Holly’s appetite’s been off since her 3rd round of chemo, but not as bad as after the 2nd round. She had her follow up bloodwork done yesterday and today her results came back – wbc was 2800. The vet said that’s a dip, but not terrible. She wouldn’t eat breakfast today and threw up this morning… but is now eating dinner which is a good sign. The vet put her back on the metoclopramide (anti-nausea), so that might be helping. I’m struggling with whether to continue chemo… I hate seeing her uncomfortable for so long after it. Our vet feels that she’s doing well enough that we should continue. I think we’ll do round number 4 and see how she does with that.
Her energy has remained pretty strong, except for Saturday when we all wanted to nap. But you’d never know her tummy was bothering her if you were to see her – she’s still getting excited by life, her tail is still up, she’s still giving lots of kisses. So the outward signs continue to look awesome! We’ll celebrate that life is good today – and it’s a sunny day at that!
I think we’ll take a nice walk after dinner… her favorite thing to do! 
As Bob always says, we must feed her spirit!
Holly’s white blood cell counts were back up this week! Yay! They went up to over 7,000 so the vet and oncologist said she was ok to resume chemo. So she had her 3rd chemo treatment today. They cut the dose by 10% to be on the safe side. And she’ll be getting Metoclopramide for the next few days to hopefully help with the nausea she experienced last time. We’re keeping fingers and paws crossed that all goes well. She’ll have her blood work checked again next week just to be sure, and if it’s too low they’ll start her on antibiotics.
Holly, of course, has been true to her name today – Jolly Holly. She was so excited to go in to see her friends at the vets – of course to get the treats they all give her. A treat to stay on the scale to be weighed. (hey – I might not mind the scale so much if I got treats when I went to the doctor and had to be weighed!) A treat from the vet tech who gives her chemo (who she adores!). More treats from the ladies at the desk. She was true to form and gave the vet tech kisses all the way through treatment. And then barked at every dog we passed on our way home.
So… for now she’s doing great. She even licked her bowl clean tonight! And armed with some meds to counter the nausea, I’m optimistic that this round will go better than the last round.
Holly continues to let me know that she thinks she’s doing awesome. That puts a big smile on my face… sometimes I have to remind myself that she doesn’t care that her white blood cell counts are low, or whatever! Thanks for all the encouragement after my last post… it helps to have all of you here. We’ll stay pawsitive for this week’s blood work, and hope for the best.
Anyway, when I started writing this (yesterday!) we were having the 4th really nice day here in Chicago. We walked into town to mail some letters, and stopped at the little dog store (where Holly loves to stop since they have yummy grain free treats!). Then we played in the backyard for awhile – Holly kept laying down in the snow and she looked so funny!
Feeling frisky in the snow!
Needless to say, laying down in the snow would never sound appealing to me… but what do I know? She was rolling around in it yesterday, and throwing herself all over it and basically being goofy. It was hilarious!
Today is a rainy day, better for napping than taking a walk.
The squirrels have been really active in our yard. It could have something to do with the sunflower seeds we put out for them so that Holly would have some entertainment as she looks out the doors. :-) She likes to watch the “nature channel” alot – and this way there’s something fun for her to watch. But today even they’re taking a nap… think we’ll head back to the couch for a nap!
Holly: boy, I thought she’d never walk away from that computer so I could let you all know how I’m really doing. I’m doing great! I just like to worry mom a little since it usually translates to more treats. And that worked out for me big time last week! I’m also learning that if I want a little more affection, then all I have to do is stay quiet for awhile and she’ll give me lots of attention. Sometimes that’s hard with all the pesky squirrels in the backyard, though. And my family is always going into the big, cold cheese box in the kitchen, so I usually have to go investigate who’s eating all my cheese! So sometimes my plan goes a little haywire when I lose my head and jump up to investigate stuff. But that also works out, since I usually get cheese when someone opens the big cheese box! (that’s me when I’m eating cheese)
Holly was scheduled for her 3rd chemo treatment today. We got a call from the vet this morning telling us her white blood cell counts were too low so we need to put it off for a week. Her counts were 1073 – he said the low end of normal is 3000 and they want them to be at least 2000 before chemo. So we’ll do another blood test on Monday and if all looks good then her 3rd chemo will be the next day.
The good news is that no one told Holly that something’s not quite right. She ate breakfast and dinner with some enthusiasm today, and was good at performing her jobs around the house – she barked at the mailman, barked at a dog walking down the street, chased a squirrel out of the yard, and monitored cheese drawer activity. We even played a rousing game of “where’s mommy?” (she gets some cheese everytime she finds me – no wonder she loves this game!) She gave me lots of kisses, and her tail was at “full mast” most of the day – all good signs, I know. I just hate it that this awful disease comes along and one little call makes you remember that all is not completely right inside even though all the external signs are awesome. Sigh. So I enjoyed all the little kisses I got today, and she got some extra scratches behind her ears and extra treats. With a 2 day celebration of her ampuversary and now another day of extra treats and scratches and rubs, I think she may think this is now the way to live her life!
Holly had her first haircut since her operation – the baby gund is back! She’s so soft… and so CLEAN! We had to wait on her haircut since she wasn’t feeling too good after her last round of chemo – she got pretty nauseous, which isn’t as bad as other reactions except it lasted so long. But this week is a good week – she’s enjoying life, including her food! We took a very long walk this morning with her friend Zeus and his mom. She loves taking walks with Zeus – it’s one of her favorite things to do. Her hair is growing back from her surgery – and it’s less noticeable now that the rest of her hair has been trimmed, too.
We’ve gotten more snow here in Chicago, but with her hair shorter she’s not coming in looking like an abominable snow-tripawd anymore. :-( I guess that’s one of the drawbacks that we hadn’t figured on. She doesn’t spray snow and water over everything around her nearly as much when she comes in and shakes herself off either.
Her next round of chemo is next Tuesday. We’ll hope for the best, and will ask for a prescription for anti-nausea drugs to bring home with us just in case. And we’ll also have fresh ginger and canned pumpkin on hand, too!
Today was another good day. Holly didn’t eat her breakfast this morning, but came back at lunchtime for it. Sometimes she reminds me of a teenager! She played in the snow alot (grabbing my mitten and shaking it like she just had to kill it), and then played with her rabbit squeak toy inside – also shaking it to within an inch of life! It’s so good to see her so happy and playful! She’s living up to her nickname – Jolly Holly!
Holly has been loving all the snow we have in Chicago. She loves to run through the back yard with her head down – and with her velcro-like fur she ends up collecting tons of snow on her head. I’m still not sure why that feels so good to her – maybe she just wishes I would wash her face? Here’s a picture of our Abominable snow-tripawd (thanks to Peyton for the name – Abominable snow-tripawd fits her so well!)
Holly's Jolly!
Holly had her 2nd round of chemo yesterday. When I went to pick her up the vet tech said that Holly was giving her and the other tech kisses the entire time she was getting her chemo. She’s always very sweet, but it did make me stop and pause – could she somehow understand that the awful needle in her leg is there to hopefully help her? She was very excited when I came to pick her up, and had a good night and a very good day today. We took a short walk in the snow. Holly wanted to go further, but the vet had said it’s best for her to take it easy the first few days after chemo just in case. Hopefully she’ll tolerate this round ok…
Holly’s been enjoying all this snow we have – everytime she goes outside she comes back looking like a mini-abominable snowman! Her fur is like velcro – so her head gets completely covered from all the sniffing and smelling she does. I’ll have to remember to take a picture tomorrow and post it! It amazes me how easily she’s hopping through all this snow!
Our vet called with the results of Holly’s bloodwork yesterday, and all levels were good! She has (thus far) tolerated her chemo very well. She’ll go for her 2nd treatment on Feb 9th. Her energy levels have been really good – and she is really much more interested in everything going on in our house and neighborhood than she had been the past few months. She’s eating well, too. We’re so happy to have her feeling good again! We met with her oncologist yesterday, who said it was ok to start her on K9 Immunity (thanks to Maximutt for sharing his!), and glucosamine, and ground flax seed. We’re trying ground flax seed for now since I also eat ground flax seed so it’s one less thing for me to buy and keep track of, and the oncologist said it should have similar benefits to flax seed oil. And Holly seems to like it sprinkled on her food.
Today we celebrated by taking a long walk with her friend Zeus. I should have taken pictures, but forgot my camera. It was the longest walk she’s had since her amputation – which was exactly one month ago! It’s hard to believe how far she’s come in the last month. So we’re thankful for nice walks with friends, and lots of doggie kisses in our house!
I was able to work from home again on Thursday – I wanted to stay home to monitor Holly in case she had any reaction to the chemo. So far so good – she’s not eating as heartily as she sometimes does, but she also doesn’t appear to be feeling sick, so overall she’s had good days since the chemo on Tuesday. She keeps me company when I work from home… usually sleeping away the day. My home office has several places she likes to sleep (who’s office is it, anyway?) – her favorite place to start is on the chair next to my desk where she can look out the window and watch the kids going to school…
She then eventually wanders off to sleep either in her crate or under the other desk, where she has a comfy blanket to cuddle up on. So it’s not like she needed another bed, but last week when I was at Costco they had these nice dog beds for a bargain price. They looked a little big for Holly, but I just couldn’t resist getting her another comfy place to sleep! Have you ever noticed how things at Costco never look quite as big when you’re in the store? When I got the bed home, it became clear how big it is – Holly looks like the Queen of Sheba on it! Here she is enjoying her new pillow in my (her?) office…
Anyway, she seems to be tolerating the chemo well so far. The cerenia seems to have helped keep nausea at bay, at least for now. And her energy levels have been good – those squirrels in the yard are not getting any rest now that she’s recovered from her surgery! She’s keeping a strong interest in all the things she considers her “job” around here – monitoring the squirrels, alerting us when the mailman or any deliveries or pickups are made, and especially monitoring anyone opening the cheese drawer in the refrigerator! She’ll have her next bloodwork on Tuesday to check the white cell counts.
… we’ll keep our fingers and paws crossed that she continues to do ok with her chemo treatments.
Holly had her first round of chemo today. So far it appears she tolerated it well. She received an injection of an anti-nausea drug (cerenia? Not sure of the spelling) prior to the chemo which may have helped. She stayed at the vet’s for a few hours so they could monitor her and administer fluids. She was happy when I came to pick her up! She slept the rest of the afternoon while I worked – she seemed very mellow. But at dinner time she wolfed down her food, which hasn’t happened in days. We took a short walk tonight and now it’s just about her bedtime. Our vet recommended keeping her pretty quiet for the next few days until we see how she’s doing – so no long walks until we’re sure she’s tolerating this treatment. Car rides will have to satisfy my girl for now – they’re her other favorite thing to do.
On another front, she had her first bath post-surgery yesterday! She did really well with that (of course treats helped!), and now smells great and is as soft as a little puppy. I always call her my baby gund after a bath. Time to go snuggle with the baby!
