Happy Friday

Oh my gosh.... where do I begin about today? I've been away from any computer today so I have to cover ALL of today in one post. Here we go....

I guess I should start with last night, where I slept so hard that I missed the 1:30am alarm to let Watson out. He paid me back by leaving a gift for me on the floor. My fault... but I can't blame the guy. Thanks to his bladder on Prednisone and his colon out of whack, neither he nor I have gotten more than 2-3 hours of sleep in the past ten days. I woke up two more times during the night but he wasn't interested in going outside. I was a bit nervous since he's been drinking water like a fiend... so why WOULDN'T he want to go out unless something was wrong??

My worries were unfounded since by 7am, he was awake, hungry and had stolen one of Waldo's rawhide chews. I can't let him have any type of chews since his teeth are so bad. We don't need his current situation compounded by a broken tooth. Anyway, he seemed like he was back to his old self - following me around and waiting to be fed. He ate his breakfast and was resting comfortably for most of the morning.

I had taken the day off from work so that I could have enough time to get Waldo to doggie daycare, run to the supermarket and then prep for our drive to NEVOG. By the time I had driven to Millbury and back and then to the market (total time: 1.5 hours), I came home to find Watson in a deep sleep. I have to admit, I was jealous since I've been so exhausted.

In an attempt to get Watson's butt fountain under control, I took some advice from a few people on the CanineCancer forum on Yahoo and grabbed some Metamucil while at the market. I made his lunch and threw in a half teaspoon and WA-LA! That did the trick. Butt fountain no more. Thanks goodness too since I was nervous about spending that long in the car with him. 95/128 isn't the most friendly place to pull over and let your dog out on the side of the road. There's still so much construction going on that I would have just let him go in the car rather than both of us getting hit by a car.

Around 1pm, something wonderful happened.... I was sitting at my desk simultaneously trying to eat my microwave Lean Cuisine and print out directions to NEVOG when my phone rang. It was Kathy G. on a bike ride calling to see if she could swing by and see Watson. She'd recently returned from a 3-week-long bike trip and had just heard what was going on. When she realized just how emotional/crazy/sleep-deprived I was, she offered to bike over and drive us to the appointment. Can I just tell you how thankful I am for her?? It was her day off and instead of sitting in the hammock and reading Harry Potter, she willingly spent several hours in the car with us... on a nice summer day, too!

In brief, the visit to NEVOG went really well. Watson was his usual great self in the car. I had made him a block of ice made of water and chicken broth, so he had something cool to drink as it melted. Dr. Philibert at NEVOG was very professional and made sure I understood all of my options. My local vet had put Watson on Cytoxan and Prednisone, but Dr. Philibert said that wasn't his first choice. Instead, he put Watson on CCNU (Lomustine) and Elspar. There is some suspicion that there is central nervous system involvement due to a seizure a few weeks ago and
the CCNU will address that.

Upon checkout, they gave me a sheet that had all the information we discussed during the visit. I thought that was a nice touch.

We go back for round #2 of CCNU and Elspar in two weeks, and need a CBC blood check in one week to make sure we're on track. Dr. Philibert is stepping the Pred down from 1 tab to a half tab for a week and then a quarter tab for the week after; then he'll be off Pred.

So with the butt fountain under control, Watson is much less frantic. He nor I have had more than 2-3 straight hours of sleep per night so I am hoping that tonight's the night we can get back to normal. I miss sleeping in my own bed. I like the couch, but not for ten days straight.

Watson is resting comfortably right now after having a dinner of boiled rice, a few scoops of Innova Evo and a half teaspoon of Metamucil. Once I know his GI is back to normal, I will wean him off the rice and back onto wet food.

Today was just one of those days that has been good all around. I am thankful for the CanineCancer group and for Kathy for their support. Rich comes home on a red eye tonight/tomorrow morning and I can't wait to see him. Until then, Watson and I are headed upstairs back to our proper beds.