Month: May 2018

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!

well it’s been a rough few days for everyone. On the up side Izzy got her bandage changed and the incision looks good with very little drainage. After Izzy’s dr visit on Wednesday we started Metamucil, which Izzy hates. So we tried to get it in her with food but she stoped eating, guess she figured out we were hiding meds in the food. Then on Friday I thought of magnesium you can buy it at the grocery store for .98 after I checked to make sure it was safe for dogs we waited until she wanted to go outside, not for a potty break, just to lay in the sun, and I got it into her with a big syring, she really didn’t like it and who can blame her but it worked and about 5 minutes later we had our first poo !!yay!! The dr also gave her an injection to help her sleep and sent us home with more of the injectable meds to use at night because Izzy wasn’t getting much sleep and neither were we. This has worked well but I’m concerned that she will be overmedicated. But at this point she is still healing so sleep however it comes is helpful for healing.

Yesterday was our worst day yet Izzy wouldn’t eat or drink and would do a high pitched whining howl anytime I left her side which our other dogs would then copy so we had several episodes of concert howling, I’m sure our neighbors appreciated that, not. I wasn’t sure if she was uncomfortable, scared, overmedicated or just over it. So I decided to stretch her oral pain killer to the maximum window and watch her. She did seem to calm somewhat towards the end of that window so I think she needed her head to feel normal for a while. Unfortunately the meds are still necessary though so today I’m going to try waiting until she tells me she needs them instead of the clock telling me it’s time that way I can get an idea of her progress from her viewpoint. Today she seems to be resting pretty comfortably with just the once a day pain med.

It’s been a rough couple of days for Izzy.  The pain got ahead of her Tuesday night so that was rough. We had an appt with her dr on Wednesday and she got her bandages changed. I wasn’t prepared for the size of the incision but I was surprised by how normal her new tripawd body seems to me. Maybe it’s just that I love her so much. While the bandages were being changed the dr gave her an injection of pain killer which helped her a lot although it did knock her out for the rest of the day and night. Everything looked normal with her, no fever, no seroma, but no poo the either. She has until tomorrow to poo on her own or the dr will send something home to help her. We are also on day 2 of her not wanting to eat which is making it difficult to give meds. But she is resting comfortably and healing.

Izzy’s surgery was five days ago, and were waiting for a poo. She is very tired today and we all overslept so we are late on her pain meds schedule and she woke up crying. She was awake until 3 am and the pain meds seem to make her pant heavier than usual, which make me worry so there is no sleep happening for me until she reaches her pant plateau. Now she has decided to lay in the dirt outside and she isn’t moving anywhere. Have I mentioned that Izzy is stubborn, even by St. Bernard standards. so she is laying in the dirt, outside, and still no poo. She had pumpkin with her dinner yesterday so I’m hoping. And it’s warm outside so I’m going to let her be where she wants for now ( it’s not like I can do anything about it right) and hope she decides to come in before she gets too knocked out by her meds. The only problem is that if I don’t watch her I’m not going to know if she poops and she won’t usually poo with an audience. So I’m playing lookie loo out the windows hoping for some puppy poo ( and that’s something I never thought I would be saying) and for her to come inside on her own and I’m hoping for a nap too!