, and vet appointments are what I look forward to these days, along with a good cry.
This dog would eat anything, and now he is like an anorexic model. Only anorexic models probably do not have chronic diarrhea.

Another Perry post

I got Perry to take his pills tonight with provolone cheese.
His doses earlier I gave him wrapped in american cheese slices.
Both times he was skeptical of my intentions in feeding him cheese, and tried to chew and spit them out at first, but got them down in the end.

He ate the leftover gourmet meal I cooked for him tonight after I mixed in Scott and my leftover fish from dinner. And he is taking treats of dried beef liver very willingly.

Tonight I fed him a can of mighty dog that I had on hand from earlier this summer when he stopped eating his food. I was mixing it in with his dry to get him to eat and it was working for a short time. This time, I just let him have the can alone, and he scarfed it up. A small bit of food, but it is encouraging.

I took him out to 'go' and witnessed another blast of diarrhea. Liquidy brown fluid. I hope these new medications help him.

At least he is drinking water. I am going to call the vet in the morning to see if I can give him some kind of sports drink like gatorade, or if there is an electrolite drink for dogs on the market that I can give him. This diarrhea has got to stop, it is killing me just witnessing his distress.

Perry

We just got home from the vet.

I am now awaiting labwork from yet another stool sample.
I should hear something about that tomorrow.

Perry could have Inflammatory Bowel Disease, although I don't think that a diagnosis for this can be given without exploratory surgery (they would have to biopsy a section of his intestine), we will try to treat it as this for now, and see if things improve.

He is on two meds now, a 15 day supply of Sucralfate 1gm twice a day(which he had been on for a few days already), and a 7 day supply of Metronidazole 250mg twice a day.

He has lost yet another pound since his last visit. I tried to feed him his gourmet meal freshly cooked of chicken, rice, and broccoli when we got home from the vet. He sniffed at it and walked away.

This is killing me. I want him to eat!

His diarrhea was so bad this weekend, it was just brown liquid, nothing more. It has firmed up just a tad since then, but it is still worse than when we started this whole ordeal.

I am exhaused, stressed out and worried beyond rational thinking.