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.
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