hope

I cried a little today. Dave has one more chemo treatment left, in two weeks. It's such a bittersweet feeling. I'm so happy that he's had many more good days than bad ones, that he's been himself through most of this, that he still gives us kisses and hops into bed like everything is the same as it was six months ago. But there is a nagging in the back of my head, counting down... On January 30th, we were told that he had nine months with treatment. As of today, that gives us five more months.

Hopefully he's in the five to ten percent of dogs that stay in remission. Or his remission time is much longer than they thought. Or we don't have to deal with what we (realistically, logically) know that we will. We're holding out hope.

Dave's visit was good, with no notable incidents to report. Mike said that there were no dirty looks from other owners, either. Dave had a pretty full appointment today: his regularly scheduled bloodwork and chemo, in addition to a follow up echocardiogram and opthalmology check. His echocardiogram was good - there is no evidence that the Adriamycin (a.k.a. doxorubicin) has damaged his heart. His eye pressures were good. His bloodwork was good, which was a relief to us. We were concerned with the GI issues that he was fighting something. Upon physical exam, his lymph nodes were normal and he felt good. The black spot on his belly is going to be monitored, but the vet felt it was a normal pigment change.

His meds:
Adriamycin, administered @ Penn
Baytril antibiotic, 136 mg, 1x/day, starting Friday 5.30
Flagyl (anti-diarrhea), 250 mg, 2x/day, starting Thursday 5.29 for 5 days, then as needed
Reglan (anti-nausea), 10 mg, 1/2 tab 3x/day, starting Thursday 5.29 for 5 days, then as needed
Zofran (anti-nausea), 8 mg, 1/2 tab 1x/day, starting Thursday...
Eye meds:
Cosopt (down to 2x/day)
Xalatan (2x/day)
methazolamide (2x/day)

I'm a bit overwhelmed with all of these meds. The poor guy is going to be getting five pills and two eye drops for five of the next fourteen days. I think we may need to buy stock in peanut butter and cream cheese!!

After the next treatment in two weeks (June 10), he'll go for a complete restaging on June 24th. Assuming that his bone marrow, x-rays and ultrasound show that he's completely in remission, he'll start the vaccine trial.