Waking up with the sun...

So, I am not a morning person... less so if I am being awakened by the sad whining of a baby basset from downstairs. Once again, I have started off my morning with poo. Perhaps it's sympathy poo, but for some reason, Waldo's having issues. I think I should rename this blog to have it more to do with canine bodily functions rather than canine lymphoma.

Anyway, the Old Man had another good night. He had one bathroom break at 2am and then slept until we all got up at 6:30am. I can't wait until he is off the Prednisone so we can all get a full night's sleep.

Just got a call from the vet re: CBC results. Red blood cell and white blood cell counts are low but not in the critical zone. His WBC dropped from 22,000 to 3,600 (below 1,500 would be bad) and his RBC dropped from 43 to 32 (20 is of concern). The simple explanation is that it means the chemo drugs are working. As the vet said, the good news is we have a comfortable dog whose BMs are under control and who is eating/drinking well. Gaining weight during chemo can mean a longer prognosis too. He stressed again that he can't predict a timeline, but I think that every day Watson is comfortable, happy and eating is good enough for me. I can't help but take it one day at a time.

I was listening to "Fresh Air" on NPR a few days ago and they were talking about anticipatory grief (in relation to the families of soldiers deployed in Iraq) and how the spouses would tend to imagine life without their husbands or wives, or how they would envision the funeral and how much they would miss him/her. Although Watson's illness doesn't compare to the trauma of having a family member deployed to a war zone, I could relate to anticipatory grief..... After his diagnosis, that grief nearly drove me insane for 2 weeks.... I didn't eat and could barely sleep thinking about life without him by my side everyday. But then I had to put it aside because I was living in the future and there is no use going through it twice. So now every time I look into his brown eyes and see the Old Man in there, I know that this very small slice of time is wonderful.