Lazy Izzy

I can’t believe it’s been a little over five months. There have been a lot of ups and downs. A lot of stress and so many thankful moments. I am thankful every day for my beautiful Isabel and every day is even more precious than the last. I am awestruck every time I have the realization that we are now enjoying time that we wouldn’t have had with our girl if we hadn’t been able to get her treatment, and I am more grateful than I can say that we were able to find a way to afford treatment. It hasn’t been easy but it has been worth the sacrifices.

Izzy finished her chemo about seven weeks ago and has had her first vaccine. She had a full set of X-rays and no mets were found. Tomorrow she is scheduled for vaccine number two. She seems to be improving daily and becoming more her old self every day. I have even caught her playing with the other dogs a few times. Our other puppers are acting more normal around Izzy also which I think is a very good indication of how she is feeling. When Izzy is not feeling good the other dogs, and the cats too tend to take turns laying with her and giving her comfort, which is very cute but also very sad for all of us.

I wonder how many others on here are sometimes overwhelmed when we think about being into time that we wouldn’t have had if we hadn’t gotten surgery ,or chemo, or vaccines for our babies. I know in a way that’s a bit morbid but I really just don’t want to take any of this time for granted and want to enjoy every day and treat every moment as the gift that it is.

 

WOW  Time goes by way too quickly!

I haven’t had any time to update this blog in a couple of months. For us that how summer goes, super busy until the fall when boating/ fishing season ends and winter sports season begins.

Izzy just finished her chemo and is doing fabulous. No mets in her lungs and everything is looking great. We are starting her vaccines in September and while I’m happy she will be getting those I’m not looking forward to her having to stay at the vets overnight each time. But it’s only 3 vaccines and it will give us a lot more time with our baby so I’ll deal with it 🙂

Izzy did have a couple of issues with fatigue over the last couple of months and the Dr’s were concerned that she might be having pain in her remaining front leg so we are watching her and giving her a pain killer when we think she needs it. She licks at her front leg whenever it is feeling tired or hurting her which lets us know what is going on but also discolors her fur. At first I was concerned that she was getting the cancer in her remaining front limb but the Dr’s did an x-ray and assured me that isn’t the case. She still seems overly lethargic (even by St Bernard standards) and has gotten even more stubborn than she has always been. The exception to that is that whenever I pick up her harness she suddenly has more energy that a 6 month old puppy and will bounce up and down with excitement to go somewhere. Which tells me that she is just being lazy (her usual state) Some of her laziness might be because it’s summertime and just too hot to do much of anything. So if the heat is making me lazy and I’m healthy and not going through chemo I shouldn’t be surprised that it’s making her extremely lazy. Now that the evenings have started to cool down we are taking occasional short walks to try to strengthen her leg. So far we are only making it to the end of the block and back before she is really tired, but that’s a huge improvement from when she couldn’t make it the three houses to the end of the block and we would have to bring her home in the car. our goal is to be able to get to and walk around the park that is 3 blocks from our house. Today she is making herself into an excellent front lawn ornament while her daddy and nephew work on the lawn. 🙂

it’s been one month since Izzy’s amputation surgery, and what a month it has been. When she first came home we were having to almost carry her with her harness, not because she needed it but because we thought she did, to only using the harness to help her out of the car, again more because we think she needs it than she does. Yesterday I let all the dogs out and she made her first fast run for the back fence to play/harass with the neighbors dogs. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier than to see that. The other milestone in her recovery is that she is starting to be graceful again. One regret I had from the beginning of all this is that I wouldn’t get to see Izzy run like she used to again. I still feel the sadness of that loss because to see her run was a beautiful thing she would trot so gracefully. But her hop run is starting to be just as graceful it just looks different now. I’ve come to realize that it is ok to mourn the losses but not to dwell on them. I’m just as grateful that we found the cancer before it had spread and that we were able to find the resources to get her the treatments that will hopefully help her live a normal lifespan. I’m very aware of how blessed I am at this moment to have Izzy laying next to me while I type, snoring contentedly and not in any pain. So one month in and Izzy is nearly back to her old self, on a real food no/very low carb diet and appears to be thriving. Izzy has even started being a bit of a picky eater again, today I was tired when I gave her her food this morning so I forgot to warm it a little like I usually do. She absolutely refused to eat until I warmed it a little. It was pretty hilarious how she kept looking at me as though I should know what the problem was. I always thought that if you fed your dog real food they would scarf it up no matter what it was, this is not true. Izzy is very clear on what she likes and doesn’t like. We’re waiting for her second chemo on the 11th and hoping her blood work comes back normal. We have to retest right before the treatment because her kidney enzymes were a bit elevated after her first chemo. Other than that she has had no side effects from the chemo and we are contributing to be optimistic about her future.

wow what a difference a week (or so) can make. Izzy had her first chemo on Monday and by the next morning her appetite was back she was playing in the yard and ready to go! We had to go to the mountains to help my oldest daughter move and I was so worried for Izzy because my daughter has a lot of stairs and lots of steep slopes leading up to the house from the drive. Izzy handled it like she has been a tripawd all her life. Then I forgot to give her her meds the other night. I fell asleep watching tv and woke up in the middle of the night realizing she hadn’t had her night time meds but she was just fine and sleeping peacefully, even having squirrel dreams, which I hadn’t seen since before the surgery. So I’ve been stretching out the meds and have eliminated the gabapentic and have the rimadyl down to once a day. We’ve been off the tramadol  for almost a week now too.  So now three weeks past surgery Izzy now associates her harness with getting to go somewhere and is at the door waiting whenever she sees me getting ready to leave the house. Yesterday I was taking my mom to the store and as my mom was walking out Izzy rushed the door and headed straight to the back of my car waiting for me to let her in just like she always has. I had to trick her into her harness then drag her back into the house. While it broke my heart not to be taking her, it was just too hot to leave her in the car while we shopped, I was overjoyed to see her back to normal wanting to go places. Izzy is also figuring out new ways to cope with not having that extra leg. She used to knock on the door when she wanted back in, now she will either sit and wait, we have a glass door so can see when she wants back in, or will knock on it with her head. She used to also paw at the fence playing with the dogs next door now she lays down and sticks her paw under the fence, which is a lot easier on the fence and going to save a lot on replacing slats this summer, yay! So far absolutely no side effects from the chemo and I have to keep reminding myself that she isn’t through this yet and we still have a long way to go. but I’m really trying to just have the expectation of only the best and not allow myself to jinx Izzy by preparing for the worst. I feel like if I do that then I’m allowing or giving that possibility a foothold. So since I want only good things to happen that is the only outcome I’m going to allow myself to see at this point. I know there will be ups and downs but the ultimate outcome I’m envisioning for my girl is perfect health.

it’s now two weeks post op for Izzy and we’re finally seeing an improvement for her, yay! We had another dr appt and Izzy’s meds were changed since what she was on just wasn’t working, we switched to gabapentin, tramadol, and rymadyl ( sp is? And I’m not getting up to check the bottle lol) peroxicam and the injections just weren’t very effective for her, and what a difference. We had to wait 24 hours after stopping “P” to start the rymadyl because they don’t mix but saw an immediate improvement with the gabapentin. Then took her in for a starter injection of rymadyl yesterday and WOW!!! Izzy actually jumped into the back of my SUV on her own when we left the dr’s office and seemed almost pain free for the first time. I had a couple stops to make o. The way home all of them dog friendly, but she seemed tired after the first stop and I knew she wasn’t going to stay in the car for the others I decided d to bring her home and go out again later. That plan was a bust because every time i tried to leave our girl was at the door and now way she was going to let me leave without her, so out we went again. She got her usual adoring attention at the bank but I could tell she was getting tired on the way back to the car so quick stop at pet smart, where she ended up taking a  nap in the isle while i shopped for her then back home. Btw, the cooling mat is the bomb, we ended up getting one that is pressure activated because I wanted to eliminate the possibility of leaks with the water ones and it just seemed like it would stay cool longer. Then home dinner and 6 hours of wonderful uninterrupted peaceful pain free sleep for both of us !!!

so the best thing about a lazy tripawd: The HARNESS yes it’s the harness. I’ve mentioned that Izzy is lazy but she is also stubborn and likes to lay out on the patio. Normally this isn’t a problem I let her out go back to bed and let her back in when she knocks on the door, but she can’t knock on the door anymore and I’m not comfortable just leaving her out there alone at night yet. So she gets 20 minutes of concrete time then it’s back to bed for us. But you can’t scoop up an 120 lb dog and carry her back in the house. Well some of you can probably do it, but I can’t. I can however lift her with the harness handles and get her back in the house wether she wants to go or not. So yay for tHe harness its good for more than just helping her get to where she wants to go.

overall she has had a great couple of days her staples come out tomorrow and we have our first oncology appointment on Monday, we are ready to kick cancer in the caboose!