Swimming...AND...6th Round of Chemo & Recheck Chest X-rays (written two days late)

On Memorial Day Evan and I took the girls to my parent's house in St. Joseph.  We took them swimming for the first time this season before our big dinner feast.  Sugar loves to jump in the pool & float -- not so much a fan of the actual swimming though.  Millie...well...Millie isn't a huge fan of swimming, but she likes to be included.  

Check out this shake -- only front feet on the ground! (Sugar has a case of the zoomies in the background)

Something about this one makes me think Millie looks like a seal.  

Tongue out.

Fun in the sun.

Jumping in.

Oh. My. Goodness.  That bottom lip gets me every single time.

Beautiful Shugs.

Somebody is getting quite the furry booty...

Millie had her 6th round of chemo and recheck chest x-rays on Tuesday the 29th.  To backtrack a little, I had restarted her on metronomic chemo a few days prior...and so far...things were looking good (minus another round of vaginitis).  U of I was swamped.  As we were waiting, we made friends with two very nice older (mid to late 70s) ladies.  I had seen them in there before, but we had never spoken.  They complemented Millie on her adorable bandanna (Nana made Millie -- and Sugar too! -- a very cute, pink bandanna.  We can cross that one off her bucket list!!).  They started asking questions about why we were there, her amputated leg, etc.  When I told them Millie was there for chemo, one of the older ladies replied, "My dog too.  He's a 5 year old Boxer."  I felt so bad for her.  Her poor boy was only five.  On another note, I hope to be as bad ass as that lady.  I want to be in my late seventies with a big dog.  Not only that, but she was driving 2.5 hours every Tuesday to come to U of I for treatment.  The other lady was a friend of hers who came along to keep the owner company.  Tuesday marked their eighth Tuesday in a row.  Wowzers.  She said he was handling treatment well, but had recently become a picky eater, though she thought that was because she was hiding medications in his food and treats.  When they asked how Millie was doing with treatment, and if the disease was treatable, I answered them honestly.  The owner of the Boxer said that she hoped for the best for us while her friend got teary eyed and just kept saying that it wasn't fair.  I have to say I agree.

Most of their "regulars" were taking their board exam, so Oncology only had one veterinarian, a resident, working.  Our chemo tech checked us in & I let her know that the one of the staff oncologists had asked for repeat chest x-rays in addition to chemo.  They gave us our pick up time as 2 or 2:30 since they were short staffed with a jam packed schedule.

I arrived at 2:15 and took a seat in a very crowded waiting room.  Shortly after, a woman arrived with a cardboard box.  After five minutes, she apparently grew tired of waiting and literally dumped the box at the front desk and said she had to leave.  The box contained an injured turtle.  One of the confused receptionists (who was on the phone with a client when this happened) had the best page of the day..."Umm, any available vet student please call ####.  We have....a...turtle...in a box?"

At 3:30 I was finally called back to the room.  They had good news (well, as good as I could have hoped for) with regards to the chest x-ray.  The cancer was "stable."  There were no new mets in the lungs and the two they saw three weeks ago had not changed.  When I mentioned a possible sighting of a third met from last time they said they couldn't see one today.  So, YAY no visible spread!  Our resident said that news may mean that Millie has a slightly longer life expectancy -- more like 3-4 months rather than 2-3.  We'll take it!  She also suggested to alternating the metronomic drugs & stopping Lasix.  She said that alternating the drugs does not have change efficacy, but it should help with reducing the chances of side effects.  She suggested stopping Lasix to prevent any long-term kidney damage.  If we are at a place where we are considering long-term effects, I'll take that.  Oh, and she gave the go-ahead to restart Baytril to combat the vaginitis.  I swear...this dog and her troublesome vagina.  In our house, Baytril is more like an expensive Flintstones vitamin as opposed to an antibiotic.

So far, so good.  She seems to be handling this round of IV chemo & metronomic quite well (knock on wood).

What a good girl to let the kitty have some bed time.  

Everybody loves to have a turn on the newest dog bed.

Shitty Day - Pun Intended

What a shitty day.  Seriously.

I left Millie at home today (rather than taking her to work) & half contemplated going to pick up some marrow bones for the girls this evening.  As I got in my car at the end of the day I decided to skip out.  I have been fighting a cold for a few days, was up late last night, and my allergies were killing me.  I needed a nap.  The bones could wait.

I walked in the door and...smelled it.  Without hesitating I assumed it was Sugar.  She has the world's most sensitive stomach.  If she gets anything out her normal food groups, she gets sick.  As luck would have it, and because Sugar is an amazing dog - when she does get sick, she will vomit/poop on the linoleum right next to the door.  I walked over to the usual...um...lucky spot? and nothing.  A handful of times she's actually gotten sick in the bathtub, so I go check there.  Nothing.  My room?  Nothing.  Living room?  Nothing.  The only room left was Millie's room.  Holy mother of diarrhea.  This was not the worst I have ever seen her (my friend Kara got to see that in action when she was petsitting for me a few years ago), but this was easily a close second. She wasn't exactly a chocolate Lab, but she was close.  Her bed was destroyed.  Thankfully (although what I'm about to say usually isn't prefaced with thankfully) the diarrhea was mostly blasted on the wall, and not on the carpet.  Thanks to the paint, the wall is much easier to clean than the carpet.  I knew she needed to go out immediately, and then get a bath....but how was I going to spare the carpet on the way?  

I was mostly done with her second shampoo when Evan called to see how my afternoon went.  He was on his way home from work and offered to come over to help.  I mean, seriously, this guy is amazing.  He walked 5 miles to come help clean diarrhea.  This guy is good stuff.

Millie had another few potty breaks outside & not much was improving.  She was super drooly, so I could tell she was nauseous too.  To top it off we had another "string cheese" incident of sorts.  I gave her a dose of metronidazole.  Again, this stuff is basically magic!

We cleaned the crate, walls & bathroom, and we also did laundry.  I carried the poo filled bed to the dumpster...oh those poor garbage men...  Four hours later and the house was mostly back together.  I went out to buy chicken and rice and also grab a new bed for Mil while Evan had diarrhea watch.  On the way I called U of I and spoke to one of the staff oncologists.  I had never met her personally, but she absolutely knew Millie.  She said she was concerned that the metronomic chemo was too much for her (on top of the IV chemo), and that was what made her sick.  However, she couldn't be sure.  She suggested I not give the metronomic chemo for a few days and then give it another try.  In the meantime, feed a bland diet, continue with metronidazole, and try Cerenia (Wismer, thank goodness you gave me some today) to help settle her stomach.  As we are on the phone Millie vomited all over her new bed.  At that point I want to say the bed had been on the floor for all of four minutes.  Mother!

For now, it is a wait & see.  Her temp is normal, she hasn't vomited in several hours, and has also not had any emergency trips outside.  She clearly feels pretty crappy, but I can't blame her.  She was trapped with nowhere to poop but on herself for three hours.  

Her chicken and rice is cooked and cooling - ready for her breakfast tomorrow.  Only time will tell if the metronomic caused this.  I certainly want to give her every treatment I can, but I will not do that if this is the result.  

...and with that said, a certain adorable Mastiff is ready for some cuddles.  

Metronomic Chemo

Millie and I made our way back over to U of I this morning.  Much to our delight, we were only in there for bloodwork.  While we were waiting a gentleman in his late 60's or early 70's was talking to the receptionists about payment.  He mentioned that he was also there to pick up a carrier.  After the payment portion was figured out, a staff member brought up a small carrier (something I would put my cats in, but it may have been for a small dog) with a fluffy pink blanket in it.  He carefully took it and immediately began sobbing.  Heart-wrenching.  While U of I can be really, really depressing at times, I try to remind myself that we as pet owners are only here because we want to do something more for our pets.  That, my friends, is something worth thinking about and something to feel good about.

Later in the afternoon they called to share the good news.  Millie's bloodwork was normal.  She could start metronomic chemo today!  Good timing because her drugs just arrived in yesterday's mail.

While preparing her dinner I thought I'd quickly read through the instructions and give her the meds.  Nope.  One should be given with food, and the other two on an empty stomach.  One of the three I need to wear gloves when I give it to her.  I gotta tell you, giving your dog something that is toxic enough to require you to wear gloves is an odd feeling.  I know her IV chemo is quite toxic, but I'm never there when they prepare or administer it.  I suspect this part of the instructions is just to be cautious, but still...weird feeling.  Give your dog something toxic to kill something else toxic in her body.

I don't know if she'll have any side effects from metronomic chemo, but she seems to have done well with the new IV chemo drug.  We are one week in.  She had one day of diarrhea, but nothing a little metronidazole couldn't fix.  God, is there anything better than that miracle?!  If I could marry metronidazole I just might.

Millie continues to get just about anything she wants.  She's had breakfast with me each day this week & is taking quite the shining to Einstein bagels.  :)

Twin City Twosome Cheerleader

Yesterday I took Millie to the Twin City Twosome (5K relay race) to watch her Uncle Jeff & Nampa run.  As expected, she had a wonderful time.  It was a beautiful day out - perfect for her to relax in the shade, get some quality family time in, and snuggle with a few strangers.  

Since it was a relay, we got to hang out with Jeff while my dad ran, and vise versa.  

What a pretty girl.  My two favorite things about this one -- the slinger that is 

forming & the bit of grass caught in her lip.  

Nana and Millie

Tail is going 100mph after she sees Nampa approaching.

We even made an attempt on the "Chase a Goose" entry in her bucket list.  These geese were pretty lame (by Millie's standards, but smart by goose standards) & jumped in the lake right away.  I feel like this was a pretty good start, but we could do better.  

After the race we headed to Einstein for some outdoor bagel eating.  Somebody realllllly likes her bagel.  Look at that foamy, spitty mouth!  

5th Round of Chemo & X-rays...Bad News

Millie went in on May 8th for her fifth round of chemo.  I've been putting off this post, but know it is something I have to write...so here goes.

At drop off the staff debated whether or not they wanted to do chest x-rays.  She had been perfectly clear about six weeks ago, and they usually wait longer in between radiographs.  On the other hand, I wanted to start metronomic chemo (oral chemo) as soon as possible, so x-rays would give a baseline of where we were before starting that.  They still weren't sure what they wanted to do when I left, so they said they'd talk to the staff oncologist & give me a call shortly.  About 40 minutes later, they called -- Yes, they do want x-rays.  I was fine with that, and she said she really doubted they'd see anything, but it was just a formality.  

11:30ish rolls around & I get another call from U of I.  This time I knew something was wrong.  The staff oncologist was calling me, not the chemo tech.  They had found two, 7-9mm mets in her lungs, and maybe a smaller third nodule.  The cancer had spread.  

The. Cancer. Has. Spread.

The. Cancer. Has. Spread.

It's been two days now, and I still don't want to believe it.  Sure, this happens to other dogs....dogs I know even, but not MY dog.  MY dog was going to be that lucky 2-3%.  What the f___!?  Ugh.  

Here's her radiograph from the 8th.  All that fuzzy stuff that you assume is cancer...is not.  The nodules are tiny specks that she could only find herself after zooming in 3x on the screen.  

I was told I had a few options.  1.  Do nothing.  2.  Do a different IV chemo drug.  3.  Do metronomic chemo.  4.  Do both the new IV chemo & metronomic at the same time.  5.  Give a different type of oral chemo that is relatively new to veterinary medicine (has one paper written about it, but not a lot of research with bone cancer).  

I asked what she thought the best choice was at slowing the progression of the cancer while still giving Millie an excellent quality of life.  She said new IV chemo drug + metronomic.  The side effects of the new IV chemo drug are basically the same as the first drug she was on, but can be a bit worse in some dogs.  It can also be cardiotoxic, but since Mil doesn't have any heart issues the risk of that are very minimal.  Metronomic chemo can be a bit tough on her bladder (and we all know how sensitive her bladder is), so they would give her Lasix to help (makes her drink more water & pee more....so hopefully minimizing the irritation to her bladder).  The plan would be to start the new IV chemo (which she was given that day), go in the following week to make sure her white cells are okay, and then start metronomic chemo.  Ultimately, they hope to complete 5 rounds of IV chemo - one every three weeks.  I say hope because they gave me a life expectancy of 2-6 months.  They expect 3-4, and say 6 would be extremely lucky.  We are hoping for extremely lucky +!

U of I was incredibly slow, and I had to wait over an hour past the pick up time to see my girl.  Talk about frustrating.  She was so excited to see me & Nana (who came home early from her roadtrip & drove two hours to come home after I called her sobbing).  The doctors assured me that outwardly Millie looked excellent.  She was clearly happy & in no way suffering.  They assured me that mets in the lungs are not painful.  If they continue to grow (which we are hoping against all odds that they won't), it'll feel more like a chest cold.  They said that towards the end of their lives dogs with OSA are usually euthanized because of some sort of quality of life issue or the cancer spreads to another bone.

I will continue to fight for my girl as long as she wants to keep fighting.  I have promised her that I will not push her, and that I will continue to take my cues from her.  Until that time, this dog is getting whatever she wants and then some.  We will absolutely make the best out of the time we have left together.  

Example #1 -- Bark at whatever the hell she wants.  Here she and Shugs are letting a neighborhood outdoor cat know that we already have enough cats in our apartment.

Example #2 -- Take her in places that maybe she isn't "allowed", but who the hell really cares?

I had to go to the radio station that sponsored "Mutt Strut" to pick up the remainder of her prize.  Yup, totally took her in the building with me.  I mean really...what's the worst they could say, right?  ;)

Example #3 -- If she wants to go to work with me, she WILL go to work with me.  

Example #5 -- Manners?  Eh...we can blur the lines a little.  Here she is checking out her prizes from the Cutest Mutt contest.  Go for it sister!

This picture is really terrible quality and I'm not sure why.  Anyway, she fell asleep at work, but was still holding on to her bone.  Ah-freaking-dorable!

So far she seems to be feeling great.  She may be a touch tired, but I may just be looking for signs.  She's got a great appetite & doesn't have an upset stomach at all.  Also *knocking on wood* no signs of a UTI yet.  I'm hoping her body continues to handle the chemo as well as it has in the past.

So, in the spirit of living every single day to the fullest, I've decided to make a bucket list for Millie.  Some of these I'll need a little help with.  I'm also open to adding more to the list.  So, if you have any ideas...whether that be things I do with Millie alone, or things you want to help me with....I'm all ears!

1.  Go to a beach
2.  Have a party in my honor
3.  Wear a pretty bandana that was made by my Nana
4.  Skype with my buddies Vegas & Freya
5.  Get muddy
6.  Eat an ice cream cone
7.  Eat something Mom would never allow me to have (like Reese's cups!)
8.  Paint something for my mom
9.  Go through my favorite drive thru - Hickory River!
10.  Go through my second favorite drive thru - Starbucks!
11.  Ride in a convertible - with the top down, of course!  (This one I'll need help with!)
12.  Meet/See/Bark at an animal bigger than I am
13.  Chase (but not eat) some geese
14.  Take some beautiful pictures with my mom & doggie sister
15.  Eat all of Sugar's food.  I want to do this everyday, but my mom always says no.

Cutest Mutt!

Ladies and gentleman....I'd like to announce the "Cutest Mutt" 2012....Millie Lindquist!  As most of you probably already know (thanks to Facebook), I entered Millie into a local contest for "Cutest Mutt."  The Champaign County Humane Society holds an event every year called Mutt Strut.  The event is held at a local park and they have a ton of really fun things for people and dogs to do -- a big group walk around the park, lure course racing, paw painting, and a couple of cute contests (cutest butt wiggle, best kisser, pet and owner look-a-like, and finally cutest mutt).  A few weeks ago I submitted her photo into the contest and asked friends and family to vote for her.  The top five vote getters would have their pictures displayed at the Mutt Strut.  Each picture would have a donation jar, and whoever earned the most money wins.  All donations went directly to Champaign County Humane Society (where I adopted Hallie from).  So, I felt fine with soliciting loved ones for votes.  

We had some stiff competition with one other dog, a really cute Corgi named Channing.  Channing was there, so it's hard not to vote for the cutie that you see walking around.  I decided to leave Mil at home for a couple of reasons -- 1.  I suspected most dogs would be very excited & most owners distracted, so the chances of a non-friendly dog encounter were high.  2.  She's still immunodeficient from chemo, and there is no way to tell the health histories of these dogs. 

At the end of the event they announced all the winners.  The woman doing the counting told me she won by a landslide!  Yahoo!  Thank you to all who voted for her.  All told, she beat 129 other dogs.  What a great boost - financially (we won a gift card for $250 to the store I buy her food from - Prarieland Feeds) & emotionally.  *Yes, I realize this kind of makes me a stage mom*

Nana and Nampa stopped by to contribute (also voting with $ that my G-ma sent in).  

Ahh, I love my supportive family.

Millie & her competition.

And the winner is....

Nana & Uncle Jeff Visit

My brother Jeff is in town for the evening.  He lives about two hours away with his wife who is deathly allergic to cats (and some dogs) -- so having them over is basically impossible.  Uncle Jeff, as my girls call him, had yet to see a three legged Millie in person.  In fact, I don't think he'd ever even met Hallie, who I adopted a year ago.  As you can see, I think the girls were quite happy to see their visitors....  :)

And I think we can see why....lots of loving and scratches going around.