The Tripawd Times of Nova the Great Dane

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2009-10-29T15:33:00.001-07:00

My Sissy is Sick

2009-07-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

Uh, oh. I smell trouble.

No, it's not me. MY health has been AWESOME this past month, however, my big sister Emmy has had a lot of problems that have really scared Mom... and me too. So this past month, Emmy has been getting a lot of attention from Mom, and has been on many, many car rides where I was left behind. POOOOR MEEEE! Gosh, I HATE being left here alone. Every time they leave I do my best drama queen wail, but it doesn't get them to turn back.

Mom! Mom! PLEEEEEEASE come back and snuggle with MEEEEE!

It's scary to think of Emmy being sick, maybe even sicker than me. I can't imagine my life with out my sissy.

So here's the story. A few weeks ago, when Emmy was napping on her back with all four legs straight up in the air (my brothers call it the "Dead Dog" pose), Mom noticed big dark red splotches all over her belly. She thought it was probably just a skin condition, since Emmy has had those in the past. Well, she took Emmy to the vet and it turned out that they were hemorrhages (bleeding under the skin).

The vet recommended a blood test immediately, and discovered that Emmy's platelet count was dangerously low. She told Mom that Emmy likely had Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura or ITP for short (yeah right, like we even knew what THOSE goofy words even meant). Basically, it's when the platelet count gets so low that blood doesn't clot normally, and the dog can eventually bleed to death if it isn't caught in time. Something in there attacks the platelets, kills them off, even though the body keeps producing more and more.

The vet started to worry Mom by telling her she wanted to do another test to check the calcium level in Emmy's blood. A higher reading might indicate cancer. Well, Emmy's calcium level WAS high, and Mom was really upset when she heard that C-WORD, that yucky cancer was a possibility. When she got home she was all sad, pounding out updates on her computer to her friends from Tripawds.com, looking for support and reassurance. As usual, the Tripawds gang was wonderful and really gave Mom the boost of positive thinking that she needed. I don't know what Mom would do without those people.

The following Monday, the Vet did a "Malignancy Profile" on Emmy, and sent it to Michigan State for analysis. This was supposed to tell Mom what type of cancer or tumor Emmy might have. In the meantime, the Vet had prescribed prednisone to treat the low platelets. The medication was working, as Emmy's platelets were up a bit by then. But the medicine caused a problem that was just driving Mom bananas. Emmy was so thirsty she did not want to stop drinking. She drank out of the TOILETS, can you believe that? Someone told me that a lot of dogs do that, but neither Emmy nor I never thought to do that before. We really are more like people than dogs!

It really grossed out Mom, because since I have 3 brothers, they are all lazy butts who occasionally "forget" to flush. EWWWW, not really something you want to think about, right? I thought Mom would have a meltdown. Emmy was SO thirsty she would seek out ANY source of water she could find. The spigot on the water cooler, knocking over Mom's plants to drink the water in the pans underneath, drinking the bird bath, rain water, dew off of the grass, begging to go out at 4:30 am when the sprinklers were on, just to put her mouth over the sprinkler. And to top it off, she ripped the downspout off the side of the house so that she could drink what was in there. Yep, she was big time thirsty.

And to make matters worse, this meant that Emmy had to pee so much that she wasn't able to make it outside. She would pee on the carpet, the throw rugs, even on the hardwood floors, and the puddles were often discovered by unsuspecting people walking through them and yelling AAARRRGGGHHHH. This stuff made Mom want to constantly turn on that awful carpet cleaning vacuum thing, that scares the crap out of me every time she turns it on. I tried to tell Emmy to stop the silly puppy behavior, it's the only way we are going to stop Mom from turning on the monster pee-sucking vacuum. But she just looked at me and said she couldn't help it, the medicine was doing weird things to her that she couldn't control. I could tell she felt bad every time it happened, and luckily Mom did not yell at her, she would just put her outside and give her a piece of cheese when she would pee where she was supposed to.

The following weekend the test came back from Michigan State and said that Emmy had a Parathyroid Tumor. The Vet told Mom to take the test results and Emmy's x-rays (which were all clear, just like mine!) to my cancer doctor, Dr. Obradovich for her opinion. So last week, Mom took Emmy there for an evaluation. Before they went, Mom looked up Parathyroid Tumors on the computer and found that they were very treatable and usually not cancerous.

What a relief! As you can see, I have always been VERY close to my big sissy, she's always been there for me ever since I was a puppy!

Dr. O said that yes, Emmy did appear to have a "Parathyroid Adenoma" which was very, very likely NOT cancerous, and could be removed with surgery. Trouble is, Emmy can't have surgery if her blood is not clotting normally, it would be way too dangerous. They still can't figure out the cause of the ITP. Dr. O was worried about a lymphoma in the spleen or bone marrow neoplasia, which are types of cancers. She did an ultrasound of Emmy's liver and spleen, and that looked normal. She also did a test for a tick-borne virus that could cause ITP, but that was normal too. So right now Mom has to continue Emmy on a lower dose of prednisone to get the platelets stable, and then think about surgery. But the cause of the ITP remains unknown.

Surgery on a Parathyroid Tumor is apparently much more difficult than an amputation, if you can believe it. You'd think that taking something out that is the size of a lima bean (or thereabouts) would be much easier then removing an entire leg. Mom was very surprised to hear that even though the incision would only be a few inches and the tumor was small, it would probably cost as much as my amputation surgery, maybe even more! The reason is that there are a lot of things that can go wrong in the first few days that the surgeon needs to control, so Emmy will have to stay in the hospital and be monitored for a few days. Geeze, with my amputation I was hopping out to the car the next day!

How scary! I don't want to be left at home without my sissy!

I really hope that Emmy starts to feel better soon. She hangs around Mom a lot more now, which I am not used to, so when I hop up to Mom for some love, I usually crash into Emmy, who got there first! She's been swiping my ice cubes that Mom gives us, and a few times I have had to lash out and speak my mind! Sometimes I drop them and it takes me a few minutes to find them with my sniffer, then WOOSH, I get a mouthful of Emmy's fur. Bleah.

I do love my sister soooo much though. She has been there for me since I was a puppy and was so small I walked under her legs. Now I am so big she can walk under ME! But she is still my big sister. And even though she steals my ice cubes, water, and hogs Mom all the time, I don't know what I would do without her as my seeing eye dog. Please join me in thinking pawsitive thoughts that there is no cancer in that big tubby 'ol body of hers, and that when she has the surgery that she bounces right back and is herself again just like I was after my surgery.

Emmy and Nova... sisters forever!

(Note: Nova puppy pics are from 2004)

All Clear!

2009-06-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the oncologist, and Nova's lungs were all clear! The x-rays didn't show any visible signs of tumors in the lungs. He said that her panting was likely due to the hot weather. And the swelling in the neck was nothing to worry about. Lymph nodes felt good. I am so happy.

We stopped at the park on the way home to take some "celebration" pictures:

Worried This Week

2009-06-25T04:04:00.000-07:00

It has been over a month since I last posted. It's mostly been because of all the busy-ness that comes at the end of the school year, and preparing for a family vacation to the Carolinas, which we just now returned from. Nova and Emmy were in the kennel for 10 days (really broke my heart to leave them there). They seemed to do great, although were glad to be home. They went straight for the leather couch.

Nova has adapted incredibly to being a blind dog. She finds her way around the house and outside to her "spot" without any assistance whatsoever. It's so funny, she appears to use her tail as a blind dog "cane", wagging it in a wide arc so she can feel the walls. She has really sharpened all of her senses. She can tell if anyone is approaching her when she has her favorite stuffy in front of her, and she will rush to grab it and let out a "watch it" bark. It's so funny because Nova was always really lax when Emmy would steal her stuff, she'd just give in and back off. Not anymore! Last night, she even stole Emmy's dinner.

Nova was scheduled to have new chest x-rays at the oncologist early this month. After a lot of waffling, I rescheduled the appointment to later in the month (tomorrow in fact). I had kind of a selfish reason for doing so, but I did it anyway. I was nervous that we might get bad news, and I didn't want it to ruin our vacation. Plus, if I heard bad news I don't think I could have left her in the kennel, but I couldn't find any other options. So I thought it would be best to wait until we got back.

I have no idea what to expect tomorrow. A few days before we left, I noticed a strange swelling in Nova's neck. It was not something I could feel at all, just something I could see under her skin when she turned her neck a certain way. But every time I think I see it (looks golf ball like), I grab her and feel her neck area all over. But I can't seem to find any type of mass, and it is all soft, there is nothing hard in there other than bone, that I could find. I thought that they might be swollen lymph nodes, but I thought if that would be the case they would feel hard. I decided that it could wait until the oncologist appointment.

Another strange thing is that since she has come home from the kennel she has been panting a lot. Now, it has been in the 90s this week, so it might be from the heat. And it might be pain from her glaucoma, although I took her to the opthomologist earlier this week and her eye pressures were fine. I am concerned that panting is a sign that the cancer has spread to the lungs. I am trying to remain positive, although I know metastises (sp?) are inevitable. We are going to have to deal with them sooner or later.

She doesn't pant when she is laying down, only when she gets up to move around. It is quite warm in my house (we don't like to turn the air on much), but I have tried fans, and turning the air on to see if it makes a difference and it doesn't seem to. But it is so hot and humid, it's been uncomfortable for me too. I think if I was a dog I would be panting too.

I want to know, but I don't want to know. You know? The whole diagnosis, amputation experience, treatments, x-rays, and then all the glaucoma problems with ensuing blindness. It has me just totally drained. Getting the x-rays tomorrow will be a big expense, and if it shows that there are tumors elsewhere, I will probably just lose it. I have done so much to care for this dog, and I don't want the cancer to win. If I find out it spread it is going to be so hard to know when to say when. I think that's the part I dread the most. I don't want her to hurt or suffer.

Oh well, I am trying to remain positive and hoping that the panting is just from the heat. Stay tuned for an update tomorrow.

Life is Beautiful!

2009-05-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's me, Nova! I know it's been awhile since I've posted, but I wanted everyone to know that things have calmed down around here and I have settled into a nice routine as a blind dog. It's been nice to not have to go to the vet all the time to get my eyes poked. Mom says I've been doing great adjusting to blindness. Everyone is amazed at how well I am doing. Me, well, I am just happy to be at home with my family and to be able to enjoy life.

I can still do all sorts of amazing things, even though I am blind. The other day Mom was sick, so I found my way into her bedroom, and jumped on the bed (it is higher up than the other beds) to snuggle with her. It took me a few minutes, but I sniffed my way to her when she was sleeping. The fact that I found her in there (I never go in her bedroom) and jumped up to take care of her made her so happy that she went to get the camera to take a picture of me! She said I really made her feel better. Always glad to help!

The pace of life is a little slower for me, and I do a little more bumming around that usual (doesn't bother ME!), but Mom does make the effort a couple of times a day to get me outside doing something, whether we just go out to sniff the flowers and walk around the yard, or go for a quick car ride to do some errands. But in general, I love to be a couch potato, as you can see!

Ahhh..... I love to nap on my back in what my brothers call the "Dead Dog" pose:

My pack has done some traveling lately, and things will not slow down with that until late June. Last weekend, Mom took Emmy and I to the kennel. Originally, a pet sitter neighbor had agreed to come take care of us in the house, but then changed her mind once she found out I was now blind. I could tell it made Mom sad when she found out, I think she took it a little too personally. I know that Mom knows better than anyone how amazing I am at being blind and a Tripawd, so she was really bummed and felt it wasn't fair for me to be discriminated against. Come on, Mom, just get over it, and get on with it! She got on the phone and called Cliff Mann at the kennel and held her breath once she told him I was now blind, expecting that he would not want to take care of me either. Cliff said he didn't mind, he loved having me and Emmy there at the kennel, and was very excited to have us come back (we haven't been there since before I became a Tripawd.)

Mom and Dad went up north last weekend to ride their bikes 50 miles with a bunch of crazy middle aged hungover people in the cold, wind, and rain. Can you believe these people this that is FUN? No thanks! Emmy and I had it MUCH better, we shared a cozy run at Cliff's kennel, stayed warm, even had our beds so it felt like home. Cliff didn't mind giving me my eyedrops, and even held my food dish in his hands every time I ate (sorry, I am used to an elevated food dish, which Mom forgot to bring).

We will have to go back again this weekend, because my pack is going up north AGAIN. This time, Mom and Dad are doing something even sillier, they are running 26.2 miles, all in one morning. What kind of relaxation is THAT? It sounds like the kids in my pack will be having much more fun, going down waterslides at a cool place called the Great Wolf Lodge.

In June, it will be back to the kennel again for 9 days while the rest of my pack goes on a road trip to North Carolina (the same place I went in the Spring) to do a bunch of hiking and biking, and then on to Myrtle Beach/Georgetown/Charleston, SC to see Dad's parents and go to the beach, and if I know Mom and Dad, MORE running and biking.

Yesterday I had a great day outside sniffing all the wonderful smells of late Spring in Michigan. All of Mom's baskets of flowers are in bloom, although it still gets so cold at night she has to bring them in the garage. I love going outside and just enjoying the sun, or even just finding a sunny spot to nap in the house.

"Sorry about all the dead grass, Mom, but where else am I supposed to pee?"

Keeping Mom entertained with my famous "talking" (she thinks I am a drama queen):

Sniffin' the flowers:

As always, Emmy stays near by to watch out for me (I am so lucky to have a seeing eye person AND dog!)

Nova's Point of View

2009-04-25T05:08:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's Nova here. I know, point of "view", ha ha, very funny, how can Nova have a point of "view" when she can't see? Well, I may not be able to see with my eyes anymore, but I can see with my other senses, like my nose and my ears. I just have to train them to do that type of work. I consider myself really lucky. I have my own personal seeing eye person now (Mom) and even my own seeing eye dog (Emmy). Together we are working as a team to help me learn my new world. Here's Emmy sticking close to me so I feel safe during a nap:

She follows me wherever I want to nap, and stays close by to keep me safe:

Let me tell ya, waking up to darkness is REALLY scary. A few nights ago when I woke up in the darkness I didn't understand what had happened. I thought I was alone, and that I was not safe. Plus, I felt awful. My eyeballs have given me so much trouble these past few years, it's been WAY more hassle than recovering from an amputation and learning to hop on 3 legs. Think of it as the world's worst migraine headache. Your eyeball aching so bad that you can't even think straight.

I mean it, I really felt like total crap:

Then on top of that, I had to spend nearly 2 days in scary places that I didn't want to be, with strangers who poked my eyeballs all the time and fed me disgusting medicines. The medicines worked, here and there, long enough for me to get some relief and to start to understand my new situation. Now that I am back home, with my familiar bed, toys, and smells, I feel safe and cared for. And I am starting to learn my way around my new world so it doesn't feel so dark anymore.

Here my favorite stuffie puppy making me feel safe and loved when I had my bad headache:

Everyone in my pack is trying to help me, but they are also trying to teach me. I am teaching myself a lot too, since I have a much better nose and sense of hearing than my people do. I really appreciate the things Mom is teaching everyone to do. First, everyone is talking to me more, reassuring me that someone is around so I feel safe. But when I am trying to sniff and hear my way to find something, they are more quiet, except for the person who is near the thing I am looking for. This helps me find my way. Also, my sister Emmy has been great. She has pushed my head toward my food or water dish to help me find it, and also walks with me to our different nap spots around the house. So far I have been able to find my way to ALL my favorite spots, even getting up on the couch and on my brother's bed.

Mom has been helping me get outside with my leash. She is still trying to figure out how to size a harness she got for me, but I hope she can do it today. Going outside is still a little hard, but I can tell that Mom is taking me out the same route each time to help me memorize it. Then we go for a walk around the yard just to enjoy the air. Sometimes she'll get me up if she thinks I've been resting too long. I might complain, but I know she is just trying to keep me learning, and encouraging me. Today we even went outside to make this cool garden stone with my pawprint in it. That felt weird to put my foot into the cold, wet concrete, so it took us awhile to get it right. Mom decorated it with pieces of colored glass, and used letter stamps to write "Tripawd Nova":

Mom is hoping I can get my new world figured out before they have to go away for the weekend in mid-May, and again Memorial Day weekend so she Mom can run her first marathon. Speaking of that, a few days before I went blind, Mom called a pet sitter who was recommended by our vet. It turned out that the sitter was a neighbor who only lives 3 houses from us, a retired couple named Cindy and Jerry, they are pawrents to Otis, a golden retriever who walks by my house every day. Mom invited Cindy to come over and Emmy and I won her over in like, 5 seconds, as we are known to do! Mom was so happy that she lived so close and would be able to give us extra special care when our pack is away. Now that I am blind, she is SO happy she found Cindy because going to the kennel or to a strange house would be very hard for me as a blind dog. So when my pack goes away, Emmy and I will be able to stay in our comfortable, familiar home. What a relief.

Yesterday (Friday) I did not feel very well at all. Mom could tell, and I could tell she was sad and worried about me. I was just trying to get through the pain, sleeping, and thinking ahead to when this eyeball won't hurt so bad anymore. I didn't want to eat my dinner, I felt so horrible. Mom had to give me something called Glycerin. Man, that stuff is AWFUL. She had a rough time giving it to me too. The doctor told her she could just get it at the drugstore. She went there and found out that it was in the skincare/first aid section. She was all upset because the bottle said that it could be poisonous if swallowed. She called the vet a few times to make sure she was getting the right stuff. She remembered that it made me barf a few times yesterday, and was so worried about making me barf on top of all the awfulness I was feeling.

Around 8 pm she finally got up the nerve to force feed me 1/3 cup of Glycerin through a syringe. BLEAH. She put towels all around me in case I spit it out. At that point I was feeling so bad I thought I would just swallow it. I ended up feeling better later that night. This morning when I woke up I was feeling good, and ready for a big breakfast. And I was happy that the Glycerin didn't upset my tummy the way it did the other day. But I still don't like it. This stuff is big time NASTY, and I hope you don't ever have to take it:

After breakfast Mom went to take a shower, so I found my way down the hall to my brother's bed. I was definitely ready to wag some tail today, so Mom caught me on video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GntBHMTJWTQ

After napping there for awhile, I woke up and sensed that Emmy was not in the room. So I got up to look for her. Mom heard me get up and decided to video tape me, so she could show everyone how I am learning to find my way. Here in this video, I found my way from my brother's room to my bed in the living room, without bumping into anything!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc0q_7ZmFx8

We just got back from local vet to get my eyeballs poked to get the pressure checked. Fun, fun, fun. The most exciting thing is that the pressures were normal, ranging from 10-14 in both eyeballs. No wonder I feel so good today! Mom also figured out show to fit me with my Ruffwear harness, and it worked great at the vet, and everything thought I looked very pretty in it. When we got home I went for a long hop around the yard with Mom. Now, I am going to try to explore a little more around the house. But not without a nap first!

A New Role for Me

2009-04-24T06:48:00.000-07:00

I was totally exhausted after the long day. I brought Nova home around 5 pm, and she was still blind. It is most likely permanent. The pressure in her right eye keeps spiking, so if it hasn't caused permanent blindness by now, it will probably do so at any time. There is a laser surgery available, but it is just so very expensive, and just a temporary fix, and there is no guarantee it will restore vision without knowing if there is vision even there to be restored. And there is no guarantee it will relieve the pain either. They tried several medications over the course of the day. They would work, then the pressure would spike. So this blindness is likely going to be permanent. I took about 10 minutes to reconsider the surgery, and tried so hard to see which direction my heart would lead me. I decided against it. I am sure I will have bouts of regret, but it just doesn't make sense to spend that kind of money on something that may or may not work, and is only temporary anyway. She could be back to where she was now in as early as a week to 6 months. It's just did not seem like the right thing to do.

So, it appears that I now have a new role. I am Mom to Tripawds.com's first Blind Tripawd. A "seeing eye person", if you will. Never thought I would be that, but I am dang proud. Everything right now is what the vets call "guarded". We are treating the pressure with the eyedrops and an oral medication (glycerin, she hates it, and puked it up) for a few days. If she is still blind then, then it is pretty definite that she will be blind permanently. At that point I will likely opt to have the same surgery I had for her in the left eye last week, which "kills" the fluid production in the eye. This will mean total blindness, but will also mean no more glaucoma pain, and no more expensive meds. If she doesn't adapt well and is clearly suffering, well then there will be a much different path to consider. This feels like the "right" route for us. As to how Nova will do as a blind Tripawd, only time will tell.

I have decided that I need to at least give her a few days to see how she does, and take it from there. I had to go with my gut. A Tripawds friend suggested I talk with Nova and try to connect and see if I can sense what Nova wants. I know it sounds wacky, but she is so right. Everything that Nova has done thus far since I've picked her up had communicated to me that she was not ready to give up, so I am going to support that.

Nova was ecstatic to see me when I picked her up, and her senses of smell and hearing seem to have taken over in a whole new way. It was one affectionate snuggle after another. She rode home in the van peacefully resting, then got up from time to time to sniff her way to my shoulder and rest her head on there like she usually does. We had a big long talk in the car about our plan. She thinks she can do it, and wants to try.

When we got home, I ran in to get the leash so I could walk her right out to the yard to pee, and Emmy burst out the door and jumped into the van. They had the most precious reunion ever, I could not stop crying it was so beautiful. Then Emmy led us out to the yard, and Nova's head was held high as she sniffed all her favorite places, slowly, but confidently. Emmy would sidle up to her as if to say, it's ok, I'm here and I will protect you and show you the way. We went in the house and she was different right away. It was like she had decided that it was time to get to know the house by her sniffer and ears. I walked through the living room and kitchen, where she spends most of her time, and watched her slowly sniff and discover the perimeter of the room. She ultimately found her water dish, where she proceeded to gulp up so much water (I shouldn't have let her) that she ended up puking. Before she did that, I offered her food, which she refused, but turned and sniffed her way to her favorite vantage point between the kitchen and the living room. My husband was shocked when she quickly found it, plunked herself down, then a few minutes later abruptly got up, stepped ON to the hardwood (rather than the carpet) and puked up all the water she'd gobbled down. I cleaned it up, and she rested back in her spot for a minute, then sniffed her way BACK to the food bowl, and ate her dinner.

The whole family walked through the house in the meantime, just watching her discover the house in her new way and expressing amazement and encouragement. She spent some time following our voices, all quizzical, like she was intent on learning the "new" map of the house. I went off to my son's baseball practice (since I have missed out on so many of my kids' activities these past few days), and came back and she got up to greet me. And last night (I get weepy just saying this) she sniffed her way and followed my voice into my office to sit in front of my desk while I typed emails. This was clearly not a dog who was ready to give up just yet.

When Nova and I had our heart to heart in the car, I honestly felt her telling me "You need to let me try this, Mom, and see if I can do it." I really feel this, and it is so unexplainable how you can just get these communications from your pets if you really try to connect and believe that you can. We didn't talk timeframe, but the hopelessness and despair of the last few nights was gone. I have to grant her this opportunity, I must. So that's what I will do. This is definitely going to be one of those "one day at a time" situations.

I left messages with her oncologist earlier in the day and her regular vet, just to get their takes on the situation. The oncologist didn't call me back yet, which disappointed me, but my vet did. He, like the optho and his entire staff, said that they did not feel it was time to give up. I've only had a person or two try to encourage me to not put Nova through such "suffering". But I honestly can say at this point that she is not anywhere near suffering right now. So I am not ready to give up. I will stand behind my girl to the end. Rene from Tripawds pointed out to me that many people think that an amputation is suffering, and cruel to your pet. But we all know better. I think back to that a$$hole back at the oncologist who said that I should have sent Nova to Heaven rather than put her through an amputation. My girl went on to climb mountains and hop confidently with no assistance. So THERE!

Last night went really well. The priority today is to clean the house to make sure there is nothing underfoot for her. Last night she slept on her bed and moved to the couch during the night. I heard her move in the night, and peeked out the door to check on her. Her ear perked up, so she knew I was checking, but she went back to sleep. This morning she found her way to her water bowl with no assistance, then sniffed her way to the door to pee, back in for 10 minute rest in her favorite nap spot, sniffed her was back to her bowl for her breakfast, then back to the door to poop (this is her routine).

I’ve been taking her out on a leash, there are just too many things to bump into outside but she’s doing well. I hope to teach her a pattern to follow to get out to the yard and back. We have an invisible fence, which is useless for her now (they haven't worn their collars since last fall since they learned the boundaries. So she will always need to be supervised. She came back in and sniffed her way to the boys room and jumped up on one of their beds. I am very thankful I have a 1-story home, the perfect style for a blind Tripawd.

Emmy (my other Dane) has been awesome, like Nova's personal guide. She nudged Nova’s head toward her food bowl, and guided her down the hall to the boys’ room. Nova jumped up on the bed like it was no problem and Emmy joined her, with her paw on her, for protection. She has assumed the role of protector. We are Nova's assistance team. She's the seeing eye dog, and I am the seeing eye person.

The only thing I don’t like right now is that I know there is pain from the glaucoma. I’m doing all I can to control it until middle of next week when/if the determine she is permanently blind then she will be able to have the injection in the remaining eye. Then the pain will be gone. I am not expecting any miracles with the eyesight coming back. The pressure is just too up and down in the eye. With the pain gone, we’ll see how it goes. Considering how well she’s adapted in the last 24 hours, I am not ready to quit. And neither is she.

As sad as I feel that my precious girl is blind, I feel this sense of peace that I know we are doing what is right for us, at this time, this moment, in our journey. Today we are going to create a pawprint garden stone together that I have had sitting on my shelf for the last few weeks. I plan to take some videos soon so that I can show everyone how she sniffs her way around to things. I will also add some pictures, I just don't have the time to download them right now, but will soon.

Tough Decisions

2009-04-24T06:23:00.000-07:00

I spoke with the Optho around 10 am and he laid out the options. At that point, the pressure was under control (just like it had been yesterday) but there was no sight in the right eye at all. He said we would not know for about 10-14 days whether there is sight remaining in that eye. Trouble was, during that time we would still be battling with the pressures. It would be something that would be next to impossible to monitor, other than running to the vet every day to get the pressures tested. Even then, it was not going to work well since the pressure can go from ok to terrible in an hour. He mentioned that there was a laser surgery that they could do, that would reduce fluid production, but was no guarantee that her eyesight would return. It may likely already be gone, which in that case the surgery would strictly be for TEMPORARY pain relief. He said 6 months is the typical time that the glaucoma can be controlled with the laser surgery. And there was no guarantee that the laser surgery would even work at all.

I got to thinking. Now, if she IS blind, I could always have the same procedure I had done in the left eye last week, the only trouble with that was that he would only do it in a blind eye, and at that point in time he could not say for sure that the eye was permanently blind. What was so very maddening was knowing that I would have to wait for 10-14 days trying to treat it with medication, not really knowing if she was in pain or not, just to see if her vision comes back. It might return from this bout, but she could have another bout at any minute that could cause permanent blindness too. I wish I could do the laser surgery, just to see if it worked, but given that it doesn't solve the problem, it seemed to not make sense to me. Plus, I was still worried that she would not be able to function as a blind Tripawd.

But I didn't want her to be in pain. The surgery in the left eye last week went great, and although she is permanently blind in the left eye, the pressure is gone, and doesn't come back supposedly. So it solved the problem and provides pain relief. What I thought I might opt for is to ride out the next 10 days or so to see if the sight comes back, and also in the meantime see how Nova fares blind on 3 legs. The factor that I don't like is that I won't know for sure if she is in pain or not. That kills me. If her sight does not return in the right eye, and she is faring well as a blind dog, then I can have the less expensive procedure done on the 2nd blind eye.

A handful of friends begged me not to let Nova suffer, and I agreed with them. Stumbling around in pain all the time is suffering. But if she CAN adapt (and I know many who can) then she might not be suffering. What a hard decision. I just didn't know what the road ahead was going to be like in the cancer department. Nova had done so well with her amp, chemo, etc. I feel like I would be throwing it all away if I gave up. But I didn't want her to suffer. There would still the very real possibility that she had lung mets down the line and ends up suffering all the more. My head was spinning from all the decisions and what ifs.

He said I could come pick her up any time I wanted. I arranged for around 1 pm. Just then, my son texted me from school asking me to accompany him to the hospital to visit his Grandma. (His dad died back when he was 7, and Alex has remained very close to his Grandma). The previous night when I was fighting my battle with Nova, he found out that his Grandma was having surgery, and had almost died from complications. He wanted to go see her during school. Anyway, when he first sent me the text, I told him he could drive himself, because I had to pick up Nova. It took me about 10 seconds to regret saying that, I immediately called the vet and said I would be there a few hours later. In this case, Nova could wait, and would likely benefit from the additional monitoring anyway. My son needed me, and I needed to make the time. I was horrendously guilty from missing his track meet the day before.

Going to visit his Grandma turned out to be just the distraction I needed. I was able to focus on someone else, just for a short while, and think things through a little more clearly. By the time we got there she had stabilized, and we had a wonderful visit. It was amazing to see her talking and happy, after being near death just the night before. It got me motivated to approach Nova's situation from a more positive direction. I didn't know what the road ahead of us would be like, all I knew was that we were all going to be loving her big time that night. I thought of some of the things I could do to help her adapt to the blindness. I had purchased her a Ruffwear harness way back in November and thought that might help now. Hey, if Alex's grandma could bounce back from a situation that seemed hopeless the night before, why couldn't Nova?

More to the Story

2009-04-24T06:03:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, the roller coaster began again that very night. Around midnight I heard her whining and bumping into things, woke up to let her out and discovered she was blind again. This time was just as bad as the first. I tried to get her out to pee, as she was very intent on going out, but very distressed, shaking, crying, miserable. I tried to guide her but she charged ahead, panting and confused, and I couldn't turn her around to come back in the house. Every time I tried to lift her she would panic and freak out, at one point she got away from me and went hopping aimlessly toward the woods, tripping over the woodpile and slamming into a tree. I was hysterical at this point, screaming for my husband to come out and help me, but he couldn't hear because he was out cold sleeping. I couldn't go get him because she was wanting to head back for the woods and I didn't want her to hit her head again. It took me awhile, but by lifting her body little by little I get her back in the house. She was thirsty and slammed into the waterbowl looking for a drink. I am crying and panicking.

I get out the medication (Xalatan and Trusopt) and give her a dose in the right eye immediately. I had asked the Optho what I should do if the blindness recurred, and he said give a dose asap and call. This was the best chance to prevent permanent blindness. Plus he said to check and see if her pupil constricts (means there is some vision), and I do that and it is totally dilated to black, I can't even see it, plus the eye is clouding a bit, which is big time bad news, I learn as I frantically Google while I am on hold at MVS. They said get her in NOW. It was almost 1 in the morning by this time. I sat with her for a few minutes, trying to decide if this could wait until the morning. I knew that time was of the essence, and that the only chance she had to save her eyesight would be to get treated immediately.

Once again battled with getting her in the car, in her darkness she was panicky and distressed.
We get there and they can't seem to find my chart, turns out that the most likely place it is is locked in the opthomologist's office, or perhaps he took it home. So they have to get her whole history from me all over again, names of medications, dosages, etc., piecing it together with whatever they can find in the computer. I am furious because I know that with this eye pressure, time is of the essence if you want to save the vision. The exam seemed to take forever, this time the pressure was in the 60s and one reading came in in the 90s. From what I've read, if the pressure is over 50 for more than a few hours or so, it most definitely causes irreversible vision loss.

They started her on an intensive dose of the 3 eyedrops she was on, and admit her for the night. Since nothing was to be known for sure until the Optho came in at 9 am, I decided to drive back home to try to get some sleep (yeah right). They put her in a kennel and she was howling and crying. I wanted to go in there and curl up with her, but she wouldn't calm down, she would just stand and cry. The pain from the pressure must have been excruitating.

When I arrived back home at 4:45 am, I call to check on her, and they say the pressure is still the same, but they were starting her on some oral glycerin thing. I manage to get an hour or so of sleep, wake up at 6:30 and check in with them again. The Dr said that the glycerin brought the pressure down to the upper 20s, not perfect, but much better, a LITTLE of the cloudiness has disappeared. So that was good news. But the bad news was that the pupil would not constrict, meaning there was little if no vision left in the right eye. She said we'd have to wait and see, sometimes you need to wait some time after the pressure comes down to see if there is vision left. She added that Nova had not made any effort to lay down, just standing in her kennel bumping into walls. At least she has stopped crying so the pain must have eased a little.

The plan was to talk to the Optho when he got in around 10 am and see when the pressure was under control. But the big question is, what then? It was looking less and less likely that we would be able to save her vision. But then there was still the pain from the pressure to deal with. The only way to make the pain go away for sure (if it couldnt be treated with meds) is do the injection we did last week in the other eye. That means total loss of vision forever.

I was struggling with “quality of life” issues big time. Generally, a blind dog is no big deal, but everything thus far had shown that Nova was miserable as a blind dog. But then again her misery could have been from the pain. How would I know? I was worried that even if they get the pressure under control (which they did yesterday) that it would shoot way up that night, this weekend, next week, who knows when? And then there would be another round of midnight emergency visits, and worst of all, Nova would be suffering big time.

I really got down and depressed. I was so concerned about her being able to get around on 3 legs, and be blind too. I've always felt that my girl can do anything, but being a front leg amputee she has to almost “launch” into a big hop and go pretty fast to get enough momentum to move forward. When the blindness occured, she would hop more timidly, and tripped over her foot in the process. And when she bumped into things she would get all freaked out, and it was so hard to calm her being such a big dog.

The negative thoughts overwhelmed me. She would need to be monitored and assisted constantly, every time she would have to go outside, eat, etc. Being a couch potato in this case would probably be a good thing, so she had that going for her. But what quality of life would she have living in total darkness, sleeping all the time, and only getting up assisted to eat and go outside? The other issue is that she was a very panicky dog, easily stressed. So that would mean every bump and stumble would get her all worried and upset, or worse yet, HURT because when a Great Dane like her panics it's like Marmaduke, frantic limbs all over the place.

And HOW does one proceed with aggressive cancer treatment (metronomics, although she is off Cytoxan for a week or two), expensive chest x-rays, etc. with a dog in this condition? I was such an awful mess. I just didn't know what to do. I wanted so much to do the right thing for her, but I just didn't know what was right. I had tried so hard to be positive throughout her illness and had spent every cent I could find on her care and treatment. But was this the point where I am doing all of it for me, and not for her? Would it be fair to ask her to endure this?

An Even Bigger Challenge

2009-04-24T05:42:00.000-07:00

It's hard to fathom how much Nova's life has changed in the last few days. In the middle of the night early Wednesday morning, I woke up to let Nova out and she was all disoriented, running into things. Hopping very tentatively when the night before she was zooming down the hall. I knew right away it was her glaucoma, and it seemed to have struck her blind. After her surgery in her left eye last week, she had a somewhat slow recovery, very mopey. I thought she might have been in pain.

She had a cataract in her remaining eye, and also uveitis, but had been controlled with medication for almost 2 years. Everything was fine last week in that eye. After the left eye surgery I had noticed her rubbing and scratching at her left eye, and also the right eye. I found that strange since her right eye had always been great. I called the Opthomologist and was told that uveitis can go from controlled to out of control in a short period of time. I had to bring her back in. I was a mess. I couldn't even get her to walk without slamming into things, so I had no clue how I would get her into the car. I didn't know how things could go from good to bad in one night.

I never thought in a million years that the glaucoma might get worse before the cancer. It is so frustrating to have spent months treating her, having her do so well after surgery, chemo, etc., no lung mets, and now it appeared she might be blind! I was overwhelmed. How could I possible cope with a 125-lb blind Tripawd? How would SHE cope? Was the blindness permanent? (With Glaucoma she will be blind eventually, so the question was whether or not her sight could be saved a little while longer.

On the drive there, Nova stands the whole time in the car because she can't see, and she is scared so rides the whole way with her chin on my arm whining like “Mom, I'm scared.” I'm a wreck, talking on the cell phone with my husband discussing different scenarios and such. I hadn't ever thought through what would happen if she went blind as a Tripawd. It really threw me for a loop because she'd had glaucoma for 2 years, and complications here and there, and the left eye (which was the worst eye) didn't get uncontrollable with medication for 2 years. But here she was, scared and shaking and absolutely miserable. She was so miserable, and I kept trying to see how, if this was the reality and she would have to be this way, how could that possibly be a good quality of life for her? Oh geeze, I was SO not ready to think about these things.

I got her to the vet and she stumbles out of the car, walks into a few walls, all while tentatively hopping and whimpering, looking dazed and confused. Lots of sympathetic looks came our way from the waiting room, then a dog starts to notice her from 2 feet away, Nova doesn't even flinch until the dog makes a sound, then she gets her quizzical, tilted head look, like “what was that?” I am a basket case, crying, etc. because it's so dang cute, and she's been scared and cowering all day. We get in to the exam room and start to check her out. First they say that the surgery worked beautifully in the left eye (YAY!), in fact the pressure was so low they couldn't even get a reading.

HOWEVER, the right eye's pressure had shot up so high, higher pressure than she had ever had in her other eye. This is something that was totally under control for 2 years, now the right eye decides to go crazy out of nowhere. It was like the fluid production was surgically stopped in the left eye, so it decided to take over the right eye immediately, in just a matter of a few days. I was appalled. The optho came in and said they wanted her inpatient for a few hours, they were going to try some different drops and monitor her, but it was highly unlikely that she would have vision in the eye when all was said and done. He was very grave about it all. Usually by the time you get them in, the vision is gone, he said. So I go off poking around stores feeling miserable for a few hours. Then they called to tell me that they got the pressures down and that she could come home. I was relieved.

I'm sitting in the waiting room and I hear this fast HOP-HOP-HOP-HOP-HOP coming down the hall and she comes barreling around the corner, right AROUND a chair and straight into my arms. The Doctor comes out, shaking his head like they always seem to do for my girl, and says she defied the odds, they got the pressures down and it appeared she had most, if not ALL vision left in that eye. He was shocked, said that I must have got her there in just in time. He put her on the same expensive eyedrops (Xalatan) that I just got her OFF of in her left eye, and said she will likely remain on them for the rest of her life. ARGH.

He also cautioned me that this could be something that could cause her to go blind in a few days, to a few years. I'm was just glad there was more time. I really was starting to panic about her quality of life. I have had blind dogs before who adapted well, but they went blind over time, they weren't struck blind suddenly. If you would have seen how scared and miserable she was you would have understood what was going through my head. Just that morning, I kept looking at her intently, trying to determine if she was telling me that she was tired and was done, and I swear that's what she was saying, but by the end of the day she was sticking her big ol head on my keyboard, licking my face, wagging her tail, asking for her dinner, like it all was nothing.

I went to bed happy, although a little fearful what I knew would be a roller coaster ahead. I was thankful for this reprieve, but worried about how long it would be before we had problems with the eye again.

A New Challenge

2009-04-18T05:04:00.000-07:00

I forgot to acknowledge Nova's 5-month ampuversary here. But, on the 11th of April she was celebrating 5 months as a Tripawd! So exciting! Happy Spring, everyone! Last week a duck decided to lay some eggs in the bushes right in the front yard. Stupid duck! Not exactly the safest place with two stalking, duck-loving Great Danes! Thus far I have managed to keep the girls from eating the eggs although yesterday I caught Emmy "mid-lick". We haven't seen the Mom around in awhile, so are not sure if she abandoned the eggs once she saw the hulking creatures who enhabit our property:

We have a new challenge that we have been dealing with these past few weeks that is not related to her amputation or her cancer in any way. Many of you already know that, on top of her challenge of being on 3 legs, Nova also has the challenge of being blind in one eye. She was diagnosed with uveitis and glaucoma in her left eye a few years ago, and since that time has been blind in that eye. It was hard because we never really knew for sure that she was TOTALLY blind in that eye, but all exams indicate that. With a dog you never really know for sure.

Glaucoma causes pressure in the eyes, and it must be treated for the rest of her lifetime with expensive eyedrops. In the past, the pressure would increase occasionally, which would require us to tweak her medication. But each time, a change in medication would take care of the problem, and she'd be fine again (still not seeing out of the left eye, but the pain would be better).

About a week before we left on her "road trip", we noticed that the left eye had been bulging more than usual, and it was starting to cloud over more, when it really hadn't before. I knew something had changed. She still seemed very happy, although she would occasionally not come for her breakfast or dinner. I called her opthamologist, and he said to put her back on one of the drops called Xalatan. Argh. Xalatan is REALLY expensive, and comes in such a tiny bottle that it barely lasts. The employees at the pharmacy call it liquid gold. So I sucked it up and got another bottle of Xalatan, knowing that last time it did the trick. I was just hoping she didn't have to stay on the Xalatan forever.

I was nervous about having pressure issues with her eye while we were on vacation, because we would be in a somewhat remote place, and so far away from her specialist. We started her back on the Xalatan and a few days before we left on the trip, took her to her regular vet to get the pressure tested. It had come down from the mid 40s to the mid/low 30s, so everyone took that as a good sign. The optho said to keep her on the Xalatan throughout the trip, then check the pressures when we returned.

I gave her all her drops religiously on the trip, but looking at it, it seemed to be getting worse. She didn't seem like she felt bad, in fact, she was more active on the trip then I had ever seen her. But if you look back at the pictures of the trip, and look at her left eye, you can tell there is something there that is not right.

I took her in to the vet on the Monday after Easter and it was bad news. The pressure had shot up into the mid 50s. I called the optho and had to wait all day for a callback. While I was waiting, I researched info on what the options were from here. The eyedrops were getting to the point that they were very expensive, and it is time consuming to give them. Each must be given in a specific order, at least 5 minutes apart. And the Xalatan was really breaking the bank! During my research, I read about the extreme pain that comes from glaucoma. For pressures in the 50s, many sites said that that pain was similar to an extreme migraine headache in a human. UGH! I've had migraines, and I can't imagine doing ANYTHING while in that sort of pain. This girl is amazing. I certainly would have no interest in a sunny day like this if I had a migraine. I would be holed up in my bedroom with the shades drawn.

The optho insisted that there was no way he could tell me what to do without seeing her in person (which of course means an expensive specialist visit at MVS, the fancy-pants specialist facility an hour away in Southfield). My regular Dr. wasn't in, so I had to see someone else, Dr. Lorimer, who I ended up liking better than Nova's regular optho. I had read alot about ennucleation (taking out the eyeball and inserting a prosthesis, then sewing the eye up), and the expense scared me. I am all about positive thinking with Nova's cancer diagnosis, but it didn't seem to make sense to spend a ton on an ennucleation when I have no idea how many months (or years??) she has left.

Dr. Lorimer examined her and agreed that we had reached the point where the pressure in the left eye could not be controlled by medication. The eye either had to be removed, or there was the option of injecting something into the eye to "kill" it (actually kills the cells that create the fluid that causes the pressure). The second was the option I preferred, but the Resident Vet I talked to seemed to think that it was not an option for Nova. I asked about the cost of ennucleation, and was shocked that it cost MORE than Nova's amputation surgery! There is no way I could justify that financially. Especially when I had no idea what type of road there was ahead for her cancer.

(Emmy has been a wonderful sister to Nova, and has helped her through her ruff times! She has become Nova's protector in a way.)

Thankfully, Dr. Lorimer said that he thought that, given Nova's situation with the cancer, that an intravitreal injection was the best option for her, and thankfully it was a fraction of the cost (just a few $100). It could be done as an outpatient procedure, and she would have to be put under full anesthesia. The procedure was typically reserved for geriatric dogs, or dogs who might not otherwise have long life spans ahead of them. It was hard to accept that Nova might not have a long life ahead of her, but if the procedure works, it will keep her pain down for the rest of her days. The eye will turn strange colors (it is a cloudy white now) and will look strange, and will ultimately shrink to smaller than a regular eyeball. But it seemed a better option than putting her through major surgery to sew up the eye anyway.

The surgery went well, and I have noticed no difference in her mobility, which is a relief. That means she was definitely already blind in that left eye, and had already been compensating with her right eye. Right now the right eye is okay, but she does have an immature cataract in there, so there may be more problems that develop in that eye. The plan is to wean her off the eyedrops in the left eye (they are still needed for the next few weeks because of the inflammation caused by the injection), and then keep her on the eyedrops (not Xalatan thankfully!) in the right eye as a preventive measure. My hope is that she will have vision in that eye for the rest of her life. I don't want her to become a blind Tripawd, but if she does, I am sure she do all she can to adapt.

On top of all of this, there was some blood in her urine which might be an indication that the Cytoxan she was taking to keep the cancer from growing might not agree with her. It is common for Cytoxan to cause bladder damage. ARGH. Just what I need is bladder problems in a 121-lb. Great Dane. Her oncologist recommended that we take her off the Cytoxan for a week and check her urine to see if she is healing. My whole life has become one medical issue and drama after another with this dog. But it is so rewarding when I see how happy she is. When this all gets to the point where she is not happy anymore, it will be hard to handle. But thankfully we are not there yet.

Even given all her afflictions, Nova considers herself one lucky dog. Lucky to have a family who loves her, takes care of her, and showers her with affection every chance they get. She especially loves getting snuggles from Daddy!

Nova's Excellent Adventure - Friends and Family

2009-04-15T04:49:00.000-07:00

Well, our adventure trip was coming to an end. The night before we left to come home, some friends of Aunt Margarets, Terry and Ruth McKinney, came over to pet me and Emmy. Mom had brought her camera to dinner and showed them pictures of all the amazing things a Tripawd could do. Grandfather Mountain, Linn Cove Viaduct, Mount Mitchell... they were all impressed and wanted to meet me.

The McKinney's are some of Aunt Margaret's mountain friends. They play mountain music for a living and had just gotten back from performing in Florida. They play regularly at the Orchard in the summer. They were very friendly, so I just went up and sat right on Ruth's lap:

And I gave Terry a bunch of sloppy Dane kisses.

Emmy was a little more discriminating, she growled at them a little at first. Sometimes Emmy is nervous about meeting new people:

They won her over after a few minutes!

I tried laying on the floor one last time to see if Lizzy would come up and hang out with me. Aunt Margaret wanted to get pictures of us together. But Lizzy was still too nervous. I hope she realizes someday what I big hunk of love I actually am.

The next morning Mom and Alex started to load up the car bright and early. Emmy and I thought that Mom's bed looked a VERY comfortable, so we stayed on there until we realized that everything was gone and they had started the car. We ran out to jump in, we didn't want Mom to forget us! It had been a great vacation and a wonderful place to stay, but we were ready to get home to see the rest of the family.

Once we got to Tennessee, we drove through some really big storms and heard that there had been tornadoes in the area. The rain didn't let up until around lunch, when Alex and Mom stopped for pizza. The didn't share the pizza with us, but Mom let me nap on the boxes, which made excellent chin rests.

When we got near Cincinnati, we stopped to visit Mom's cousin Katie and her sons, and their dog Reggie. Mom's Aunt Sue was their visiting from Cleveland so they had a little reunion and some nice conversation while us dogs had our own "conversation", a group sniff!

This was the first time the sun had come out all day, so we ran around in the yard together and played for awhile.

Sloppy Dane kisses for everyone! I sniffed the boys, Nathan and Alex -

I kissed Aunt Sue:

And I kissed Katie:

Reggie was shocked to meet such large women. He was used to being the big guy, so was a little intimidated by us at first. It was great to meet a new friend!

Nova's Excellent Adventure - The Orchard at Altapass

2009-04-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

After a long nap, Mom took me for a short drive down the Parkway to visit the Orchard at Altapass, which is run by her Aunt Judy and Uncle Bill. This is a historic orchard that is over 100 years old. Several years ago, the Orchard went out of business and was for sale. Mom's Uncle Bill had visited the orchard when he was little, and together with his sister, they decided to buy the Orchard and restore it as a popular destination for locals and tourists along the Parkway.

Mom says that they have done a wonderful job, and it is a great place to visit. The Orchard doesn't officially open until May 1, but there are lots of things going on there all summer long. Things like live mountain music and dancing, fruit for sale along with fudge, ice cream and lots of foods made by locals, a gift shop with cool things made my local mountain craftsmen, hayrides through the orchard (where Uncle Bill tells interesting stories about the history of the Orchard and the area), and much, much more. If you are ever on the Parkway and want to visit, it's at Milepost 328.3. And you can read all about it at http://www.altapassorchard.com/.

Anyway, it was such a beautiful day that Mom stopped at a few overlooks to take pictures of me. This was at the Table Rock overlook:

You can see Table Rock way out there in the distance, jutting up from the mountains:

This was my first look at the Orchard, from the overlook up on the parkway. It looked pretty cool:

Mom kept snapping away with her camera. Behold the beauty of the mountains!

And behold the beauty of the Great Dane!

We drove down the Orchard road off the Parkway and walked together among the budding apple trees.

I hear some of these trees are over 100 years old!

Sniffin' the wonderful Spring air!

We walked around for quite awhile:

Mom just wouldn't stop with that camera!

She was so glad to see me so healthy and hoppy!

Mom is so crazy about pictures of me, I think she must be putting together a daily "Year of Nova" calendar:

Some cars were slowing down up on the Parkway to look at me:

These are the signs directing drivers to the Orchard. They even have Monarch butterflies there:

It had been a long photo session, so I was ready to go back to the cabin for a nap!

Nova's Excellent Adventure - Mount Mitchell

2009-04-11T17:18:00.000-07:00

Thursday was our last day in the mountains, so Mom was hoping for good weather and clear skies so we could go to Mount Mitchell, the highest mountain east of the Mississippi River. It was a 25-mile drive down the Parkway, so she was hoping it would be open. It was! We stopped at a few scenic overlooks on our way to Mount Mitchell. This one was at Three Knobs:

We finally got to Mount Mitchell, and it was a long, winding drive up the mountain. When we got to the parking area near the summit it was FREEZING cold. There was a giant snowball for Emmy and I to lick near an elevation sign, so Mom took more pictures:

Mom had read that the path to the summit was supposed to be "handicap accessible". The observation deck looked to be so far up, she almost decided not to try to go up. There was a lot of snow and ice too. Alex said that we should give it a try, and reminded Mom that reaching the top of the highest mountain in the East would be an awesome accomplishment for a Tripawd. It looked kind of scary up there:

But I knew if anyone could do it, I COULD!

So we started up the snowy, icy trail to the summit.

It was easy for me, although we were so high up, and the path was all uphill, so I was panting a lot.

I MADE IT TO THE SUMMIT OF MT. MITCHELL! Mom must have taken 100 pictures of me and kept hugging and kissing me. And the other people at the top were acting like I just did something REALLY amazing. So I was happy to give Mom a perfect photo by the sign at the summit:

I was so happy that Mom brought me on this trip that I gave her a big sloppy Dane kiss at the top of the mountain:

We even went up on the observation deck to look around. There were mountains as far as the eye could see:

I even met a few people up there, and they were all petting me and asking what happened to my leg:

It was cold, so we started back on the trail down to the car.

I was napping in no time!

Mom stopped at another overlook on our way back to take a picture of Mount Mitchell from afar. I had enough of pictures, so I decided to stay in the car.

Nova's Excellent Adventure - Linn Cove Viaduct and Grandfather Mountain

2009-04-11T15:22:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, the weather was a little nicer, but the Parkway was still not open around Aunt Margaret's house. Mom decided that we would go to Grandfather Mountain, since it was easy to get to on roads other than the Parkway. We drove all the way there and the man at the gate said that Grandfather Mountain was closed, but that it would be opening within an hour. They were just waiting for some of the icy roads to melt. So Mom decided to drive down the road to see if perhaps the Parkway was open near Grandfather Mountain. It was open in one direction! Yay! We jumped out of the car to take a picture by the Parkway sign.

Mom wanted to take me on a hike beneath the Linn Cove Viaduct. This is a section of the Parkway that is built at the side of Grandfather Mountain, but is not cut into the mountain. She says that it is a "marvel of engineering" (whatever that means). It was the last section of the Parkway to ever be completed. This is what it looks like driving over it:

Mom had read in a book that there was a short trail beneath the viaduct that could be accessed from the Linn Cove Visitor's Center. She had never been there before, but thought it would be fun to see. The Visitor's Center was closed, but we could see it from the Parkway. So Mom pulled over and parked the car at the side of the Parkway, and we started to hike down to the Visitor's Center. I had never hopped this far as a Tripawd before, so Mom was a little worried, but I thought I could do it. The hike was all downhill so I got hopping pretty fast. There was also some ice and snow on the trail but (being from Michigan) I was an expert at hopping on the ice and snow. We made it down below the Viaduct in no time at all:

This was so cool! I was having a great time:

Mom was so proud that I had made it all the way down there without stopping. She said that I could take as much time as I wanted hopping back up to the Parkway:

I had to stop to rest a time or two, but still had a lot of fun:

It was a little hard to hop on the snow and ice going uphill, but I did it all without slipping:

I had to stop to take another breather in the Visitor's Center parking lot, then we finished the hike back to the car:

Alex gave me a big bowl of ice cubes in the car. They tasted great after that long workout!

Next, we went to Grandfather Mountain. It was now open! Mom drove us all the way to the top, but we stopped to take this picture on our way up:

Mom's plan was to take some pictures in the parking lot of the Mile High Swinging Bridge above us and then leave it at that. The only way to get to the bridge was by going up about 4 flights of stairs. Mom didn't think I could do it, plus it was very windy, so she was worried about me. The bridge was way up there, but I wanted to try....

Mom agreed that I could try to go up there. She got out the harness that she had bought way back when I first became a Tripawd. I have always done so great on 3 legs that I never needed the harness. She even had to cut the tag off in the car! She tried to put it on me, but it wouldn't fit. She had bought the biggest size, and it might have fit if she had spent a lot of time adjusting it. But she figured that I wouldn't be able to make it up the stairs, so didn't want to spend a bunch of time trying to make it fit. I saw a lot of people going up there, so I wanted to try too. So Mom walked me up there on my leash. I went straight up the stairs like I had been doing it all my life. Once again people were surprised and amazed, stopping to point at ME, the AMAZING 3-legged dog that can hop up 4 flights of stairs:

I was dog tired after climbing those stairs, and it was really, really windy, so Mom decided that we would not cross the swinging bridge. There were a lot of people around, and some were trying to make the bridge move while other people were on it. Mom didn't want me to lose my footing and fall, either from the bridge moving, or from the wind. So I just looked at it for a few minutes:

Mom and Alex were talking about ways to get me down the stairs in case I had a hard time hopping down. I couldn't believe they were thinking that I might not be able to do it. Can you believe that? Geesh! That just made me MORE determined to prove that I COULD. I was very determined, and I hopped right down, even with the wind blowing very hard. All the way down Mom and Alex kept telling me what an amazing girl I was, and all the people walking up the stairs were stepping aside making way for me and cheering me on too. It was a great feeling to be able to show them that Tripawds can do ANYTHING on 3 legs! Isn't this a beautiful view? I felt like I was on top of the world!

On the way down the mountain we saw the Forrest Gump curve, so Alex got out and asked Mom to take a picture of him running up the curve. Mom thought about running up the curve with me, but there were a lot of cars on the road, so she decided it wasn't a good idea. That's ok, I didn't know who Forrest Gump was anyway!

We stopped at this giant rock that had split in two to take more pictures:

What an awesome day! I did a bunch of things that I never had a chance to do in boring old Michigan!

That night we spent some more time at Aunt Margaret's. I was still trying to get Lizzy to notice me. I think that Lizzy was scared of my hopping. I guess it probably would be scary to have a giant 120-lb. Tripawd hopping toward you if you were only a few pounds! I tried to sit and see if she would come up and sniff me, but that didn't work either. Oh well, maybe someday!

Nova's Excellent Adventure - Asheville and Biltmore

2009-04-11T14:49:00.000-07:00

When we had arrived at Aunt Margaret's Monday night, she told us that the weather from Michigan had followed us there, and that they expected high winds and snow overnight. This made Mom and Alex pretty sad because they wanted to do a lot of running when we were there. Even the Blue Ridge Parkway was closed when we got there, and ended up being closed 3 of the 4 days we were there:

Since it was going to be hard to get to some of the attractions on the Parkway that Mom had wanted to take us to, Mom decided to drive down the mountain and take us to Asheville the first day. I was surprised to find snow outside, just like at home. I got up and down the stairs to the cabin just fine, even though it was icy and snowy. I had practiced all Winter, so this was no big deal:

This was such a nice place to stay, and I felt right at home, right away:

Whatever Mom had planned for us, I knew it would be fun. I was HOPPY to go anywhere!

When we got to Asheville, Mom took us to go see the biggest house in the United States, the Biltmore Estate. It was the Festival of Flowers there, and Mom wanted to take some pictures of me and Emmy among the beautiful gardens there. The only trouble was that they would not let us in just to walk the grounds. Mom and Alex had to pay the full admission price to see inside the house ($75). They decided not to buy tickets, since they didn't want to leave us is the car while they toured the house. Plus, Mom said $75 was way too much to pay just to take pictures of flowers. She promised there would be plenty of nice places to take pictures that would be free, and just as beautiful.

I did take a few minutes to sniff around the place where they sold Biltmore admission tickets. Geesh... this place sure was fancy! I bet if Mr. Vanderbilt had dogs, they had some pretty nice beds to sleep on!

Once again, lots of people stared at me, like it was strange that I was hopping around on 3 legs. I don't understand what the big deal was. I can get around just fine. Life is great!

There were lots of pretty flowers, but it was still cold like Michigan.

When we got back to the cabin, Mom and Alex went out to dinner with Aunt Margaret, and Mom's Aunt Judy and Uncle Bill. I passed the time making myself even MORE comfortable by jumping into Mom's bed and curling up on her pillow.

I spent a little more time that night trying to get Lizzy to not be scared of me. She still wanted to run and hide. Sure, my PAW is half the size of her entire body, but I just wanted to be friends!

Nova's Excellent Adventure - Roadtrip Along I-75

2009-04-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

Just this past week, Mom and my (human) brother Alex took me and my sister Emmy on a road trip to visit Mom's Aunt Margaret in the mountains of North Carolina. I had a total blast! I had never been on a road trip any longer than 4 hours in my whole life (yes, I know, I'm a homebody!). I am always so excited on a car ride, and this was all the more exciting because we didn't end up at the VET!

Mom loaded us up in the car REALLY early on Monday morning. She had put our beds and some of our favorite stuffies in there:

Alex decided that my bed looked more comfortable than riding in the front seat, so he jumped in the back to nap for awhile. He made a GREAT chinrest!

Another exciting thing was that I got to go on a 5-state PEE SPREE. Yep, that's right. In one single DAY, I peed in FIVE states. That may not seem to impressive to humans, but to dogs, it is! It was the first time I have ever had the opportunity to perform such a feat.

Peeing in Ohio was pretty boring, but Mom and Alex prepared me for the fact that the rest stops in Ohio are nothing special:

Here I am enjoying the Kentucky Artisan Center, in Berea, KY, after a nice pee. Mom said that there were lots of cool things inside, made by people from Kentucky. I couldn't go in, they said only Service Dogs were allowed. Darn. Oh well, I probably would have knocked over some of the nice crafts in there with my crazy, out-of-control tail wagging.

Let's see, the TENNESSEE PEE was at the Jellico Motel and Restaurant, just off I-75 in Jellico Mountain, TN. There were a lot of people in the parking lot pointing, and looking at me. Guess they'd never seen a Tripawd before!

I was so excited to top off my 5-state PEE SPREE, that I asked Mom to stop at the North Carolina Welcome Center off I-40, just inside the state line. It was still cold there, but I got to sniff some FLOWERS, which I haven't got to see since I became a Tripawd in November:

As always, Mom was my best buddy on the long drive. Sometimes I like to stand up and just rest my chin on her shoulder when she's driving. She doesn't mind!

It was a long, long time to be in the car. But Emmy and I kept it interesting by changing nap spots every hour or so. We also got Mom to figure out our signal for wanting to stop at a Rest Stop. Emmy and I would start farting, and Mom recognized that as the signal that we were ready to go outside. She and Alex were not too happy about it, and kept rolling down the windows and making fun of us:

When we got to Aunt Margaret's house, I was so excited! It was nice to not be moving anymore, especially after a curvy, swervy ride up the scary mountain roads. I was feeling a little icky, but forgot all about it when walked into Aunt Margaret's house. I even got to meet her dog Lizzy, the Shih Tzu. I couldn't understand why Lizzy was afraid of me, she kept hiding behind the chair:

Most of the people who live on Aunt Margaret's street have separate cabins (called "Guesthouses") out back behind their homes. That's where we got to stay. It was awesome, and felt just like home. As you can see, Emmy and I didn't waste time, we made ourselves comfortable right away. Hey, Aunt Margaret said to make ourselves at home, so that's exactly what we did!

Ahhhhh...... just like home!

This was on the wall of the Cabin.... "Welcome, Sit, Stay". That's exactly what we did!

Hope for the Future

2009-03-06T10:46:00.000-08:00

Whew! I am SO glad to have this Doctor's visit over with. The bottom line is that Dr. Obradovich did another round of chest x-rays on my big goofy girl and they were pristine CLEAR. Yaaaaayyyyy!! Whooooo Hoooooo!! YeeeeeeeeHaw!! I was REALLY stressing going in there. I know that any of these visits can easily bring bad news of lung mets which means moving on to the next stage in the journey. But today was not that visit, thankfully, and I am breathing a big sigh of relief. Next week on the 11th Nova will celebrate her 4-month "ampuversary."

"I'm livin' in the moment and looking ahead to a healthy, hoppy Spring!"

Since we were not buried in snow today (like at pretty much every other visit) I was able to make it to the oncologist's office in under an hour. Nova always finds out some creative way to stretch out in my dork-mobile (minivan) and make me want to turn around and take her picture:

"Now Chrysler was REALLY thinkin' when they put these Great Dane chin rests here on these seats"

The tech came out and we examined Nova together to see if she had developed any more lumps or sebaceous cysts anywhere on her body. They are keeping a little map of her, identifying all her lumps and bumps. Nothing new, so that was one less thing to worry about. We took her back to get her on the scale and discoved she had GAINED another 3 lbs (up from 113 to 116). This was really cool, since Nova has always been so skinny, and was extra skeletal after the amputation. Now the trick is to keep her from gaining too much weight, since she has a lot to support on her tripod leg. She's been eating great, eats twice a day, grain-free Evo kibble for the most part. I have cut back on some of the Evo canned food, serving it only every day or two, just to save a few bucks.

The tech took Nova back for the x-rays and of course I sat there and prayed the whole time they were gone. I prayed for good news of course, but I also prayed for the strength to be able to handle bad news if that was what came of it. The tech came back out about 20 minutes later, with no expression on her face. All she said was, "I need to put you two into a room." Oh boy, hearing that made my heart sink, because getting put into a room usually means bad news there. She took us to a room, and I looked at her expectantly, and for some reason she didn't make eye contact with me (you can tell I really like to over-analyze situations), just said that Dr. Obradovich would be in shortly and left. Argh. Tears started to well up in my eyes, since this was the same tech that burst into the waiting room all bubbly and smiley with the good news the last time we had x-rays done.

"Am I okay, Mom? Whaddid the Doctor say?? Any bad stuff in those big pictures they took?"

I passed the time reading all the letters and pictures on a bulletin board in the room. The walls of Dr. Obradovich's treatment rooms are covered with framed pictures of patients, thank you letters from pawrents, and such. As I started reading them, I started getting even more emotional. Most of the letters were written after their pet's eventual passing, rather than during their treatment. But they said things like "Thanks for giving me more time to say goodbye" and "Thank you for giving Fifi another 6 years" and such. When you think about it, when people are going through something like this with a pet or family member, they don't always think to say thank you to all of the people who help them along the way during their battle, they tend to wait until the battle is over. It made me take note to remember to give thanks to people NOW, while we are still on this journey. I think that's especially true with Doctors, because in some way we want to wait and see if they can prove themselves, and work miracles first, and then we thank them later. And if their recommendations don't work, I think people tend to blame the Doctor. Anyway, as I read the stories I silently vowed to say thank you to the Doctor, the techs, and to some of the friends I've made on Tripawds who've helped me get through this with Nova.

Dr. O finally came in with a big smile on her face and said, "It's so wonderful that the chest is all clear, everything looks pristine." She assumed that the tech had already told me. Emotion flooded over me, I had just spent the last 15 minutes preparing myself for the worst, and now to hear that everything was still perfect, I STILL got all emotional. This journey is such a roller coaster! Dr. O was all geared up and ready to start talking about next steps. A few weeks ago I had sent her an email on a few treatments I had read about on Tripawds.com, so she was ready to discuss. I had my big yellow legal pad and pen, ready to go.

She was gung-ho on metronomic chemotherapy, which is a pill (or in this case combination of two pills) which is a low-dose of chemo, given on a daily basis. Her recommendation was Cytoxan and Feldene (also called Piroxicam), which she said she preferred to the Metacam that I had read about on Tripawds. She said that it might be expensive to purchase the drugs within her office, but recommended I get the prescriptions filled at Costco. (On my way home I stopped at Costco to drop off the prescriptions and was thrilled to find out that the Cytoxan was only $28.31 per month (it was $93.75 at the vet's office). And the Feldene was only $5.59. What a relief!) I was thrilled to find out that oral chemo was so affordable. This was one situation where Nova's weight worked in her favor. Usually, things cost more for giant breed dogs because everything is based on size and weight (x-rays are a nightmare because they have to get several views to get her whole giant body covered). But because she weighs the same as a human, she was able to get human dosages, which are less expensive. Cool.

Dr. O did not strongly recommend Artemisinin, which is a chinese herb I had asked about. I had seen some information on Tripawds that showed that it might be effective, and she didn't argue with me on that, but just said that she had a lot of concerns about purity when it came to herbal treatments, especially coming from China, where there has been some bad press about ingredients in tainted dog food (I'm assuming she was talking about all the melamine stuff). She is not against alternative treatments, just doesn't recommend them unless she can trace the source of each ingredient, and feel comfortable that it is safe and pure. It was nice to hear her say that if I decided to try it anyway, she would not object, just that it wasn't something she would do if it were her own dog. Okay, I can respect that. I still don't know how I feel about some of the herbal treatments, personally I am quick to try different herbs for myself personally, without really researching the source of the herbs, purity issues, etc. Guess I never really thought much about it.

She did mention something about turmeric (the spice), had been proven somewhere to increase cancer cell death, and if she or her dog had cancer, she might be inclined to try it. I'll have to ask some of the people on Tripawds about that. She recommended I start Nova on Omega-3 Fish Oil capsules, which I got at Costco. And she also recommended something called CAS Option, which is some kind of multivitamin for cancer patients. I still have to look into an affordable source of that, obviously buying anything in her office was going to cost too much.

The oral chemo will require monthly CBCs at first, which I can have done much more affordably at my regular vet. Costco won't have the prescription ready til Monday, so I will have the bloodwork done on Monday, have them fax the results to Dr. O, and provided everything looks good, will start her on the medication.

I left the office feeling REALLY good, and very hopeful about Nova's future. I so much want her to live through another summer of summer runs and a fall cross-country season, where much of her social life is. Two years would be even better! Dr. O reminded me that the best results she had seen had come with amputation plus 4 doses of carboplatin, which averages 351 days survival time, but if the dog makes it a full year then they have an 85% chance of making it a second year. This is really good news considering we are talking about 1/4-1/3 of her entire life! Really exciting. Dr. O has seen complete cures about 20% of the time (rare with osteosarcoma) and in some cases where there wasn't a cure, dogs made it 2-3 years. Awesome! I hope to be keeping this blog for many months to come (maybe years!)

It was particularly wonderful to find a nice sunny sky when I left the office, and 63 degrees. Nova danced out to the car with her silly hop, and I felt like dancing right behind her. We got in the car and my satellite radio was blaring that song from “Rocky”. YEAH! It sounds corny, but it was inspiring. WE ARE KICKING CANCER'S @$$!!! I decided to break up the ride home and stop at Kensington Metropark to take Nova on a short walk to sniff the Spring air. We followed the "Handicapped" path, which is the quickest, flattest way to the lake from the parking lot. She ambled out onto one of the fishing docks to sniff around.

"Big fun! We get to go for a W-A-L-K at the park!"

The park was quiet and deserted, definitely a perfect setting to just enjoy the beautiful day with my big girl. We had a good time, this was the first time that we had gone outside and spent a lot of time together. Usually she's such a house cat, and with all the cold weather, she hasn't had much interest in staying out long. But today was different and it was great to get her out and about.

She did great on the paved path, but was a little nervous walking out onto the dock, I think it must feel a little unstable when you hop on it.

"Spring makes me feel very, very hoppy!"

"Sometimes it's nice to just stop and sniff the air and let the wind blow your ears back. Ahhhhhhh!"

"Mom and I have very high hopes for 2009 and will continue to kick cancer's @$$ together!"

Nova got creative with a variation of the chinrest pose on the ride home. I can't believe she is actually comfortable sitting like this! That's my goofy girl!

Keep the Paws Crossed....

2009-03-05T13:28:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've posted since there hasn't been much different in Nova's life. The weather has been warming up here and there, so I am getting her out more. Here she is outside today, searching for signs of Spring:

We haven't been doing any additional treatments for the cancer, since the oncologist recommended not starting anything until a month after her last treatment, which happens to be tomorrow. I haven't been as nervous as I'd thought I'd be for the appointment, but now that it's the evening before I am stressing a little. I emailed Dr. Obradovich last week with some questions about different treatments that might keep the cancer at bay. She said that we will be discussing "what's next" tomorrow at our appointment, I'm sure after the chest x-rays are done.

Please keep your paws crossed for no lung mets!!!

I will check in after the appointment tomorrow with more details.

Look who's knocking at the front door! Awww... I love that face, if she was selling Girl Scout cookies I would have bought 20 boxes!

100 Days As A Tripawd!

2009-02-18T10:52:00.001-08:00

Today marks my 100th day as a Tripawd! I know, just a few days ago Mom was bragging about my 3-month ampuversary, so you're probably thinking "Geeze, does every day have to be some kind of freaking holiday??" Well as a matter of fact, YES, when you are a Tripawd EVERY day is precious and you learn to treat every day like a holiday.

No one knows how to enjoy a holiday better than me, the couch potato queen! I am one of those girls who loves "relaxing" holidays. Mom, on the other hand, is more into the "go, go, go, see, see, see, do, do, do" type of holiday.

Soooooo... on that note, Mom told me this morning that she decided that she and I (plus Emmy and my big brother Alex) are going to go on a road trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains in early April. Our "Jerry Road Trip", she called it. I think she has been inspired by Jerry's stories (you know, my Tripawd "spirit" friend whose pawrents sold their home and business to travel all over the United States with Jerry.) I saw her eyes get all wet and sparkly when she was watching Jerry's story on that PBS special Sunday night, so I knew she was up to something.

My longest road trip so far in my life was a 4-hour car ride to Mackinac Island (plus a ferry boat ride). Yes, I know, I am a housecat! So this is going to be the biggest adventure of my lifetime. Mom wants to show me some cool stuff that she loves in the mountains and we are going to go stay at her dog-loving Aunt Margaret's guesthouse. It's right off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Mom says it's so beautiful there and there will be lots of opportunities to dish out sloppy Dane kisses and Dane leans to all the people I will meet there and along the way. I can't wait!

So stay tuned in early April. I am sure Mom will take lots of pictures and have lots of stories to tell.

Hey, if you haven't already, you really need to check out Jerry, Jim and Rene on the PBS "Why We Love Cats and Dogs" show last weekend, here's the link: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/why-we-love-cats-and-dogs/interview-rene-agredano-tells-jerrys-full-story/4654/ And Mom says it definitely requires a box of Kleenex, so you might want to grab one first!

I've Been Obamiconed!

2009-02-12T12:36:00.000-08:00

Geesh, Mom just showed these pictures to me. I'm so embarrassed! She has "Obamiconed" me! She should have asked me first.

And she has also made me the star of an inspirational poster:

Hmmmmm.... I think I like this Tripawd "Hope" thing.

It's My 3 Month Ampuversary!

2009-02-11T14:26:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let you all know that today I am celebrating my 3 MONTH ampuversary. My life is great these days and I am so happy being a Tripawd that I forgot all about my old leg. It's so wonderful to have that achin' thing gone, now my life is pain-free.

As you can see, I am spending a lot of "lounge lizard" time on the couch these days. Danes are the biggest couch potatoes, so I must live up to my reputation! I find plenty of reasons each day to wag my tail, in fact Mom says I wag it as much or MORE than I did before. It's nice to be done with most of the Doctor visits. Just a quick CBC tomorrow, some chest x-rays in a few weeks, then Mom might start me on some special supplements to keep me healthy and to keep that ugly cancer monster from growing.

We've had some warm weather this week so it has been nice to get outside and breathe the warm air. I've had a fun time watching Mom clean up all my poop that was buried under all the snow! (Ha ha) I can't wait to be back in the business of licking the sweaty boys on my brother's Cross Country team! In the meantime I will have to make the best of hanging around inside. As you can see I have a nice snuggly friend, my lion blanket from Santa, who can keep me company when I need a friend to snuggle with.

Mom is sad today because she found out that some of the nice people she's met on Tripawds.com are coming to the end of their journey with their Tripawd and have to say goodbye soon, or have already said goodbye. She gets really upset every time she reads about another Tripawd reaching to end of his journey. Titan... Jack.... and now Buster. It's been a rough year so far. She's so sad because she knows how hard these guys' pawrents fought their cancer. It's hard to help humans "get it". I wish they didn't get so sad about it all. It takes a very special person to be a Tripawd parent, and we are all so blessed to have them. We know our pawrents have done everything they can for us and love us to bits. But when we tell them it's time, they just have to trust us and be at peace with it. And then when we go they need to help other Tripawd pawrents with their journey, just like our friend Jerry's pawrents. Trust us. We WILL be there waiting for you when you come to join us someday, and I guarantee it will be like we have never been apart.

Last Dose

2009-02-06T13:35:00.001-08:00

Nova's blood work was great this week, so she was able to go have her last dose of the Carboplatin this morning. It was kind of a relief to finish up that phase. The next thing is to come back for chest x-rays in a month. So things should be quiet for awhile. Around that time I may start some additional immunity-boosting supplements, but I am going to spend a little time doing some research and getting advice. Dr. O doesn't want me to start Nova on anything that might conflict with the carbo, so I will wait for about 30 days. For now I am just going to focus on her diet, which is still EVO canned and dry foods, high protein with no grains. And the occasional can of one of the Merrick foods she loves so much.

Here is Nova sprawled out on her bear rug in front of the fire:

She loves laying by the fire and often will stick her head into the fireplace so far that I am afraid she'll get burned. She just loves warmth.

I am really anxious for the weather to improve so I can get her out more. Nova is not much for cold and snow, so she spends the majority of the time sleeping. I would like her to get more active. I am really looking forward to the summer and getting her out to be more social. At one point I considered having her go through training to be a therapy dog. She is such a lover, but I am worried that she might not qualify because she is so wiggly. She has this habit of always giving people "the butt", she can't help it, she's just that kind of girl! So when she meets someone she likes (anyone and everyone) she immediately presents them with her rear end and either tries to lean on them or sit on them. I am thinking that Emmy might be the better candidate for therapy dog. She will stand, sit, follow orders, and is not wiggly, very calm and serene.

Nova is such a good girl with all the poking and prodding at the doctor all the time. I would not have the patience. But she is such a drama queen it is so hilarious. She "talks" whenever we are at the doctor, usually in this plaintive howly language where you just know she is definitely trying to get a point across. She is such a source of entertainment for people in the waiting room.

When we got home she had a nice surprise, a Valentine's box from Grandma Barb. Inside were chocolate hearts for the boys, and for Emmy and Nova, there were 2 delicious, tasty Bully Sticks otherwise known as dried bull weiners. Yep, actual man parts. Of course the kids got a big laugh about the girls' enthusiasm for a bull's "you know what". Alex said, "Wow, is she goin' to town on that, or what?" Ewwwww.... thanks alot Grandma Barb!

Hoppy 5th Birthday to ME!

2009-01-26T09:12:00.000-08:00

It's my turn to write the post today, since Mom has been so busy with her marathon training (she thinks she's busy NOW, just wait until APRIL!) First, the most important thing about today is it is MY 5TH BIRTHDAY! I can't believe I was just a newborn pup 5 years ago.

Birthday's are great. Mom usually doesn't make a real big deal about my birthday, but this morning she gave me a great new red fleece jacket. It is the same style as my other one, but much more my color. Emmy and I are going to share our two jackets, but this way we each have one to wear if Mom wants to take us out together.

Another exciting thing about today is that we got to go for a R-I-D-E. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it still was to a vet's office, but not either of the vets I have been used to going to all the time. Today we went to see Dr. Morreale, the dog opthamologist at Michigan Veterinary Specialist (MVS), or what Mom calls the "Taj-MaVet" since their building is so fancy. It was time for my 3 month follow-up appointment. I had not seen Dr. Morreale since a few weeks before Mom found my lump around Halloween. So the last they saw of me, I had 4 legs.

Yep, this place is so fancy I felt like I was checking into a spa or something (I wish! I'll take the TriPawdicure, please!)

The fancy-schmancy stone floors were not exactly Tripawd-friendly, I wish there were more rugs, because I had to be real careful about slipping with all the muddy boots coming in:

The lobby had a TV playing Seinfeld reruns. Huh? Who wants to watch SEINFELD reruns? They would have done better with Animal Planet, but I guess they are trying to make people laugh since once they leave they will be crying when they see the bill.

Lots of people were staring and smiling at me in the waiting room. Yes, I AM a showstopper, aren't I?

Dontcha just love my new coat? Of course when I got on the scale there was a little head-scratching going on. Hmmmmm.... "how did Nova lose all this weight?" the Tech said. Duh, lady, it wasn't SlimFast, okay? Since we hadn't seen them since October, they had no idea I had an amputation.

Dr. Morreale and a vet in training came in to examine me, and test the pressure in my eyes. I forgot how much I hate having them stick all those things in my eyes! First they put these little strips under my eyelids that have to stay there for a minute, to measure my tear production. Yuck. Then they numb my eyeballs and poke some tool all over each eyeball, to test the pressure in there. I have very strong eyelids, so they practically had to take a crowbar to open them. Even Mom had to help.

The pressure was great in both eyes, for the first time in a long time. 8 in the right eye, and 9 in the left eye (my blind eye, the one with glaucoma). That was an amazing drop from almost 40 in the left eye back in October. So the Dr. said he was really happy with the way the medication was working.

We finally were able to go and start driving back home. Mom didn't cry when she saw the bill, but she wasn't laughing either. She just made a comment to the lady that I should have got a bunch of spa treatments at that price, then laughed that I was the "Million Dollar Dog". It was so nice of her to say that, don't you think? I AM the Million Dollar Dog... because I feel like (and look like) a Million Bucks!

We headed home for my "Birthday Nap". I believe that EVERYONE deserves a good nap on their birthday! I alos hear that there is something special for me for my Birthday dinner tonight too! Can't wait!

Still Lookin' Good, But Brrrr.........

2009-01-16T08:37:00.000-08:00

Everything is still great on the home front here with Nova. Yesterday she had her latest CBC and everything was great! She didn't particularly enjoy the trip to the vet yesterday though, because it was sooooooooo cold. Even with her nice fleece coat, she was zipping to and from the car and through the parking lot because her feet were so cold. She even kept her coat on to warm up when we got back and planted herself right in front of the fire once I turned on the gas fireplace.

Trips outside to pee are very short and rushed. You'd think she was trying to break a world record for fastest pee. Again, she zips out there so fast it is scary to watch her. The ice is frozen solid on the patio and it is covered with crunchy snow, so luckily she can get her footing okay. I've been trying to chip through the ice, but even the "guaranteed to melt anything" salt is just not working. I am going to try to video tape her the next time she goes out, you would not believe how fast she can run.

Once again, we are stuck with another "snow day" with the kids home, which in this case is actually a "too cold" day rather than any sort of snow accumulation. The girls love it because the family is here, the fire is going, and there are plenty of opportunities to cuddle up and snooze with someone. Today Nova's spent most of her time warming up on the couch with her horse stuffy, or snuggling up in the blankets on one of the boys' beds.

Two Month Ampuversary!

2009-01-11T15:04:00.000-08:00

Today is Nova's TWO month Ampuversary! I look back at how things were going a month ago, and it really can't get any better. She is definitely back to her old self, and her incision has healed beautifully. Her hair is starting to grow back here and there, but for now it is pretty patchy (I am told that is because of the chemo, and once the chemo is done her hair will grow back much faster). Actually, the worst spot for hair growth has been on her back (right above her hips) where they shaved a square for the spinal catheter during her surgery. The hair appears to not be growing back at all there. What is really funny is that the place where the hair is growing the quickest is directly ON the amputation scar. You can't even really see the scar anymore.

The dog dramas are minimal these days, chest x-rays are clear (indicating the cancer has not spread), and we have settled into a peaceful, steady routine. Life could not be better. The only thing I wish for is warmer weather, so she would spend more time outside. Nova is not much for winter, and I am really looking forward to taking her out to the park or other social activities like local running races and cross country meets, but she is really not interested in the winter and getting wet. She is still very much the house cat in that regard.

Her appetite is great! She devours pretty much every meal I give her, which is EVO kibble mixed with various all-meat or mostly all-meat canned foods like EVO, Wellness, and Merrick meals. Although, tonight she turned up her nose at a meal (Wellness Salmon canned, scratch that off the shopping list) and my heart skipped a beat. It is so hard not to freak out over every little thing. I fed the meal to her sister, Emmy, and gave her something else, and she ate it with gusto. That is the first time I have ever seen a dog turn down ANY brand or flavor of canned food.

Lately she has been back to wrestling with her toys too. That may sound like no big deal, but it makes me so happy. She loves stuffed animals, and last night around 4 am I heard her jumping about in the great room. I came out and saw that she had emptied her toy box of most of her stuffies (her sister Emmy was dead asleep) and was throwing around a big fish that made loud grunting sounds. My 12-year-old Ben had fallen asleep on the couch and was plenty grumpy about all the noise, but I was just so happy to see Nova enjoying herself, I went back to bed with a big smile on my face.

Winter Fun

2009-01-10T12:01:00.000-08:00

It's so hard to get Nova outside in the Winter to play, she is really much more like a house cat than a dog! During the other seasons she is plenty active (active for a couch potato Great Dane), but she doesn't do regular dog things like chase balls, retrieve sticks, and dig holes. When it comes to snow, I can just get her out for a quick pee, sniff, and a look around. This afternoon I got her to go out for awhile with Emmy in the falling snow. I want to try to keep her active so that when Spring rolls around she will be used to being active as a Tripawd.

The girls entertained themselves for awhile by barking and listening to the echo through the woods. Get a load of this mid-shake picture, the flapping jowls crack me up:

Emmy says "Come on, sissy, let's play!"

Once Emmy started getting the zoomies and running around the yard, Nova got a little intimidated and went back to stand on the patio. But she did get excited in the way dogs do, when they do that playful "downward dog". This is a beautifully executed Tripawd Downward Dog:

She is really good at the 3-legged downward dog, but it's creating quite the callous on her elbow. These are typical with giant breed dogs, but until she became a Tripawd, this pansy has lived the life of luxury napping on her cushy bed, her kid brother's bed, or on a leather sofa!

Emmy's 4-legged version is not quite as graceful, I think it is those spare tires around the middle:

Nova really wanted to play, but I think she was afraid of getting bowled over by Emmy. Isn't that incision healing beautifully?

Here is Emmy, right in the middle of a vicious case of the "zoomies", notice Nova taking cover behind the grill. When Emmy has the zoomies, we ALL take cover!

Oh no! Zoomie attack!

What a statuesque Tripawd! My girl should be a model!

"Okay, Mom, it's time to go back in and be a couch potato now":

Something Cute

2009-01-08T09:03:00.000-08:00

I was just reorganizing my photo archives and I came across this picture of Nova as a puppy, just a week or two after we brought her home. What is special about this picture is that Nova still occasionally naps in this position as a 108-lb dog.

As a 15-lb puppy, its sooooo cute.

As a big goofy 108-lb Dane (135-lbs pre-amputation), it just looks hilarious.

She still sleeps on her back as a Tripawd, in these unique nap positions. For some reason I just haven't managed to get a picture. It is usually with the legs spread out and the tripod leg straight up in the air, like a mast on a ship or something.

Just a cheerful reminder that these furry kids are ALWAYS still puppies!

Very Hoppy News - "Apparent Complete Remission"

2009-01-07T14:11:00.001-08:00

The first thing I want to say today is... YAYYYYYYY!!!! Today Nova went to the Animal Cancer Center for her 3rd round of Carboplatin. The 3rd round is particularly scary because that is when they do another round of chest x-rays to see if the chemo is working. Last night I was a mess. I had a lot of trouble sleeping and kept trying to think pawsitive, but also try to prepare myself mentally for bad news, because it can happen to anyone. Lately as I have been reading stories on Tripawds.com there have been some pawrents who have received bad news about their dogs, like the chemo was not working, cancer had spread to the lungs, etc. It all just ripped my heart out and I ache for those people who are going through that. I pray for these people and their pups each and every day. I know the time will come when I am in their place, and will have to face that with Nova. I just keep thinking, ooooohhhhhh Lord, please not now!

Ok, on to the good news. This morning the roads were extra slippery so we were about 15 minutes late for our appointment. The office was packed with several canine cancer patients, Nova being the only amputee. They took her in first for the x-rays. I tore through about 10 Entertainment and Dog Fancy magazines agonizing over the results. If lung metastases were seen, that meant that they would not do the chemo, and we would enter a different phase of the battle, a phase I am SOOOOOOO not ready for. (I know, I don't think ANYONE is ever ready for it.) The Tech came out and told me her bloodwork and x-rays were AWESOME, but they wanted to do two more to get the lower part of her lungs and abdomen, just to be thorough. Being such a big girl, it was impossible to get the whole area in 1 x-ray. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, but still was a little nervous as they took Nova back for 2 more x-rays.

Awhile later I overheard the Tech tell another pawrent that there were two chemo patients ahead of him, and that one was "that big girl". So that was a promising sign. I spent so much time agonizing, it feels so silly now. One guy was there with his cat and they came out and said they needed to "put him in a room" to talk. That means bad news. So I sat there praying that they wouldn't come out and invite me into a room. Shortly, the Tech came out without Nova and gave me the thumbs up. All was clear! I was beaming from ear to ear. I've never been so happy to sit another 45 minutes in a Doctor's office.

There were some other things I asked about when I was there that were on my laundry list of questions. First, about the reverse sneezing that Nova had done a few times. Nothing to worry about, according to Dr. O. I had been tracking the time and circumstances in which she had been doing it, and it each time it had been after she gobbled up a meal that was particularly tastier than usual (like that nasty Working Dog Stew with stinky tripe in it). Another thing I asked about was that her femur on her back right leg had been jutting out. Of course anytime I see any type of visible lump these days I panic. Turns out it appears to be due to shifting her weight than any concern about metastisis.

I found another small lump that resembled the other benign cysts (aka ZITS) she had on her body. A couple more had popped up. They aspirated them and they ended up just being more zits. Nova sure has sensitive skin! She is the zit queen. Has anyone ever heard of chemo causing zits?

Her cut on her front paw pad appears to healing well, and is not a pressure sore of any sort. Who knows where she nicked it. The bruising and splotches that had me all panicky a few days ago had disappeared so they weren't as big of a deal as I thought. Her body weight was up to 108 lbs (same as it was at the CBC last week), so it was great to see that Nova was adding a little meat to her Kate Moss frame. Her appetite has been amazing, it is so shocking to see someone go through chemo and still be hungry all the time.

After I got home I read through the status letter that they were sending to Nova's regular vet (they gave me a copy). Under "Diagnosis and Current Status" they wrote "Osteosarcoma, left distal radius, apparent complete remission." Aw geeze, it was just so wonderful to read that. I know remission doesn't mean a cure, but it means that we have beaten that awful beast for now, and that is the best thing I could ask for. There will be one more round of Carbo in 3 weeks and then another chest x-ray in the Spring. I am so hopeful that Nova will still be hoppy and healthy in the fall when my son's Cross Country season starts.

One thing I wanted to comment on is how far canine cancer treatment has come just in the last 5-10 years. It is so amazing. Several years ago (must have been 2002 or so) we had a Tripawd dalmatian with osteosarcoma in his rear leg. He lived 4 months after his amputation. Looking back, I don't recall ever being offered chemo, or having the vet suggest that chest x-rays be done. No one had ever offered us the option, nor were we told that it had already spread. We just did the amputation and let him live out his life. A football-sized tumor grew in his abdomen, and we just expected that it would ultimately spread. I just don't recall being offered the type of options that are available now.

Right now I have been reading a great book that I got for Christmas, called "Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog" by Ted Kerasote. In the past few days I have been getting to the point where Merle is aging and getting sick, and of course he ultimately dies (I skipped ahead to read the end, and it was so heartwrenching that the pages are all wet). I set it aside last night and read a marathon training book instead. I just couldn't take all the dog drama with all the worrying I had been doing about today's appointment.

So for now, all is well in the world of Nova the Tripawd. And I am giving thanks big time tonight.

Weird Splotches

2009-01-01T08:24:00.000-08:00

Just within the past 24 hours, Nova has developed these weird splotches on the back of her neck and right below it on her upper chest. She is not scratching it or anything, but it appears to have spread between last night and this morning. Of course that has got me worried.

Hoppy Christmas!

2008-12-27T06:48:00.000-08:00

The Christmas Holiday at our house was terrific, and Nova was the life of the party. I continue to be amazed at her pawsitive attitude and enthusiasm for life. You would never know that this dog has cancer. Her appetite is up, in fact she "tells" me when it's time to eat, and gobbles it all up, and sometimes even steals Emmy's food, which is unheard of. We went to the local vet Friday for her 7-10 day post carboplatin CBC and just like last time, all was perfect. She entertained the technicians there with a particularly stinky bout of gas, they were all laughing because it was so obvious she had been loading up on holiday treats. Another nice surprise is that skeletal Nova has actually gained 5 lbs since the last visit (she was 103, now is 108). My intention is not to bulk her up too much, but everyone agrees she could use a little more meat on her bones.

Here she is with her pretty Christmas collar, surrounded by some of her new toys from Santa:

Everyone agrees that nothing about her looks "sick". She is really back to her old goofy, snugglebunny self. Sometimes I forget, and then am reminded when I walk in with her at the vet. Suddenly everyone in the waiting rooms starts looking at us with sad eyes, whispering, afraid to ask what happened to her leg, but obviously they are dying to know! You can just see it go through people's heads, thinking, "wow, that poor dog, I wonder if she is dying, no she can't be dying because her owner is smiling and joking, and the dog is wagging her tail so much that her butt is wiggling like a hula dance, nah, it must have just been an accident." People who get up the nerve to ask are always astounded when I tell them about the osteosarcoma. What surprises me the most is that a large percentage of people I've talked to (this is in a vet's office, mind you, so these are people who have pets themselves) seem almost puzzled that I would go to the trouble of making my dog "suffer" through an amputation, treatment, chest x-rays, blood tests, etc. after getting a diagnosis of osteosarcoma. Like I should have just put her to sleep or something, or let her hobble around in pain until it was too much and then put her to sleep. I just don't get it. Nova is not suffering, and I am so thankful each day that I made the decision to do this. That's why I like to visit the Tripawds site regularly, where I can read about all sorts of other "like-minded" dog lovers who "get it".

Ok, here are some Christmas highlight pictures. Nova really enjoyed opening her presents. For years I have always wrapped dog presents in tissue paper, so that they are easy to open. They know from the sound of the paper that the present is for them! One year a relative sent some gifts wrapped in tissue paper, and I found it shredded open under the tree. If it's not a stuffed animal, bone, or something edible, they will just leave it!

Ben is giving Nova a hand here in getting one of her first presents open:

Nova's favorite gift appeared to be this mini stuffed Lion "rug" that I got at Costco. She kept snuggling up with it all day:

Someone for Nova to snuggle with when her sister is not handy!

Nova likes Dane-sized toys, which are often hard to find. She also took a liking to Emmy's Bear "rug". The girls had a blast opening presents:

Lots of meat treats like dried lamb filets and Texas Toothpicks (pig tails), just look at the smorgasbord of delightful, tasty treats!

Christmas dinner for the girls was canned Merrick "Working Dog Stew", which drives them bananas when I open the can. I have to hold my breath when I do it. It wins the award for being the absolute stinkiest dog food in the world, compliments of it's primary ingredient, green TRIPE. UGGGGHHH! To Nova tripe is like chateaubriand!

So much fun stuff!

By the end of the day the girls were exhausted and snuggled up in one of their other signature snuggle poses, the "Yin Yang".

Emmy makes an excellent chin rest for Nova:

Just yesterday (Saturday) after I fed Nova dinner (which she wolfed down), she started making these strange sounds, like there was something in her throat. We had just returned from going to see Marley and Me at the movies, and in the movie Marley's stomach twisted just like Nova's had back in 2007. Of course Marley died at the end, so I was bawling my eyes out and wanting to come home and give my girls big hugs and kisses. And now Nova started making these sounds that had me all stressed that the cancer had spread to her lungs. It's hard not to have these freak-outs about every little thing. I posted a question on Tripawds and quickly received reassurance. I called the emergency number at the oncologist anyway, and after a nice discussion it seemed that Nova was just having a bout of reverse sneezing. Of course by the time I called the Doctor she had stopped making the sounds and was resting with her happy tail going. Isn't that the way it always works, with dogs AND kids!

I noticed another post on Tripawds this morning from the owner of a mastiff named Titan that I had been following awhile back. Titan's owner was recommending a chest x-ray, apparently she recently found out that the cancer had spread to his lungs and he had bouts of reverse sneezing too. This threw me for a loop big time because Titan's and Nova's amputations and treatments were only a few weeks apart. I was so sad that the chemo was not working for Titan, and of course I was concerned about Nova. I think for now I am going to wait until the scheduled chest x-ray on January 7th. The ups and downs of all this dog drama are so excrutiating. I find it so hard to read the "bad news" stories, but feel I have to in order to prepare for the inevitable. I just hope the inevitable doesn't happen for a very long time!

A Little Tripawd Holiday Cheer

2008-12-22T06:12:00.000-08:00

Don't you just love the holidays? Being that I am still recovering, it's been great for me because there has been a lot of activity at the house, like presents and food and visitors. Last Friday the kids had a snow day and now they are off school so I am getting love and attention from all directions. It's great. I really haven't felt bad at all, even though I just had that treatment at the Doctor last Wednesday. Mom is very happy about that.

Mom's been doing a lot to get ready for Christmas, so I have been following her around to see what she's doing (I am very nosy!)

There is one thing about all the Christmas preparations that I would like to change, though. You see, Mom listens to Christmas music when she is working and there is only so much Johnny Mathis and Dean Martin I can take. So I came up with an idea. I asked Mom to come up with a good Tripawd Christmas song. She said ok, but that she wasn't that good at writing songs, so it might be a little silly. But after another nice glass of vino, she sang me this ditty, which (in my opinion) totally beats those "Crooner Christmas" songs hands down:

(Sing to the tune of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer")

You know Tazzie and Titan and Buster and Cherry…
Zeus and Calamity, Kali and Jerry…

But do you recall….

The goofiest big dog Tripawd of all?

Nova, the Tripawd Dane-Deer
Gets around on just 3 paws
To her, the gift of living
Is the best gift from Santa Claus

Three legs took some getting used to
Nova’d often hang her big head
Even some jerk at the Doctor
Thought she should go to Heaven instead

Losing a leg is not so sad
Nova would say it ain’t half bad
More treats and snacks are coming her way
Lots of loving and snuggling every day

All of the other Tripawds
Cheer her on with big “Hoorays!”
Nova, the Tripawd Dane-Deer,
You’ll have many, many more days!

This song really put me in the holiday spirit, most of all because it's about ME! I wanted to share with you some of the other things that Mom and I have been doing. First, we put on my reindeer antlers and took a bunch of silly pictures.

"You Better Watch Out..."

"Yeah, I'm a 3-legged Dane-Deer, you got a problem with that??"

"Don't forget to shop for MEEEEE this Christmas!"

I love to sing my new Christmas song to my sister Emmy:

I'm a Tripawd Dane-Deer, and dang proud of it!

"What do you mean you forgot to put Fish Skins and Texas Toothpicks on my Christmas List, Mom?"

"FA LA LA LA LA"

Hey, check out what I found under the tree today. So exciting! I can't wait!

See, there are ornaments on the tree with everyone's pictures. This was me when I was a big goofy puppy:

And here is a special ornament we just got this year, this is my Tripawd inspiration, Jerry G. Dawg.

Ok, well it's time to run (I mean HOP) right now to see what else Mom is up to. I'm sure we will be back with more updates after Christmas and when we go for my next CBC at the vet on Friday.

Until then, LOTS OF LOVE & MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL from NOVA THE TRIPAWD DANE DEER!!

Everything is Great!

2008-12-19T05:33:00.000-08:00

I took Nova back to the Cancer Center yesterday for her second round of Carboplatin. I recall the last time I was there 3 weeks ago I was handfeeding her ice cubes because she wouldn't drink. It was thrilling to see how much she had improved in 3 weeks. That morning she ate a big breakfast, and had several drinks of water. She still has that Kate Moss thing going though. I am trying to feed her as much as she will eat, but she just wants breakfast and dinner and a snack or two in between.

Anyway, they ran some tests first to see if she was ready for the treatment. Her white count was a touch low, but not so low that they couldn't do the treatment. Dr. O said that sometimes it is common for the white count to drop later after a treatment rather than the 7-10 days they usually expect it to drop. For some reason she put Nova back on an antibiotic (amoxicillin) just to catch any infection that might crop up (she still has itchy ears). I really don't know how that ties in with a low white count, but for some reason I failed to ask or understand what she told me.

I asked Dr. O my laundry list of questions, which this time was not as long as usual. First, I asked about the yelping that Nova has been doing here and there. She gave Nova a once over and agreed with me that there did not seem to be any sore spots anywhere. She said that it is very common for amputees to have phantom pains, and this is very likely what she is experiencing. Unfortunately we have to guess at that since dogs can't tell us exactly what hurts, but that will have to do for now. On a positive note, Nova has not yelped at all for the past few days.

Going to the Doctor always means waiting:

There were also 2 small cyst looking things, each about the size of a marble, one on the top of her right thigh and the other on her back up by her neck. My regular vet had checked these awhile back and said they were nothing to worry about. Dr. O took a sample of each and they turned out to be harmless sebaceous cysts full of pimply material. Ewww. She said that they may burst at some point or abcess, which is exactly what happened to Nova last year with one on her back. It just kept getting bigger and bigger (the kids called it the "Volcano") and the vet said it would eventually burst. Which of course it did one morning as she jumped into bed with my 12-year-old son Ben who started screaming that "Nova's volcano is erupting!" all over his precious American Eagle outfit. Hee hee.

Dr. O also told me that Nova was a perfect "poster child" for amputees and that they had taken a bunch of pictures of her for training purposes. Of course I was like, "Gee, I'd love to see those pictures" but they are actually pretty graphic surgical pictures and things like demonstrations on how to insert a spinal catheter. Uhhhh... no thanks, I will pass on that. She commented on how terrific Nova's attitude was and that she has had a wonderful recovery. The road is apparently not as easy for most dogs. I realize that and am so thankful that Nova has been doing so well.

Her incision is looking great! Check it out:

The only thing about it that bothers me is that her hair is growing back VERY slowly! So she still looks naked on her incision side. Dr. O said that the hair would grow back faster after we finish up the Carboplatin in February. So Nova will not have her fur when she needs it most (she still wears her fleece coat, we just took it off at the Doctor).

During the time the administered the Carbo (they do it in the back so I am not allowed to watch) I ran out to shop at the nearby REI and running store, and made it back a little after she was done. She was standing out in the parking lot with the techinician, who was laughing. She said that Nova really, really had to go potty, but she wouldn't go to the designated area because there was snow there. So she was pacing and supposedly waiting for Mommy. Well, I took her right over there and she jumped right in to the snow and took one of those 10-minute Niagra Falls pees immediately. She is such a Mommy's girl!

It's amazing how I now take time to notice little things. One thing that was really sweet was that I found Emmy and Nova yesterday curled up in their signature butt-to-butt sleeping pose. This is really the first time since the surgery that I have seen them snuggle together. Emmy has been so stand-offish, like she noticed that something was wrong or different with Nova, and figuredshe needed to stay away. It was so nice to see them snuggle up like sisters again.

One Month Ampuversary!

2008-12-11T08:46:00.000-08:00

Today is Nova's one month Ampuversary! It is so amazing how far she has come in one month. She is really back to her old self, aside from hopping rather than walking. The only thing that bothers me is it is taking FOREVER for her hair to grow back. So she still looks naked. I wonder if it will even grow back entirely.

Occasionally I will hear a yelp of two from her, really makes my heart stop when I hear it. It's hard to figure out what the help is about. Each time it has happened there really isn't anything I can trace it to. Maybe she just gets weird phantom pains or something. She doesn't appear to have any sore spots anywhere. Every time she yelps, she runs to cuddle with me, tail wagging, like "Mom, I don't know what that was, but I know if I can get to you, I am safe." I will mention it to the vet when we go back for more Carboplatin next Wednesday.

Going to See Santa

2008-12-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

Today Mom and I were feeling in the Christmas spirit, so she helped me into my cozy new fleece jacket and we headed into Fenton in the snow for the "Jinglefest". The big attraction for us Mom and me was that a Fenton-area vet was offering an opportunity for pets to get their pictures taken with Santa. How exciting!

This was my first big trip out since I became a Tripawd (other than my many, many trips to the vet), so it was lots of fun to get back in the business of being fawned over and petted by all sorts of people. It was a really snowy day, and as we slid down the streets of downtown Fenton, I heard Mom grumbling something about how she wished we qualified for handicapped parking (with me being a Tripawd and all). I think she was worried I would have trouble getting up the snow piled up along the curb.

Wouldn't you know, a spot opened up just 3 cars down from Santa's tent, so Mom swiped it in no time (I am pretty sure she was NOT supposed to do a u-turn like that.) We got out and I could tell Mom was tense and worried that I would slip on the slick roads. Nope! I just jumped out and hopped right to the sidewalk. I even scaled the piled up snow on the curb, piece of cake! I was going really fast, I really wanted to get to Santa. Across the street there was a big chili-cookoff going on in front of the Firehouse, and all these people were pointing at me and looking at me. On the short walk to the tent we got stopped 5 times by people who wanted to pet me and to find out where my leg went. I gave everyone all the snuggles they wanted, but I just wanted to get it done so I could go see Santa.

A local vet was offering pictures with Santa for a $10 donation to Leader Dog for the Blind. Plus, they will send Mom a disk of all the pictures they take, print out one nice one for Mom, and then let Mom take as many pictures as she wanted to with her own camera. What a good deal, Mom always loves to help Leader Dogs for the Blind. Everyone paid a ton of attention to me, and again, everyone was asking for details about my leg. I was definitely stopping traffic, cars were slowing down as they passed. Hey, I am used to getting gawked at, but it was as if these people had never seen a Tripawd before.

Mom spent a lot of time talking to people about amputations, cancer, etc. Then I saw a familiar face, it was Mrs. Skinner, one of the other moms from Cross Country who would always pet me at the meets. At first she didn't realize I was now a Tripawd, she reached over to pet me and I think was shocked to see I only had 3 legs. Last time she saw me in October, I had 4. Of course Mom had to tell her the whole dang story (it's getting old) which made Mrs. Skinner start to tell a story about HER dog that died last year. HEY, let's not talk about dying, okay, right now I am LIVING!

Santa was soon ready for me and it took a little time to get comfortable. There were lots of cords everywhere and I got my foot stuck in a few while I was trying to get close to Santa. Plus, I was nervous. It's always exciting to go see Santa, but when you get there, sometimes you get nervous, you know? Santa asked me to sit, and I looked at him like he was crazy. Mom explained to him that I really don't sit much, that I am kind of like a horse. I either stand up, or lay down. The nice lady taking pictures couldn't stop snuggling with me and saying nice things to me.

Santa was friendly too and I finally got comfortable enough to get up next to him. Mom kept jumping around like a crazy lady with her camera, along with the camera lady, ooohhhhhing and ahhhhing about how cute I was. Mom forgot to have me put on my reindeer antlers, but that was okay with me. I do like wearing them, so Mom said she would take more pictures of me with them on later closer to Christmas. She says I am the only dog she has ever had who will willingly keep on a pair of reindeer antlers.

"And what would YOU like for Christmas, young lady?" Santa said.

"Uhhhhhhhh...... I dunno.... I'm still thinking, Santa....."

Of course I was too nervous to remember what to ask Santa for, just like Ralphie in the Christmas Story movie. There wasn't really that much I could think of to ask for, since Mom always tells him all the good stuff to get me anyway. Plus, I already have the greatest gift I could have, and that is the gift to KEEP ON LIVIN'!

Everyone took a lot of closeups, but I asked Mom to zoom out and get one showing that I was a Tripawd. I wanted her to have picture to show other pawrents of Tripawds that we can still live it up and do all the same stuff we are used to doing:

GO TRIPAWDS.... ROCK ON!!!

CBC Went Well

2008-12-04T08:06:00.000-08:00

I took Nova to her regular vet yesterday for the follow-up CBC for last week's Carboplatin. Her white count was within normal ranges, so that was very, very good. Actually everything was within normal ranges, except that she was a little dehydrated. So I am trying to get more vigilant about getting her to drink. I have actually noticed her drinking a few times in the past day or so, so I was really relieved about that.

They also had a preliminary report there from Colorado State, which I hadn't seen yet. The Cancer Center had said they were waiting for the detailed report to go over with me next week or when we go for our next round of Carboplatin. Anyway, it was nice to actually read something. The diagnosis was fibroblastic osteosarcoma. Apparently this type of osteosarcoma is known to have a slightly better prognosis. Yay! Hey, I will take whatever positive news I can get. Also, there was a reactive lymph node, but there was no evidence of metastasis to the lymph node.

Histopathology report was as follows: "Section of lymph node is reactice with prominenct lymphoid follicles. There is a clear distincition between cortex and medulla. Section of the leg after further fixation and decalcification reveals tumor. The tumor consists of spindle cells forming swirls and whirls and a small amount of tumor bone matrix. Nuclei are moderately pleomorphic, oval, and have large nucleoli. Mitoses are moderate in number. There is extensive bone destructions and some reactive bone formation."

I am so glad we got this nasty thing off of her! It breaks my heart that she was walking around on a broken leg for who knows how long.

The best part is that she is so dang happy all the time. The tail is going constantly, even while napping, she greets me at the door when I come up, and is back to all her typical "leaning" she does when she wants a snuggle.

One day at a time!

Minimal Side Effects!

2008-12-01T05:59:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update on a great weekend. I am so happy that Nova did not appear to experience any severe side effects from the carboplatin treatment the other day, aside from a tiny bit of diarrhea. They said side effects might occur within 3-5 days after the treatment (that was last Wednesday). That time has passed, and Nova appears to be doing great. She's usually pretty lethargic anyway, so it was hard to tell if she was more tired than usual. If anything, she seems to have a little MORE energy than usual. We had a few visitors to the house over the last few days, and she has been her typical nosy self, getting up and walking around, and also leaning on people. Her appetite seemed a little off during the day, but she is still eating her meals.

Here Alex is feeding her sliced turkey and ice cubes during one of the afternoons where she didn't seem to feel like eating. She will eat sliced turkey no matter what.

I don't know why, but I don't ever notice her at the water dish and she won't take water when I get it. Perhaps I should remind her again of that card Annie sent about drinking plenty of fluids! So I have still been hand feeding her ice cubes and watching to make sure her pee isn't too dark. She's even gone out to hop around in the snow for a few minutes.

The next event is Wednesday, where I will take her to her regular vet for a CBC blood test. I really don't know exactly what it is for, but I think it will give some indication how the chemo is affecting her.

Hoppy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T09:39:00.000-08:00

Well, today is Thanksgiving, my first official holiday as a Tripawd. This time last year, I was running the Turkey Trot 5K in Ann Arbor with Mom. I sure wish I could have gone this year. Mom and Alex got up early this morning to go down to Ann Arbor to do the race. I wish Mom would have taken Emmy to the race and given her a chance to run this year, but Mom said she was feeling all bummed that I was running last Thanksgiving, so it didn't occur to her to let Emmy try. (I am a much better runner than Emmy). Mom hopes that I can come to the race next year. I might not be able to run/hop a whole 5K, but she is hoping that I can at least cross the finish line with her next year. I can't wait!

I stayed home with Dad this morning. We were couch potatoes. Dad is still sore from the Ironman, so we have a lot in common. He says his legs are "toast". I know the feeling! Dad let me try on his medal from the race and said that I should receive a medal too for being such a good girl and for learning to get around as a Tripawd so fast. He told me I was a hero, and said what I have done must be even harder than an Ironman, since he had months of training, and I had no training at all.

When Mom got home we had a few Thanksgiving Day traditions. First, we watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV:

Next, we kept up yet another Michigan tradition of watching the Detroit Lions lose. My brother Alex says that was the Lions' 100th loss, I guess that means it's a special occasion or something.

Mom and Dad and Nick went out for Thanksgiving dinner in the afternoon, since all the boys were gone and they wanted to have a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner rather than sit at home. While they were gone, I got to thinking about some of the things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving:

1) Most of all I am thankful that my parents are not like that jerk at the Doctor yesterday, the one who said they should have let me go to Heaven rather than amputate my leg. I know I will go to Heaven someday, but I am not ready yet! I've got lotsa livin' left to do!

2) I am thankful that the real estate market in Michigan is the worst ever, because Mom doesn't have to work so much and has lots of extra time to baby me and take me to all my appointments.

3) I am thankful for the wonderful Sack family, who treated me just like a member of their pack while Mom, Dad, and Alex were in Arizona.

4) I am thankful for all the delicious food I get to eat now that Mom has been reading about what dogs really SHOULD be eating. Duck, rabbit, beef, chicken, turkey.... ahhhhhh..... this is the life.

5) I am thankful for those nice warm polarfleece sheets that Mom put on the boys' beds for Winter. It's a great warm spot to cuddle up and feels so good on my sore body.

6) I am thankful for Jerry G. Dawg and his pawrents website, Tripawds.com, which has helped Mom and I get through the past few weeks. There are so many nice people on there who have helped Mom and I feel better. Thank you!!

7) I am thankful for the delicious leftovers that Mom and Dad are sure to bring home from me from Thanksgiving dinner (turkey necks, please.... hint... hint).

Okay, time to run (I mean HOP) now. Mom and Dad just came home with the leftovers. Yum! I got some delicious turkey:

And even some roast beef! What a great idea to have both turkey and roast beef on Thanksgiving. What an awesome day this was!

Chemo Day - Round #1

2008-11-26T13:10:00.000-08:00

Nova awoke this morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. After a weekend of being a picky eater she has been wolfing down her food. I guess she must have missed us and decided to go on a hunger strike. I feel bad for all she put Tammy through with her picky eating. She still was avoiding drinking water, so along with hand feeding her ice cubes, I have been adding extra water to her soft food (makes it extra slimy).

Before we left for the Doctor, she walked into Ben's room and jumped right up on his bed:

It was interesting to see how she did it, she had to adjust her technique. Another thing she is doing is shifting her front foot sideways. That bugs me a little because I worry that it will do damage to her front leg. Her front foot has gotten all spread out, I imagine it's her way of making a bigger platform to walk on. The foot is tilted so you can only see 3 toes when she walks, it is so weird:

She got right in the car, but had a different attitude than usual. Usually she just runs out to the van and hops in and stays there until I come out. This time she didn't object, but stood outside the car until I came out. She was looking at me like "we really have to do this, huh?" She was tense on the drive, like she knew we were going to the Doctor. She stood the whole way, which drove me bananas, i was afraid she would fall. She had to keep her head up in the front seat and rotated between resting her head on my shoulder (which doesn't exactly help me drive effectively) and on Ben's shoulder. This dog's head weighs a TON.

Ben kept getting irritated with her resting her head on him, apparently it affected his game playing on his iPod. I gave him the "be nice to Nova, she's sick, she just wants us to comfort her" lecture, which caused him to launch into a tirade about how poor Emmy was getting ignored because she wasn't sick. This whole ordeal has been stressful on everyone in the family. I know Ben loves Nova, he curls up with her every chance he gets and takes pictures to school to show his friends. It's easy to get frazzled when you're stressed and worried.

The appointment ended up taking much longer than expected. The wait was really long. Nova made a few Tripawd friends in the waiting room, and some other dog friends with cancer like this dog who had lymphoma:

Of course all the parents had to share their stories. There were a few people that came in with their dogs who were much further along in the process. It was nice to hear their success stories and kind words about Dr. Obradovich and Dr. Walshaw. There were also a few first-timers there. You can tell them by their wide-eyed, scared look. I was a little irritated at one man who looked at Nova and turned to his wife and said (not even whispering) "I would never do something so cruel to a dog like that (amputate), she shoulda just let that dog go to Heaven." I wanted to haul off and punch him, but I turned away and continued to talk positive with another Tripawd parent. It was kind of curious that that type of person would even show up at a Cancer Specialist's office with his dog. Some people just don't get it.

They took Nova in first to remove her bandage and clean up her incision. Dr. Walshaw pronounced the incision "lovely", but I have to admit it caused a few gasps when she walked out in to the waiting room. I think it was mostly because of her size. The incision was HUGE. It looked like that "Y" incision they make for autopsies (not that I know, I just read too many True Crime books). And she was shaved on that side so she looked naked. She hung her head, like she was self conscious, and snuggled up to the Technician:

They had run some preliminary bloodwork to make sure all was well for the treatment. She had an itchy right ear (all red inside) and some "female" issues that the doctor checked into, and ended up prescribing Amoxicillin to knock out any infection. But she was healthy enough for the chemo, but just had to wait her turn. She was a very patient girl in the waiting room, and allowed anyone who was interested to pet her:

Some say this is a face only a mother could love, but how could you not love this big goofy face? I think she is beautiful!

Patience was wearing a little thin after a long wait and she made a few runs for the door. She was panting a lot and I thought she might be thirsty. I sent Ben out to the car to get her ice cubes, and as soon as he returned they called her in.

They administered the chemo via IV and it was called Carboplatin. Dr. Obradovich recommended 4 rounds of Carboplatin as her first choice of treatment. I am very curious to see how well it works. They told me to follow up with my vet in a week for a CBC blood test, apparently the white count tends to drop after a week. They said side effects could occur around days 3-5, but that usually that just meant lethargy rather than nausea and vomiting. I counted out the days and that put it right on the weekend. Argh. Of course I got nervous about having yet another dog emergency occur on a weekend. Oh well, we'll get through it.

Nova came out and finally was tired enough to lay down as I went over instructions with the Doctor. Look how skeletal she is:

I am trying to feed her anytime she wants. Right now, I am feeding her 3 times a day, Evo canned food with Evo kibble mixed in. I even gave her some ground beef too. The technician told me I have to be careful to avoid letting Emmy get too close to any of Nova's poop in the next 48 hours or so. Apparently the Carboplatin is excreted, and should not be touched or (ewwww) eaten by a healthy dog. Luckily Emmy is not one of the types of dogs who does that.

We made the long drive home, but stopped for a few errands along the way. When we got home I was overjoyed to see Nova go straight for the water dish and drink for about 3 minutes straight. I am sure Tammy will breathe a big sigh of relief when she reads that. Poor Tammy made a major project out of trying to get Nova to drink for the past 5 days!

Okay, so I guess the next hurdle is to see what happens in 3-5 days......

Day Before Chemo

2008-11-25T16:25:00.000-08:00

We are back from Arizona now, and I am so relieved to finally see Nova after 5 days away. Apparently she didn't eat very well while we were gone. I think she was depressed or something. Of course that made me feel like a bad mom. Although, as the day passed I think I realized that maybe she just figured out how to milk it for maximum sympathy! I don't know, I've seen her do things I know she is capable of doing as a Tripawd, and then she will be a big lazy butt and wait for you to cater to her. For example, Tammy mentioned that she hadn't noticed Nova drinking, so she started to feed her ice cubes by hand (which Nova ate). When Nova got home I noticed she wasn't drinking here either, so I decided to do the ice cube thing. I put a few down on the floor where she was laying, and she didn't move a muscle. I opened up a jowl and stuck one in there, and she spit it out. But when I HELD the cube with my fingers, she licked it like crazy, all while not even lifting her head. And as she is doing this, the tail is going thunk-thunk-thunk. Spoiled girl! I know I am being manipulated yet I continue to do it... I am such a sucker.

When I got her home this morning the first thing I did was cut off that bandage. She kept it on at Tammy's just to keep things from getting bumped, but it was high time to get that thing off of there and let it all breathe. It wasn't as shocking as I thought it would be (although the actual incision is still covered). Here you can see it while she was eating (By the way, she was a picky eater all weekend yet has downed 4 cans of food today... and counting):

What was more shocking is that practically her whole left side was shaved and she was..... well.... NAKED. Her pink skin with freckles/moles here and there was all exposed. And she was all shivery like she was cold. Poor baby! I decided to drive up to the pet store and look for a dog coat, although I didn't have very high hopes of finding a Great Dane size. There are always so many cute things for sale out there for small and medium size dogs, but they never seem to have sizes to accommodate giant breeds. Now I know how large-size people must feel. Anyway, I was surprised to find a giant breed fleece dog coat there at Pet Supplies Plus. Got it home and it turned out that it fit perfect, and I think she actually likes it. It is made by Fido Fleece. "Stylin' Fleece Activewear for Dogs" the tag says. I would have liked to get a more feminine color, but this was all there was. I think it looks nice.

Today Nova got a package in the mail from Grandma Barb. It was from Sit Stay (they have lots of cool stuff on their site) and was a container of "Carnivore Kisses". They are dried beef bites. I fed her a couple and she liked them, although just like when I fed her the ice cubes she just laid there as I fed her by hand like she was some Greek Goddess or something.

Tomorrow morning at 10 we have her first round of chemo. I am very nervous. I think what I am most nervous about is her being more tired than she is now. Right now she doesn't get up and move around much, and spends a lot of time just laying there. I hope she doesn't have problems with her appetite too. She is skeletal as she is, I don't want her to stop eating. I cooked her some ground beef tonight while I was making spaghetti, and also picked up a big thing of sliced turkey from Sam's Club. She turned down the ground beef tonight, but I am not too worried, since she had just eaten a can of rabbit.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's update. I am hoping they take her stitches out!

My Pack is Back

2008-11-25T06:21:00.000-08:00

I am so happy! Mom and Dad got back from their trip last night and early this morning Mom came right to Tammy's house to take me home! When she walked in I was still laying down, taking my time waking up. Once I saw Mom I was so happy! I couldn't help it, my tail was going like crazy. I had been kinda feeling sorry for myself this morning, bumming around, not eating or wanting to go outside. But now Mom was here to take me home. Yay!

I do have to say, though, that my stay at the Sack's house was awesome, so much better than staying at the kennel. They treated me just like a member of their pack, and Tammy took such good care of me, she was just like Mom. She worried about every little thing, just like Mom. She slept by me every night, snuggled with me, gave me my eyedrops, took me outside, kept me warm with blankets, and fed me. The whole family was so friendly and loving with me, and they even had other people come to visit at the house so that they could see me. I loved all the attention.

Like I said, I spent a lot of time the past 5 days feeling blue. I missed my Mom and my family. The entire Sack family did everything they could to make me happy and comfortable during my stay there. I gave Tammy a few things to worry about, I didn't mean to, but that's what I do to Mom all the time, and it seemed like Tammy was like Mom for the weekend. I didn't always eat my food, and I didn't feel much like drinking either. But she came up with lots of creative ways to get me to drink (feeding me ice cubes) and to eat. Get this.... she even cooked me some ground beef, and I had salami slices and turkey. Wow! She even came up with a new way to feed me my canned food, which they called Turkey Balls. She would wrap up my dog food in a piece of sliced turkey and roll it up in a ball. Even being depressed, it was hard to resist the Turkey Balls.

All in all, I think I was a pretty good guest. That sectional couch in the family room looked so tempting, I really was thinking about sitting on there, but never did. It looked so comfortable.

When Mom got me home I went straight outside to go potty. It's so great to pee in my own yard again, even in the snow. Then I went inside and gobbled up a can of Duck, which made Mom very happy. Mom cut off my bandage (ahhhhhh!) and I headed for my bed to relax.

Here's how I look without my bandage. You can see that my incision is still covered. I think the Doctor will be taking it off tomorrow when I go for my chemo treatment.

Mom is going to go pick up my sister at the kennel in a few minutes. I am so excited to see Emmy, and to see the boys when they get home from school today. And Dad, too. Mom said he finished the Ironman, although he had to go very slow during the marathon. (I know how that is!) Hopefully Dad will be in the mood for a nap with me tonight when he gets home from work.

Hmmmmm..... I was just thinking that maybe I should find a way to get Mom to make me some of those Turkey Balls....

Power Outage

2008-11-20T17:48:00.000-08:00

Blog updates on Nova are going to slow down a bit until we return from Arizona next Tuesday. We are in Tempe for the Ironman Arizona triathlon, that my husband is doing. We joke that he is going to be less mobile than Nova when we return, so they will definitely be hanging out together over Thanksgiving weekend. It wasn't easy getting out of town this morning. Tuesday evening we had a power outage that lasted until Wednesday mid-day. That had it's challenges when it came to Nova's care. Some things you just don't think through. We do have a generator, so we were able to keep the house heated during the day, but at night we turned off the generator because it was so dang loud, no one could sleep. Bad move. Nova woke up to pee at about 3 am, and I tried to let her out by candlelight and flashlight and she was not going for it. I could not blame her, she couldn't see her footing on the step outside, so she wouldn't go out. Plus I couldn't light up the yard so she couldn't find her way around outside. What a dumb move on our part. These are the types of things you don't think about. I was really upset, and worried about her, I didn't want her to trip and fall in the dark. So I ended up sleeping out on the couch the rest of the night so I could hear her if she got up. Firing up the generator was not an easy task, actually it had run out of gas so I was planning to go get more gas in the morning. So I put some blankets over her to keep her warm. I am still kicking myself over that dumb move of not leaving the generator on.

Once everyone woke up, we got it going, and all was well with Nova again. Her front leg is still a little jittery when she is laying down and she whines a little now and then, but I think she is just being verbal, because her tail is thunk-thunk-thunking the whole time she whines.

Wednesday night I took Nova over to Tammy's to drop her off for her stay. Once again, Nova barged in like she lived there and layed right down on her bed right next to Annie's bed. Annie was being such a good sport about it all. We lugged in all sorts of stuff, food, her bed, her favorite eagle stuffie, all her glaucoma medications, her new harness that just came in the mail an hour before, sling, leashes, etc. I even brought rubber-backed rugs for Tammy to put on her hardwood floors. It was like having a baby all over again! I was a little nervous about the fact that they had a 2-story house, and that the bedrooms were all upstairs. I was worried that Nova might cry if she was left alone on the main floor, just because she is used to being with us when she sleeps. (We have a 1-story house, one thing I am VERY thankful for, it is very tripawd-accessible!) I also worried that Nova might try to go up the stairs. Tammy eased my fears when she said she had no plans to sleep upstairs during the time Nova was there. Awwww.... what a relief. I am so lucky to have someone like her to baby my baby when I can't be there.

I called Tammy during our layover to check on Nova, and she said she was doing great. What a relief. She said Nova is very fast on 3 legs when she goes outside. Fun! My kids were laughing that Nova is probably ending up with the more relaxing vacation. She is getting fawned over all weekend... lucky dog!

Updates will be brief until she comes home next Tuesday. Wednesday will be her first Chemo treatment, so I know there will be plenty to tell then.

6 Days Post-Op - First Follow Up Appointment

2008-11-17T12:38:00.000-08:00

Nova's bandage was getting scrunched up and I wasn't sure what kind of condition it would be in on Wednesday (what was supposed to be our first follow-up appointment with Dr. Walshaw.) I called the Cancer Center this morning, and they encouraged me to reschedule the follow up appointment to today, so that they could check her out and give her a fresh bandage. I think usually the bandage is removed after the first week or so, but I think it was decided that since we will be gone for 5 days, Nova will be staying somewhere where there will be another dog, and that it would be a good idea to keep the incision area covered lest it get licked at or bumped.

On our way to the appointment, Nova and I stopped at Tammy's house so that Nova could get acquainted with her house. We also wanted to see how her mastiff Annie interacted with Nova. As soon as mentioned the magic word to Nova (RIDE) her tail started thumping and she swiftly hopped to the garage door. She hopped out to the garage, the hesitated and went back in the house. Sometimes she does this, it's like she needs to get up the nerve. It was only a minute later when she hopped back to the door and went straight out. Hopped right up into the car, no problem at all. This girl is amazing!

When we got to Tammy's house Nova stood on the grass for a second. I think she was surprised that we had arrived at somewhere other than a vet's office. This seemed to energize her.

She realized that this was a "fun" stop (unfortunately we haven't had many of those lately) and went right for the door. The 3 steps in the garage looked a little daunting, but she hopped right up without hesitation, and walked into their home like she lived there. Tammy was a little nervous how Annie would react. But they just sniffed each other and Annie went to lay down. Nova inched her way into the house more and more until to found a spot on the carpet to lay down. Tammy and I talked for awhile about Nova's care and things that I needed to bring when I dropped her off on Wednesday. She said her kids were very excited that Nova was coming to stay with them and that they would probably do a "family campout" in the family room this weekend where they could all sleep together with Nova. I can tell already that Nova is going to be soooooooo spoiled.

We made the long drive to Canton and as soon as we got there, the tech took Nova back to replace her bandage. She returned a short time later sporting a new blue bandage with a nice big Thanksgiving turkey on it. It was adorable!

Dr. Walshaw came out to talk with me and answer all my questions (I'm always full of 'em). One concern I had is that there was a lump on the outside of one of Nova's toes (on her remaining front leg) that didn't look like it was supposed to be there. It kind of resembled a bunion. Dr. Walshaw calmed my fears and said it was most likely caused by the way she had shifted her weight to the leg. It kind of made her foot spread out (which makes sense). They said that the biopsy results from the leg that was sent to University of Colorado had not come back yet, but they would call when they did. Not that I am expecting any diagnosis different than osteosarcoma, but I am still curious about what they have to say.

We were back in the car heading back home in no time. Nova decided she wanted to stand up on the back seat, which drove me bananas. I was afraid she would fall if I hit the brakes too hard:

She eventually started to lay down (well, halfway) but she miscalculated and her butt was up on the side of the car. It looked really uncomfortable. She rode like this for awhile:

Then she eventually inched her butt down and took a big long nap in the sun:

We made it back home right before it started sleeting. She followed me straight to my office to assume the nap position sleeping beside my desk:

Nova Speaks

2008-11-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

"Things are really starting to get better around here. I think I will end up being a pretty good Tripawd. I am getting better and better at getting up and down and moving around. And I am starting to do more of the things I used to do, which really makes my family very happy. I really like being in the boys' room, but they keep closing the door on me. Last night I wanted to sleep in there, but they shut me out. So I slept on my bed in the living room. Dad was really sick and was coughing so much that I couldn't rest, so I finally weaseled my way into their room through their bathroom."

"This morning after breakfast I wanted to see what they were doing. Turns out they were playing the Game of Life. They got mad when I walked in and hopped straight across the game board. All their money and cars with people were flying everywhere. Ben was laughing that his "wife" fell out of his car and got stuck between the pads of my foot. The I stepped my tripawd foot right on the box top and smashed it. Hey, it's not my fault they spread everything all over. Those guys are messy. After Ben won the game, they put it away and started to play Rock Band. Ahhhh.... I love to hear my brothers try to sing and play the guitar. As you can see in the picture, I like to just hang out in the middle of whatever they are doing. Mom kept coming in because she thought she heard me howling, like I was hurt. But it was just Ben trying to sing."

"I am napping a lot, but this is nothing new to me since I have always been a couch potato. Dad always used to call me the "House Cat". In the past when he would see me napping he would tell me to "Get a job!" It's funny, now he is really nice to me and gets on the floor to snuggle up to me and tell me how great I am. He doesn't tell me to get a job now. Now THAT'S more like it. My stuffies are really helping me feel better too. Here I am resting with Larry the Lobster (Mom and Dad got it for me at the Boston Marathon) and Lindy the Eagle (everyone got it for me at Busch Gardens). I can't wait to see what new stuffies are in store for Christmas!"

"This afternoon Mom went out to get me some more food. She has been spending so much time on the computer researching things she can do to help me get better, and be more healthy. The great people on the Tripawds site are giving her some great advice. Since I haven't been eating much kibble this week (I have figured out a way to make her think I will eat nothing but canned food... hee hee) she decided to try some new canned food called Innova EVO. EVO is a canned food that doesn't have any grains in it (which us dogs shouldn't be eating anyway). It is all delicious meat, vitamins and minerals. Chicken, turkey, duck, beef, and rabbit.... she went all out and tried all the flavors. When she came home I told her I was hungry and she gave me a can of Rabbit. Wow, I didn't think there was anything in this world that was better than Cowboy Cookout, but this sure was great. She was so happy I liked it she gave me a second can! She is slowly going introduce some other vegetables and fruits and try me on some Innova EVO kibble (no grains in there either). She is also going to start introducing these new foods into Emmy's diet too, since Emmy is so fat."

"When Mom got home she started looking for me right away. I knew I was somewhere I wasn't supposed to be, so I just stayed there. I should have known she would keep looking, she found me sitting in Dad's chair. But she didn't get mad, she was so happy to see me there and doing all my usual Great Dane stuff. I tried to be serious and remorseful, but you see I could not stifle a tail wag. Works like a charm!"

"Today everyone was all surprised when they found me drinking out of the toilet. I know most dogs do that all the time, but I never had the urge to do it. I have always avoided my brother's bathroom, but today I decided to walk in there (gotta try out the Tripawd on all types of surfaces). Whaddaya know, I saw a toilet that looked just like the one on the card that Annie's family sent me yesterday. I remembered Annie's advice to "Drink Plenty of Fluids" so, I took a nice cool drink. And then Mom walked in on me. Everyone thought it was funny that I did what the card said to do. I don't know what was so funny. When someone gives you some good advice, you take it, and try it, you know?"

Continual Improvement

2008-11-15T11:02:00.000-08:00

Friday and Saturday brought a few things to worry about, but much, much more to be happy about. Nova continues to improve in so many ways. Dogs are so amazing! Nova is much more enthusiastic now about getting up, moving around, and going outside. Those first few days, I stressed so much that Nova didn't go out to pee more than once a day. There are still many times that she will just go to the door, think about going out, then turn around and pace. But I have found that all I need to do is trust her, be patient, and know that when she needs to go outside, she will do it. Whether it's an hour later, or a few hours later, she always comes back and tries again. When she REALLY has to go, she just goes to the door, and goes right out.

"Oh geeze, Mom, do I REALLY have to do this right now?"

"It's a pretty big step down there, thanks but no thanks. I think I will stay right here."

Eventually, the business gets done when she REALLY has to go.

Although it's been raining much of the time since she's been home, she likes to linger outside when it's not.

"At what point do you stop carrying that camera around, Mom, and photographing my every move?"

She is getting so mobile now, really starting to get back to her curious, nosy self. She always wants to be where the action is. Before she was just parking it somewhere and not moving. Now, when she sensing the action is shifting to another room, she will just get up and go there. Usually, she remains standing, panting very heavily. That really stresses me out because she looks so uncomfortable when she pants. But the tail is usually wagging at full speed. The panting is most likely a side effect of the Tramadol, but I guess it's probably from all the hopping. The kids get alarmed when they see her panting, too. I'm trying to dispel their fears by telling them to jump around on one leg and see how soon THEY are panting. It's a lot of work to do that! I'm just glad to see her WANTING to move. I would imagine if she was in tremendous pain, she would not want to get up and move.

All of the pacing is taking a lot of getting used to. It's hard not to worry when you see it. The kids especially don't like it when they are sleeping. I'd like to confine Nova to the living room at night, but she really loves to be with Ben and Skyler in their room, so much so that she has her own dog bed in there. Last night Ben grabbed his pillow and came out the living room couch to sleep. he said that Nova's panting was driving him bananas, along with her just standing there staring at him in his sleep. Later she decided to come back out and pant in Ben's face on the couch. So he relocated back to his bed. Apparently (unbeknownst to me until this morning) Nova went back to the room and jumped in bed with Ben. He let her stay there because he was so amazed she could do it. This morning at breakfast we were all talking about what a bummer is was that Nova would probably never be able to jump up on the kids beds again. That's when Ben said "I'm sure she will, in fact she just did it last night. A round of high fives for Nova!

Yesterday I noticed this icky looking loose soft lump starting to hang from Nova's belly, right at the edge of her bandage. Of course I was on the horn to the Doctor right away, lumps are scary things to find! They are probably so sick of hearing from me. Supposedly, it's just extra fluid from the surgery. They told me to just put warm compresses on it a couple times a day and that it would form a bruise on it. Sure enough, that's what it did. But it is getting bigger (I think the bandage is rubbing), so it's pretty gross to look at.

See? It looks kind of like a hernia that one of my Labs had once:

Today, Nova got her first Get Well card in the mail. How exciting! It came from some of Nova's biggest fans, the Sack family (Tammy's family). The lazy butt mail lady had pulled in to the driveway honking her horn, she did not want to come out in the rain to give us a small package that wouldn't fit in the mailbox. So I went out to get the mail from her and Nova had come to the garage door (back to her usual nosy self).

"So, you got any mail for me, Mom?"

As I walked inside, she was sniffing the mail, like she knew there was something there for her. We found the card, opened it, and found a few jerky treats inside. Emmy tried to butt in and swipe one, but Nova ate them quick. The card was a big fawn mastiff (just like Annie) drinking out of toilet and it said "Want to feel better soon? Drink plenty of fluids!" Funny. Even Delilah the guinea pig signed the card.

"See my great card? Don't worry, Annie, I am getting plenty of fluids!"

"The whole family signed the card, even the guinea pig! I am so lucky to have so many people who care about me. Thank you!"

A lot of people who haven't seen Nova yet have been asking what she looks like when she walks/hops. So I took a brief video of her walking down the hall. You will see at the end she just stands on her bed, not laying down. She always takes her time deciding exactly how she wants to lay down. Here it is:

What Cancer Cannot Do

2008-11-14T07:22:00.000-08:00

I just was shopping for Christmas gifts in the hundreds of catalogs that show up in the mailbox this time of year. In one was an afghan that listed the many things that cancer CANNOT do. It was written by an Anonymous author.

Cancer is so limited....
It cannot cripple Love
It cannot shatter Hope
It cannot corrode Faith
It cannot destroy Peace
It cannot kill Friendship
It cannot suppress Memories
It cannot silence Courage
It cannot invade the Soul
It cannot steal eternal Life
It cannot conquer the Spirit

Music to My Ears

2008-11-14T04:14:00.000-08:00

NOW we are starting to make some headway. This morning I went in to wake up Ben for school and I saw that Emmy had swiped the dog bed, and Nova was sprawled out on the floor on her "ouch" side. She had taken some of the throw pillows that had fallen from the kids bed and had them all propped under her. The second I made eye contact with her I heard the sound I have been waiting all week to hear again. The heavy thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk of her crazy happy wagging tail. THERE'S my girl! Nova has one of the greatest tails ever. On a normal day it wags constantly, even when she is having a good dream. And when ever she hears her name, even in her sleep, the tail starts going. It can be hazardous too, that thing is so big and out of control, she can clear a table with it.

There was even more familiar "music"... last night at 2:30 am. I was in bed and heard Nova's usual "I want to go outside" speak. Nova is one of those dogs that "talks" in a sort of howly, roo-roo, way. It was not a howl of pain, she was clearly saying the usual "come and let me out". I have never been so happy to jump up at 2:30 am. I went over to the boys room and saw that the door was nearly closed. In the past, Nova would have been able to open it, either with a paw or her snout. Of course, now with one front paw she couldn't do it any more. I opened her and she was standing there (this was the first time she "asked" to go out) and quickly hopped past me, down the twisting and turning hall (in the dark), through the kitchen, and out the back door. I had to run to keep up with her.

She hopped out to the middle of the yard and immediately took a big poop. I was standing out there watching, thrilled that she was starting to feel a little like herself again. It had warmed up a bit last night so that it wasn't biting cold standing out there, and there was a light breeze blowing the pines. We live in the middle of a pine forest and when there is a light breeze it is so calming and mesmerizing to watch and listen to the tall skinny pines sway back and forth. Nova stood out there for a few minutes, holding her head up sniffing in the night breeze, and she took a deep breath and sighed.

When we got back in it took her another 1/2 hour or so to decide where she wanted to lay down again. In the process, she woke up Ben and Skyler, because the hopping and panting was noisy. I tried to direct her to her bed in their room, since she was really intent on going back there. But she kept wanting to stand between their two beds, looking back and forth at them, hot steaming big dog breath in their faces. I could tell she really wanted to jump up onto one of the beds, but she didn't try. She hopped out to the living room and back a few times, and finally settled back in on the floor at the foot of Skyler's bed.

This morning was great. She got right up when I told her I had breakfast waiting. She went to the door and thought about going outside, but changed her mind. She's still panting, but she is definitely getting more and more like her social self. She hopped around between the kitchen and the living room to be in the center of the action wherever the majority of the family happened to be. It was the most I'd seen her move yet. She still just stands in one spot, looking around, but she tended to do that a lot anyway. We always said she was more like a horse, because she likes to stand, even in the car. She hopped up to Daddy a few times for some kisses. And she hopped over the the TV to stand in front of it and drive the kids nuts blocking out Sports Center, which is something she usually does every morning. In the past that would drive them bananas, and they would yell at her to move. But today they didn't do that, they walked over to give her a big hug and kiss. That's all she was looking for anyway. Everyone appreciates that she's starting to be her quirky self again.

One thing I really have to do is "Tripawd proof" the kids room. Nova loves to go in there, but she keeps stumbling over things left on the floor. I gave them the lecture to keep things picked up so Nova doesn't trip. She's already stumbled on a few toys, dirty clothes, pillows, and this morning she got her front paw tangled in the cords on a Playstation controller left on the floor. Argh. I think for awhile when I am out of the house and I am going to keep her confined to the living room. I don't want her tripping over stuff. I guess that means I am going to have to be more vigilant with the kids (as if I am not on their case constantly already to pick up their room).

Alert the Media

2008-11-13T17:47:00.000-08:00

I finally got Nova to pee around 6:30 pm tonight. Yay! My kids thought I was an absolute nut case, I was acting as if she had performed the greatest feat ever. Then she ate a big dinner, wagged some tail, and crashed out on her bed in the living room.

When I went to sign up my son Ben for Ski Club tonight I saw Julie, at technician at my local vet and wife of the owner, Dr. Osmun. I bombarded her with all my questions and she put my mind at ease about everything. Yippeeee! All is well.

Nova is on her bed holding court with various family members. Everyone is dishing out the love, big time.

Nova Speaks

2008-11-13T13:12:00.000-08:00

Oh geeze, Mom. Sometimes I wish you would just take a chill-pill. You worry sooooo much. I know, I complain, but you know how much I appreciate it when you DO worry. If it weren't for your worrying when my eyeball hurt so bad, we might not have caught the glacoma in time to save the sight in my other eye. And when my stomach twisted in the middle of the night, you worried and drove me an hour to the emergency clinic for an emergency stomach tack in the middle of the night. You even held me in your lap (all 125 lbs of me) just like I wanted, because I was scared of the stomach tack surgery and a doctor I didn't know. Thanks also for worrying when you saw that big lump above my wrist back before Halloween. Because of that, I think I have a much better chance at living a pain-free, healthy life. I couldn't do it without you.

I am so happy that Tammy offered to care for me while you are gone to Arizona. I like Cliff at the kennel, but I think Tammy really is a better choice. I know she will take excellent care of me and that she loves big dogs. I can't wait to sniff everything at her house and get some lovin' from her kids. Hopefully her big dog Annie won't mind me getting all the attention. This 3-legged thing REALLY gets a lot of attention (I love every minute of it). What I like best is that Tammy is a worrywart, just like you. In fact, remember she asked why I was limping at the Swartz Creek meet back in early October? She noticed my problem before you did! (Ha ha)

I think you just need to relax a little and let me get through the next few days. Losing a leg is a big deal. It hurts. I need some time to, well, find my sea legs (or tripawd legs), if you will. And this pain medication makes me feel like, well, total crap. Remember when you had those wisdom teeth out, and that codeine had you feeling all weird, having strange dreams, and seeing little green aliens on your pillow? Well it's not any easier for me with this Morphine and Tramadol.

Hey, one more thing. What's the big idea posting pictures of my swollen feet? Come on, can't a girl get a little bloated every once in awhile without having pictures plastered all over the Internet? Did you see me posting pictures of you when you couldn't squeeze your fat butt into those jeans last week because you ate all those potato chips?

Always the Worrywart

2008-11-13T12:37:00.000-08:00

It's late afternoon on Thursday. It's been a challenging day. Nova still has not peed since 5 pm yesterday and of course I am obsessing about it. It seems like it would be important to pee and eliminate the toxins out of the body, you know? I haven't noticed her drinking much, she doesn't seem thirsty at all. But she's eaten twice, so that is good. At lunch she ate just enough to get the new pain med, Tramadol, down. Two of her feet (on the right side) have swollen up and it seems like they are getting bigger. The Dr. says I just need to get her up and around moving more. I'm trying! I have also been massaging the swollen feet when she is laying down, and just talking to her in a happy, happy voice.

Maybe I am being a little premature, but I don't like the Tramadol. Actually, I don't really like any type of pain medication that zones you out. Nova did not seem like herself when she came home on the morphine. But she seemed much more of herself than she does today. Today she seems really depressed. Typically with a normal Nova, all you have to do is start talking like a cartoon character and she gets all excited. That usually revs her up to do anything. But not today. She is just giving me blank stares. I've seen a few minor tail wags, but nothing like Nova. Also, the Tramadol makes her pant a lot when she gets up to walk around. This stresses me out, because I feel like I am putting too much pressure on her to move around. From everything I have read, panting is normal. But of course I worry, because that's what I do.

It is the 3rd day after the surgery and if I recall, anytime I have had surgery (or my husband for that matter) the 3rd day has been the worst. It's usually when you stop taking the heavy pain meds and start to feel the pain. I hate how pain meds make you feel, and I hate what they do to Nova. I don't want her in pain, but I don't want her to be a depressed zombie, either. I will stick it out. Tomorrow will be better, tomorrow will be better, tomorrow will be better.

This morning something happened that really brightened my day. I had sent a link to my blog to Tammy, my "big dog mom" friend from cross country, and also asked her for some advice on places to take Nova to while we are in Arizona next week. I would just prefer to leave her with someone who will be a little more attentive to Nova, you know? She said to call her, and that she had an idea. I was amazed (and so very thrilled) when she offered to take care of Nova in her own home while we were gone. She has kids, a big dog, busy life, so I didn't think it would be appropriate to ask. But she said she would be happy to care for her, being she is one of Nova's biggest fans. I can't think of many other people I would trust with Nova, but Tammy is one of them. First, she worries just like me. I am so relieved that we will be able to go to Arizona and know that Nova is being cared for by another Big Dog Mom. I am going to take Nova over there on Monday to get her acquainted with the house and all.

I went out for awhile to show a few houses and came back to find that Nova had jumped up on the couch. She gave me a guilty look but I let it slide and let her stay up there. I was just glad

she had gotten up and moved around a bit. I am trying to think of creative things to motivate her. Unlike my other Dane, Nova is not very motivated by food. I think I could stick a medium-rare New York Strip in front of her and she'd say "Ah, I just bury it here in the sofa and eat it later."

Don't these feet look swollen to you?

Working Out the Kinks

2008-11-13T04:15:00.000-08:00

Here we are on day 3 and as expected, there is not much change. I can't wait until Nova is off the epidural morphine. She really isn't herself right now, although it is probably helpful for her healing that she is all zombied out rather than her usual wiggle-butt self. I just gave her her last dose this morning and then I am supposed to pull off this huge saran0wrap like bandage off her lower back and then just pull out this tiny needle-like catheter out of her back. Ewwww....

Last night when she got home, Nova was great about going outside to pee and ate a big dinner. But then she just crashed out on her dog bed and slept all night. I gave her the morphine at 5 pm and again at 11 pm. She didn't want to get up and go outside late, so I just let her sleep. I checked on her a few times over the night and she changed positions a few times, which I thought was good. At times she was even laying on her left side where the amputation is, which totally amazed my husband. The thought she would avoid that side all together.

I woke up this morning and it is cold and raining very hard. Argh. Not ideal conditions to go out to pee. I had to really egg her on to get up to go outside, and then put a trash bag over her head (cut a hole for her head of course) so that her bandage didn't get wet. When I opened the back door she would not go out. The just stood at the door looking at Paul and I. I tried to put the sling on her to walk out with her, but the space to go out in the back is very narrow and I don't think she liked me crowding her. Paul and I stood out in the rain for awhile trying to coax her, but it didn't work.

We came back inside trying to coax her out the front door, although it is not a good option because we don't have grass in our front yard (it's all a pine forest). Nova never goes potty there, it's more her favorite sun spot. So she just stood there in the kitchen staring at us. It was heartwrenching because she was probably hurting (since it was time for her dose of morphine), so she had this "this really sucks big time" look on her face that made me want to cry. We decided to just let her go where she wanted, so she headed for the door out to the garage which is the one with the most steps (3). Argh! For some reason this is her preferred way to get in and out. The other exits are just one quick step down, the stairs in the garage are longer so I guess it makes her feel safe. When she got to the garage door she stopped dead in her tracks. She did not want to go out in the rain. After more coaxing, we gave up and brought her back in.

I was trying to get her to eat breakfast and pee before giving her the morphine because I knew she would just conk out. So I mixed up some of her regular dry kibble with a can of "Granny's Pot Pie" and she slowly made it to her dish and ate about half of it. She stepped back to get her bearings and big fat Emmy came in and gobbled up the rest before I could grab the dish. What a little devil. Nova then went to the back door again, like this time she was ready to try to go out. I opened the door and she hopped right out. But the rain was coming down even harder and I had forgotten to put the trash bag on so I was running along side of her trying to drape the trash bag over her, but she was getting wet anyway. This freaked her out big time. Of course she wouldn't pee because I was standing right next to her with my hand on her back. I'm yelling to Paul to get an umbrella or something. I knew she would not pee with me touching her, she likes a little privacy. Paul opened the door and she decided "screw this" and went hopping back in the house.

One lesson I learned this morning is that I need to Tripawd-proof my house. There are trip hazards galore. 2/3 of the house is hardwood floors. I have rugs over many of the floors, but occasionally Nova would trip on the edge of one of the throw rugs. Then her feet were wet on the hardwood floor, I was so afraid she would slip. I got so nervous trying to move the dog dish out of her way that it slopped all over the floor. And she was starting to hop right through the puddle so I am yelling at her to wait, as I am grabbing tons of paper towels to wipe up the mess so she doesn't slip. She's looking at me like "why are you yelling at me, Mom, I can't help that I have to hop". I got it cleaned up and decided to just let her go wherever she wanted. She hopped right in to the boys' bedroom and quickly got settled on her dog bed on the floor. She stood for a minute looking at Ben's bed (she loves to jump up there and nap), looked at me and then said "Nah". Emmy promptly jumped up to take Nova's usual spot.

She plopped down on her dog bed with her stuffed eagle and the Disney Channel cartoons going. All those silly voices make her happy. I came in and gave her all her glaucoma eyedrops then gave the final injection of morphine. At lunchtime we will start with the Tramadol. And hopefully by then the rain will stop and she will go out to pee.

Straight from the Tripawds Mouth

2008-11-12T14:22:00.000-08:00

Well we just got home and I am so thrilled to have Nova home. We talked in the car and decided that Nova would help me out with this post. So anything you see in italics comes straight from the new "Tripawds" mouth.

Wow, what a long strange trip THAT was! Everything was so unexpected. When we went to Dr. O's office on Monday I saw that it made Mom cry, so I decided that I did not want to go back there. I didn't understand when Mom told me Monday night that we would be going back there the next day. Why would she want to go back to a place that made her sad like that? She kept telling me that Dr. O and the surgeon Dr. Walshaw were very smart people whose whole life was helping dogs like me. I trusted Mom, because I know she always comes through for me. But then why CRY about it? Sometimes I just don't understand people.

On Tuesday morning I was so excited to go for a ride. I had a feeling we were going back to that place because Mom kept touching my leg and crying. She even took my picture. I still hoped that maybe we were going to a cross country meet to see all my friends, but I knew in my heart that was probably not the case.

When we got to the clinic I started to get a little scared. I trust Mom, I really do, but I didn't understand why she would be so sad if what we were doing was supposed to be good for me. She kept telling me that Dr. Walshaw was going to make the pain in my leg go away. If you ask me, that sounded like a pretty good deal. It was just so darn confusing because she was so sad. I licked her tears off her face because I didn't want her to be sad (plus I LOVE the taste of tears, it reminds me of cross country meets when I would make rounds giving kisses to all the sweaty boys on the team).

Mom asked for Dr. Walshaw to come out and talk to her about the surgery. He seemed like a very friendly guy, and he had this very funny sounding voice that made me feel happy. It reminded me of the Geico Gecko on TV. Mom said he sounded that way because he was British. She also whispered in my ear that he was one of the leading oncologic surgeons in North America. Yeah, uh huh, whoo hoo, but is he going to make this awful pain in my leg go away? I wasn't so sure, so I made a run for the door a few times. The nice technician was so friendly she helped me change my mind. Mom looked at me (through tears) and said it was okay to go with the technician. So that's what I did.

In a short time they had me on a table and I was very comfortable and sleepy. Everyone was so friendly and I felt I could trust them. I kept Mom's words in my mind until I drifted off to sleep. A short time later (it seemed like that to me, but it really was much later in the day) I started to see those friendly faces again. They were all saying nice things to me. I felt very warm and cared for, but was so very tired. But I did notice one thing, and that was that the horrible pain in my leg was gone. Ahhhh.... Mom was right! Dr. Walshaw DID take that awful pain away. I wanted to give Dr. Walshaw a big slimy kiss, but I felt a little dizzy after the technician put some more medicine in my catheter. Time for a big long nap!

Early in the morning I woke up and was feeling a lot better. But I was so hungry. I knew that this was a friendly place, so they had to have some food around here. I really felt like a dish of my favorite Cowboy Cookout right now. But they didn't have Cowboy Cookout, so I settled for their canned food. Geesh, you'd think they'd have Cowboy Cookout in a place like this. The people there were very happy to see me eating. They were also all happy to see me sitting up. Everyone was looking at me, like they were expecting me to do something. I couldn't figure out why. I felt a little woozy and that's when I looked down and saw that Dr. Walshaw took more than just the pain in my leg away. He took the whole leg too! Well, whaddaya know! I now had 3 legs where there had once been 4. How interesting!

I really had to pee and the nice people started coming toward me like they were going to try to help me. Please. Like I need help going outside to pee. I may be kind of a doofus, but geeze, I can do this. So I got right up and walked outside. I think they were actually amazed. I don't know what the big deal was. Sure, it was a little strange to hop a little, but when you gotta go, you gotta go, you know? So I did what needed to be done.

I sure was ready to get out of there. All these people were nice but I really didn't know them all that well and I thought that if I stayed there much longer they might decide to take another leg. No way, Jose! I heard Dr. Walshaw talking to the technician, telling her to tell Mom that it was fine to come and take me home. What a relief! I knew the car ride was far, so it was hard to wait for Mom to get there.

I heard her voice when she came in and I couldn't stop my tail. It's always such a wonderful feeling when your people leave you some place and they come back! I was so happy. I could hear them telling Mom what to do with my medicine, and they were setting more appointments for the future. (I am really not too thrilled about coming back here). When I came out to see Mom I was so happy. And so was she! And this time she wasn't crying, she was just hugging me and petting me. Dr. Walshaw and some of the technicians rushed out to meet Mom and tell her what a terrific patient I was. They even made me a bumper sticker out of a bandage and put it on my back that said "#1 Great Dane". Everyone agreed that I was the most loveable Great Dane they had ever met. One technician told Mom that before she met me, she didn't even like Great Danes (yes, it's true, I know it's hard to believe), but that in one night I had won her heart.

Don't you love my #1 Great Dane sticker? (No surprise there)

Getting in the car was a piece of cake

Soon we were on our way and I went truckin' out to the car at full speed. When I got to the van I just jumped right in, no problem. The technician was so surprised and so was Mom. Once I got in the car though I was panting. Geeze, that was a lot of work! Why was I so tired? I guess my body is not used to moving around on 3 legs yet. Oh well, I'm sure I will have that mastered in no time. After a few minutes I decided that standing in the van was not going to be a good way to ride home. Usually I like to stand in the middle so I can see what Mom is doing. But when she would turn corners I would start to lose my balance. This made Mom very scared, and she begged me to lay down and rest.

Okay, Mom, can we go home already?

Relaxing on the car ride (are you SURE you are supposed to be taking pictures while you are driving, Mom?)

When we got home I saw my brother's car and got very excited. Mom opened the van door and I jumped right out and went right for the garage door. Mom's mouth was wide open, but I don't know what she was so surprised about. She was running behind me telling me to wait and let her help me up the stairs. Excuse me, Mom, what do you think I am, stupid? I went right up the 3 stairs into the house. Inside my people brothers Alex and Ben were there to greet me. And my Great Dane sissy Emmy was there too to give me a great big kiss. She sniffed around at my bandage and looked at where my leg used to be. Hey, Em, you got a problem with that? I felt a little self-conscious and thought about making a fat joke about her to ease the tension, but then decided not to. I was just too happy to be home!

"Let's make a deal, Em, you don't make 3-legged jokes, and I won't make fat jokes. Deal?"

First things first, though. I went straight for the back door to go out for a pee. Mom got all worried-like again (give it up, Mom, I can do this, okay?) about the step going out back. Come on Mom, it's ONE step. She acts like I'm a puppy or something. Geesh. I went out into my yard and took a big poop. That felt a little weird scrunching up my back with a IV catheter in it. Then I took a big long pee. Ahhhhhh..... that had to be the best pee ever. Mom stood there laughing that it took so long. Then I went inside and Mom gave me a big bowl of Cowboy Cookout. YUM! I was famished, so I gobbled it right up. Mom was making me a little crazy, she had the camera out and kept taking pictures of me. Geeze, Mom, what's the big deal? She kept following me around like I was famous or something. I know I'm good lookin' and all, but girls really don't like to have their pictures taken when they are feeling under the weather, you know?

WHY in the WORLD do you need a picture of THIS, Mom? (people are so strange sometimes)

Nothin' like a big dish of Cowboy Cookout, mmmmmmmm......!

"Check me out, I've got this Tripawd thing figured out already! Any you guys thought I was just a dumb blonde!"

Well, Mom just stuck a needle in my catheter and now I am feeling verrrryyyyy sleeeeeepppyy. I think I am just going to sprawl out here on my bed in the living room and head off to la-la land for awhile. Mmmmm...... it's so great to be back home........

Mid-Afternoon (Pleasant) Surprise

2008-11-12T08:53:00.000-08:00

This afternoon just as I was adding these posts, my phone rang again. I noticed the cancer center's number, and my heart skipped a beat. They were not supposed to call again until this evening. I fretted for a moment that there had been a problem, then realized I was not picking up the phone. I grabbed it just before it went to voicemail.

It was the technician again, and she was laughing. She said that she knew she told me that it wouldn't be until later, but Nova was doing SO WELL that the surgeon said there was no reason why she could not go home this afternoon. REALLY! I am so excited! She continued to laugh and said that when they first got Nova up to pee, she just got right up and WALKED outside. She said dogs usually hop, and Nova just got up to WALK. They said she was very happy and totally ready to come home. Yay! This has totally taken me by surprise. I am so excited! I am going to pack up and start the trip down there right now.

Yay! I get to have my big hunka love home tonight! Stay tuned.......

Day 2 Update - AM

2008-11-12T08:51:00.000-08:00

This morning the technician from the cancer center called right when she said they'd call. I was thrilled. She said that Nova was doing GREAT! She is not walking yet, but she is sitting up and eating canned food like a pig. They are going to get her walking today, up and down to pee, etc. They are not going to decide until the end of the day if she is to come home today, so it will most likely be tomorrow morning. Yay!

Day 1 - Late PM Update

2008-11-12T08:48:00.001-08:00

(Written on November 11, 2008)

I was out taking Alex to buy his new Varsity jacket and my phone rang with another update on Nova. It was the night technician telling me that Nova was starting to perk up a little and was giving some kisses. The tail even started wagging! Yay! She was not interested in food yet, so they were keeping her on an IV through the night and would try with more food later. The technician said Nova was a total sweetheart (I knew THAT already!)

I am going to have a much better sleep tonight!

Day 1 - PM Update

2008-11-12T08:47:00.000-08:00

(Written on November 11, 2008)

I just got a call from the surgeon. He said Nova did great during the surgery, no problems at all. She is out of surgery now and “resting comfortably”. They have her drugged up with morphine for the rest of the day, and tomorrow morning they will start trying to feed her and get her up and walking.

Whew! I know that is just the first step of many, but I am so optimistic.

Lotsa Thinking

2008-11-12T08:26:00.000-08:00

(Written on November 11th, 2008)

I did a lot of thinking on the drive home and trying to be positive and thankful for all the blessings in my life. I thought back to a conversation I had last night with my husband Paul. I was so worried he would be upset about the expense, but he could tell quickly that was what I was thinking because I said I just can’t put her down right now, and he said don’t think for a minute that he would ever want to put her down. I was so relieved. He knows how much Nova means to me. I am thankful to have a spouse who understands this. It’s only money, and although we can’t afford to pay for all this in full right now, we can easily pay it off over time (I haven’t carried a balance on my credit card for years, but will have to for awhile now.) I know there are many people in much worse financial situations. Just another thing to be thankful for.

I also thought back to Monday night at the Cross Country banquet. Tammy and I connected after the banquet and she laughed because Nova's tail came up in one of the pictures in the team slide show. I told her that the amputation was the following day and that I was so sad that Nova would not be able to be the cross country mascot dog that fall. The tears were welling up, but she got a big smile on her face and said Nova would definitely attract more attention and love than ever if she continued to go to the meets as a Tripawd. I didn't realize until then that I was assuming that Nova would not be able to go, but when you think about it, of course she can. If she is healthy by the summer I will continue to take her to the park races and team meets.

I think people are much more afraid of amputations than dogs are. Dogs don’t care. If it makes them feel better, they adapt, and get on with life. I wish people were better at doing that. As I remember with Milhouse, our Dalmation, it is so very shocking to have the dog come home with no leg, and you feel absolutely awful the first few times you see them struggle to get up, or lose their balance and fall over. It just rips your heart out. But very quickly you see the difference, and how happy they are and you see it is worth it. We did the amputation with Milhouse knowing it had already spread, and that it was only buying us a few months. With Nova it seems more promising because it hasn’t spread, and the chemo has a good chance of knocking out any microscopic stuff that might be there.

When I got home I spent a lot of time on the www.tripawds.com site. I did a ton of reading and even added a post telling Nova's story and asking a few questions. I had been wanting to search online for a type of harness to put on her to help her in and out of the car and up and down stairs. It was amazing, as soon as I opened the Tripawds site, there was a video promoting and demonstrating a harness made just for that purpose. I ordered one on the spot.

I had to keep myself occupied while I waited for news that she had made it through the surgery safely.

(Gulp) The Big Day

2008-11-12T08:05:00.001-08:00

(Written on November 11, 2008)

I had a very hard time sleeping last night. When I woke up in the morning I had a very hard time not looking at Nova's left leg. I kept wanting to hug her and touch the leg that I knew would not be there by the end of the day. I cradled her head as I gave her her glaucoma eyedrops, and whispered words of encouragement in her ear. It was very hard to not break down and cry. On the way out the door I made an impulsive decision to grab my camera and take a "Farewell 4-legged Nova" picture. Probably stupid, but I just did it.

I put Nova's bed in the car so that she would have a comfortable ride. Surgery is always to nerve-wracking, with dogs AND people, because you never know if there will be complications during the surgery and that this might be the last time. I cried for much of the ride down there and had to spend some time pulling myself together in my car before taking her in. Of course, Nova kept licking my face to wipe my tears.

We went in and she instantly recognized the place and made another bee-line for the door. She started whining too. It was heartbreaking. I was able to hold back my tears as I signed all the forms and releases. But she kept tugging at the leash and wanting to leave. I asked to speak with the surgeon and he came right out to talk with me. I was wanting to know how much of the leg they were going to take off, and what it might look like. I was really shocked and dismayed to find out that even though the tumor was way down near her ankle, that they would be taking off the entire left front leg AND the left shoulder. He said that it was the preferred way and a more streamlined look for the dog. He said if anything if left dangling it creates more opportunities for things to get bumped and hurt. I understood, but was still stunned that they would be taking her shoulder.

Soon it was time to say goodbye and I kept hugging her, not wanting to let her go. I whispered some final words of encouragement in her ear and watched the technician walk away with her. I got back to the car and set her collar and the seat and the floodgates opened. There is always this feeling of "will she blame me, or be mad at me?" And "I just paid someone to saw off my dog's LEG, how cruel." I know it is not cruel, but actually the most loving thing I could have done for her. And I know she won't be looking down there thinking "I can't believe you would do this to me." Argghhhh. It is times like these where I wish I was a dog. Then I would not worry, I would just wag my tail and take life as it comes.

Quick Decision

2008-11-12T07:12:00.001-08:00

(Written on Monday, November 10, 2008)

Nova and I made the hour-plus trek south to Canton to see Dr. Obradovich at her Animal Cancer and Imaging Center. I had stopped early at the vet to pick up her x-rays and various test results. I was feeling good and positive. I had tears in my eyes as I saw Nova once again thunder out of the house and leap up into the van, tail at full speed. She always relishes each and every car ride, even those to the vet. You would think we were going to the dog park or a cross country meet.

When we got there the staff was very pleasant and friendly. Nova is generally a big lover, but she quickly decided she wanted nothing to do with the place and started softly whining (more like complaining, she is so verbal it was like a conversation). Every time the door opened and another patient came in she would make a run for the door. It's so hard to hold it together when you see that. We stopped at the scale for a weight (125 lbs, up 3 lbs from the previous week) and went in to the exam room. It took awhile for Dr. Obradovich to come in, but she did spend a lot of time with me.

There was no beating around the bush. She reviewed the films and put the one of Nova's leg up on the wall. She said it was extremely urgent to do an amputation, since Nova's leg had a fracture in the bone already (this was on an x-ray taken nearly 2 weeks ago!). I was alarmed that Dr. Kern had not noticed the fracture, and I immediately felt a rush of guilt for making Nova walk around on a broken leg for the past 2 weeks. I also felt a sense of relief that I had made the right decision in coming to Dr. Obradovich for her opinion.

Obviously I had to make some quick decisions about Nova. After the doctors there reviewed the x-rays and test results, they quickly agreed that it was osteosarcoma, or at least SOME type of sarcoma (which they can’t tell the type without another biopsy). I was a wreck. We are going to Arizona for my husband Paul’s Ironman triathlon next Thursday, and there was no way that I could cancel the trip. Paul has been working way too hard for this. I asked Dr. O if she thought it could wait until I returned. I felt like a selfish loser even asking, but we have a few thousand dollars invested in this trip, much of it non-refundable. She shook her head. The bone was very, very weak and she felt that Nova could at any time suffer a more severe, painful break that would require an emergency amputation. The last thing I would want to happen would be for it to occur at the kennel when we were in Arizona. I arranged the surgery immediately.

Regardless of whether it is cancer or not, Dr. O says that amputation is the first, most important thing to do to improve her quality of life. So, that’s what I have decided to do. Last night I had already learned that through browsing through a site called www.tripawds.com, and reading a few stories about 3-legged dogs affected by cancer. Dr. O did more chest x-rays and said that Nova's chest was still clear, so they have a very good chance at stopping the spread throughout the body with a combination of amputation followed by 4 chemo treatments. She will have her first chemo treatment 2 weeks after the surgery (if the tumor is found to be malignant - they will send it to the lab after the amputation). If it is benign (very, very slim chance) then they will not have to do the chemo. Chemo apparently does not make dogs sick the way it does people. It was a tremendous relief to hear that.

Doctor O said survival rates are about 50% in the first year (with amputation and chemo) and 85% in the second year. This is for dogs who have clear chest x-rays. Of course it is much less for those that have already started to spread. It seems like a lot of money to pay for the chance to have my dog around for another year or two, but when you think that’s like ¼ of her ENTIRE LIFE, it seems to make sense. I just can’t rationalize putting her down right now (although I am sure some people would) because she is so very happy and otherwise healthy. If she were in a bunch of pain and it had already spread then I would decide differently. It’s hard to make this decision being married, because guys don’t always feel the same way about their pets, it’s easy for them to be more detached. The financial part is hard. Paul has been supportive throughout all of Nova’s ordeals, but I am sure he would rather have a new fishing boat than chemo and an amputation for a dog who is going to die someday anyway. (He’d never say that, but I’m sure he’s thinking it). Oh well, my Visa card is going to take a beating. The economy is so bad and I have been making next to nothing in Real Estate. Time for a “Car Wash or Spaghetti Dinner to Benefit Nova’s Cancer Treatment” :)

So I will be taking her in tomorrow morning at 9 and the surgery will be tomorrow. It will be done at the cancer center, they are much better equipped to handle 24-hour care than my regular vet. For a second I considered having Dr. Kern do the surgery, to save a little money. But then I got worried about complications and thought that the surgeon at Animal Cancer Center is a better choice to do the surgery. She will remain there until late Wednesday or some time on Thursday. We are leaving for Arizona next Thursday, so she will have about a week at home. The vet seemed to think that it would be fine to board her, I am so worried about that. The kennel I use is very one-on-one, just a guy with a kennel building in his backyard, he only boards 5-6 dogs at a time, but he is very attentive. She and Emmy usually share a run.

One positive note, Dr. O said that she felt that Nova was a “perfect” candidate for a front leg amputation since she is so lean and fit. She also said that females generally have a harder time with rear leg amputations because it’s so much harder to squat to pee. I never thought of that.

Right now my head is spinning. I am not second guessing my decision, really I know in my heart that it is the ONLY decision. I know we are embarking on an unknown journey, with lots of ups and downs for sure.

Here goes.........

Good News/Bad News

2008-11-12T07:03:00.000-08:00

(Written on Thursday, November 6, 2008)

Well I got the word back today on Nova’s biopsy. There was no cancer detected… in the tiny samples that they took, that is. Dr. Kern is still concerned though, because there was no official diagnosis from the lab. They can’t diagnose if they can’t find anything, right? She was also concerned because based on the location and “look” of the tumor, and the breed, it is very likely osteosarcoma. There is always the chance that it is just a bone cyst, but that is pretty rare. (That is what I am hoping for, but I know it is wishful thinking). So the next step is to do a more invasive biopsy, where they put her totally under and take a large section of the tumor. That means a cut that is a few inches long, stitches, etc. Yuck.

I thought about it for awhile. I was so not wanting to put Nova through such an invasive biopsy, and I couldn't bear to wait again for results, when all the while cancer could be continuing to grow and spread. I made the decision to take her x-rays and test results over to a canine oncologist (Dr. Joyce Obradovich) an hour away in Canton next Monday for a 2nd opinion. It seemed to me that it made better sense to to get and experts advice on what the next step should be, before subjecting Nova to a very invasive biopsy. My concern is that her leg could break from all the cutting and such. I want to hear it from an expert, not just a regular vet. I guess my rationale is that I will feel a lot better having an expert do the second biopsy, if needed, and I want to hear her opinion. I hope that is the right choice.

Otherwise, Nova is still the same happy girl. She limps ever so slightly, and the lump is still there. But she seems healthy and happy so I have been letting her enjoy life to the fullest (although trying to keep her from running). Of course she is getting a lot of extra love these days from everyone in the family, and anyone else who has heard of her crisis. Every chance I get I take her leg in my hands and say a prayer over it. Sounds silly, but I don't know what else to do. Sometimes I talk to the tumor in silly rhymes "Evil tumor go away, we don't want you in Nova's leg". Of course no one knows I do this except me and Nova, and her tail always starts wagging like crazy when I do it.

I am so anxious to hear was Dr. Obradovich says about my big girl on Monday (we are going there at noon).

Grieving a Little

2008-11-12T06:47:00.000-08:00

(Written on October 31, 2008)

Well here it is Halloween, and I just now realized that it would be poor judgment for me to take Nova out trick-or-treating like I have for years. Dr. Kern said to avoid any unnecessary walking or rambunctious play. That is so hard with a wiggle-butt like Nova. I am so sad that I can't dress her up for Halloween. She has always been such a good sport about it. A few weeks ago I was on a quest for a turkey costume for her, and a peacock costume for Emmy. Then I got sidetracked with the lump, the biopsy and I stopped looking. I decided to just have them wear their costumes from last year (Nova was a princess, Emmy was an angel).

On Halloween night I decided to leave Nova home and dress up Emmy in the princess costume and head out. It didn't go very well, since Emmy does not like to walk as much as Nova. She especially doesn't like to go for walks without Nova. So I came back home and just sat and watched TV, drinking a glass of wine, and being sad.

Another thing I am grieving is that Nova might not be here next year for cross country season. She was kind of the unofficial team mascot and is a well-loved fixture at all the local summer trail runs at the park, and at my son Alex's cross country meets in the fall. I thought of my friend Tammy from cross country, and how sad she would be about Nova. Tammy has a mastiff named Annie, and she and Nova often pal up at meets. Both being big dogs, they always get tons of attention.

Biopsy Day

2008-11-12T06:40:00.000-08:00

(Written October 29, 2008)

Today was biopsy day, I took Nova in at 7:30 am to leave her for the biopsy, and picked her up in the late afternoon. When I came to get her she came out with her tail wagging at full speed, full of love and kisses. She has a cute little pink bandage covering the biopsy part, along with a bottle of Rimadyl for her bone pain. Of course they don't know anything yet, the results will take up to 7 business days. But the procedure went very well, excellent bloodwork, and she was VERY happy to get home this afternoon. Not groggy or anything. I gave her a nice bowl of her favorite soft dog food, called “Cowboy Cookout”. They have given me a couple names of some cancer specialists, but have advised that I wait for the biopsy results before seeing the specialist. I really don't want to wait, but I don't want to be negative and assume it is cancer.

I've read a bunch online and have come to the conclusion that it is probably 99% sure it is osteosarcoma. It is just way too common in giant breeds, and the location of the tumor is a very common location.

Waiting Over the Weekend

2008-11-12T06:30:00.000-08:00

(Written the Weekend of October 25-26th)

I told my favorite dog-loving friends about Nova. It is so nice to have understanding people to vent with when I am dealing with a dog-crisis. A lot of people just don't get it, and make you feel like you are going way overboard on your dog. My dog-loving aunt asked about Emmy (my other dane) and wondering why I always had updates on Nova, not Emmy. Awwww... Emmy has really ended up at the short end of the stick these days. People don't hear anything about Emmy because she is healthy and quiet! Poor girl, she always looks so lonely when I head out with Nova for another visit to the vet. I think she thinks Nova gets all these special car rides and she doesn't. If she only could understand. It's hard to, because Nova always thunders out to the van with her tongue flapping and tail wagging, like we are going to the dog park. Emmy is very different than Nova, snuggly but in a much more gentle way. Nova just butts her head in and gets in your face, or gives you the "butt". One of her nicknames is Butt HEAD, because she butts her big honkin' head into everyones business. She also "talks" a lot and her tail wags constantly. Emmy is more patient and quiet and gentle. The only health issue she has is she is fat, very barrel-shaped.

I probably won’t know anything more until late Wednesday. I am nervous about the biopsy. Nova never does very well with anesthesia, and I am also concerned that getting in there to take a sample could further weaken the bone. The last thing I want to happen is for her leg to suddenly break, which from what I have read is something that has happened. She is happy as ever, her tail even wags in her sleep. It is sad to look at her and know that while she may be with us for awhile longer it probably won’t be as long as I was hoping. Let’s just hope it’s a slow-growing tumor, or just an inflammation. I know it’s not realistic, but I can always hope! Both girls have been getting lots of extra hugs this weekend, that’s for sure.

Oh No... A Lump!

2008-11-12T06:22:00.000-08:00

Back on October 24, 2008, it was late afternoon and I was looking down at Nova’s front paws and noticed a big swelling in one on the joints on her left front leg. Oh no! I did not have a good feeling about it, as it looked similar to the swelling we saw in our Dalmatian several years back, which back then turned out to be bone cancer (ostersarcoma). Of course I called the vet at 4:30 and begged to get a quick appointment, I didn’t want to wait until Monday. These things always seem to happen on Fridays, or on the weekend, ever notice that?

They got me right in and did an x-ray. Unfortunately it did not look good at all. It showed a big dark tumor in the bone. Of course there is no way to tell just by looking at it that it was cancerous. The vet said that the biggest threat is that the growth of the tumor can weaken the bone, and it can spontaneously break and cause a tremendous amount of pain. :( The recommendation was to arrange for a bone biopsy ASAP, which they couldn’t do until the following Wednesday. They also suggested a chest x-ray, to determine if any spots appeared in the lungs or chest, which would be an indication it was cancerous, and had spread. I agreed to the chest x-ray which they did right there. Luckily, they had several vets available to look at it and all said the chest appeared clear. But the same doctors looked at the x-ray of her leg and all felt that it was most likely osteosarcoma. But of course we won’t know for sure without the biopsy.

Right now I’ve been told to keep her calm (she’s usually pretty calm anyway) and not let her run around or jump. They gave her some medication for the pain. From what I am reading online, it doesn’t necessarily mean the end is around the corner, but amputation is probably inevitable. Awwwww. That’s what we had to do with our Dalmatian. He was in pain from the tumor (it doesn’t seem like it causes Nova much pain right now) and once we amputated he was a new man. He lived another 6 months after that, and all but a week or two were really good, happy weeks. In the end it had spread to his abdomen and pressed on his lungs, so we knew it was time to let him go.

Oh, I love my Nova so much! She is my best friend. I don’t want to see her in pain and thankfully right now she is not. It’s hard to face that she might not be around as long as I had hoped, but I want to make her life as good as possible. She is such a happy dog! Even right now her tail is wagging non-stop.