Monday, October 13, 2014
Henry had chemo #3 one week ago and he did very well. Usually, Wednesday nights and Thursdays are his worst days post chemo treatment. After his first treatment, he was, pardon the pun, as sick as a dog. After dosage adjustments, round 2 brought a much better post chemo week. Henry was lethargic on Thursday and had a little bit of a softer stool, but it was manageable. After round 3, Henry had his best Thursday yet! He was full of spunk on Thursday. This time, the chemo hit Henry on Friday. On Friday, Henry's appetite was pretty non-existent and his energy level was very low.
Knowing these are the usual side effects of chemo, we let him rest and wouldn't you know by Saturday morning he was back to his normal self, bouncing around, ready to go on his usual Saturday morning adventure.
Chemo is by no means easy, but it has gotten much better now that Henry's dose has been adjusted and we have a few rounds under our belts and we know what to expect. One of the hardest things with Henry's cancer diagnosis is that canine cancer is unchartered waters for us. As horrible as a trachea collapse is and all the complications that go along with that, we knew what to expect with Benjamin and Luna because we went through the same thing with Sol. We knew the little tricks, the side effects of the meds and sadly, we knew what the end would look like. I am in no way implying that a trachea collapse is easy or preferred, but we had experience, we knew what questions to ask. We knew the specialists.
With Henry's cancer diagnosis, we were consumed with the unknown and our worry easily got the best of us because we had no idea what to expect. We are by no means experienced in the realm of canine cancer but we seem to have a routine and treatment plan that is working well for Henry. Having a plan, and a plan that is working, not only gives us hope, but makes everything much more manageable.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Since Benjamin and Luna's passing, Henry does not like to be left alone. We understand. He was part of a pack his whole life and when the humans left the house he at least had Benny and Luna to keep him company. His demeanor lately has been, "Humans, you are all that I have left in my pack, so we are going to do everything together, OK?" And we have pretty much obliged whenever we can.
Whenever we pick up a carryout for dinner, Henry comes with. Running out for something quick at the store? Henry comes with and one of us waits in the car with him. Running out to put gas in the car? Come on Hank, you can go. Need dog food? Off the the pet store we go. And since Henry can go into the pet store, we have pretty much put him in charge of buying his own food. And every trip he tries to see if he can get a fish while we are there.
Even though we aren't really doing anything that is fun, Henry really seems to enjoy being out and about with us. We tell him he is the official errand runner and he seems to be pretty proud of his job. And he takes it very seriously!
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Yesterday, Henry went for his 3rd chemotherapy visit. While we are always nervous before each visit, we were especially nervous this visit because Henry would be having chest x-rays and a sonogram to make sure that the cancer had not metastasized somewhere else. If everything was clear, we would proceed with his 3rd dose of chemotherapy. If things were not clear, we would need to come up with a different treatment plan.
Luckily, no additional treatment plan was needed as Henry passed his sonogram and chest x-ray with flying colors. Both tests did not indicate any signs of metastasis!
Henry received his 3rd dose of chemotherapy and we are now officially halfway through his treatment process! Go Hank!
We will be closely monitoring him this week hoping he does not have any adverse side effects from the chemo. Fingers crossed that round 3 of treatment is as successful as round 2.
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Henry is a pretty spoiled pug. He's been doted on for most of his life, but in the last few months, I'd say his spoiledness has reached a whole new level. Here he is inspecting a care package given to us by friends of ours. He hit the jackpot with this one. It was full of his favorite treats and had some extra special cookies that he loved! In addition to the yummy snacks, the special gift even included a card with encouraging words to help Henry stay #HenryStrongAllDayLong.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Thank you to everyone for the well wishes for both Henry and myself last week. I apologize that things got way off schedule last week.
The day of my surgery Henry was a bit anxious. He didn't exactly know what was going on, but he knew the routine was off. And when the routine is off, that always makes him a tad nervous. Furthermore, he got breakfast and I did not, so that made him even more nervous. All the pugs know that if you don't eat breakfast, something big is going to happen that day and usually not something fun.
So, when we got home from the surgery center, Henry was excited and nervous at the same time to see me. I went straight from the car to bed and Henry almost beat me to bed. He briefly smelled my leg and then plopped himself right next to my leg. And he has been by my side ever since that moment.
Our normal evening routine is that Henry goes for a walk. The length of the walk varies. Sometimes we make it through the neighborhood, sometimes we only walk around the cul-de-sac at the end of our street. And sometimes we only hang out in the driveway. But, weather permitting you can count on us to get some outside time in. Once I was feeling a bit better, I was more mobile around the house, but I had still not been out and about. It was time for Henry to go out for his nighttime walk and in his excited pacing he kept running over to me on the sofa. I kept telling him to have a nice walk and he would run to the door, then he would run back to me. After a few minutes of me not taking the hint, he finally just started barking at me. He wanted met to go on his walk with him and he deemed me well enough to go. Not wanting to disappoint, I got up and hobbled through half of the cul-de-sac walk with him. He was ever so pleased to have me outside with him and kept stopping to check on me to make sure I was keeping up. I really didn't think I was up for that walk, but once I got back home it was the absolute best I had felt since my surgery.
After a few days of rest, I started working again from home. Sitting in a chair has been difficult, since my knee doesn't bend very well. So, I have mainly been working from bed. Henry was pretty happy to hang with me on the bed the first few days because he has just gotten his chemo. So, we were recovering together. But after a few days, Henry deemed it necessary for us to get out of bed and get back more into the normal swing of things. When I was cleaning up lunch, Henry was pacing between the kitchen and my office, clearly making his point that we needed to work the rest of the afternoon in there. Once again, I followed his lead and worked the rest of the afternoon from my office. It felt good to get back to a more normal routine. It also proved that once again, Henry knew what needed to be done and was going to make sure I pushed my own self during my recovery.
Of course I also had plenty of human care during my recovery. All that TLC has me feeling much better now!
Monday, September 22, 2014
Today marks one week since Henry had his second dose of chemotherapy. Granted his second dose was only 50% of what his normal does would be, but he handled this round of chemotherapy much better than the first.
He was a bit tired on Tuesday, but we sorta expected that. Going to Jacksonville to get the treatment is a big trip for everyone! His appetite for the first few days after treatment was pretty low. But, he did manage to have dinner every night. In the mornings, he wasn't interested in food at all.
Wednesday night we were most nervous because that was the bewitching time after his first chemo treatment. However, this time he was quite spunky. Nothing like what he was the first time around. He went for a small walk and even took a little swim that night. The rest of the week was uneventful (no diarrhea or throwing up) and Henry got stronger and more and more like his normal spunky self with each day that passed.
We are so relieved that round 2 of chemo looked nothing like round 1. Way to be Hank!
#HenryStrong #HenryStrongAllDayLong
Monday, September 8, 2014
This picture was taken a few days after Henry's first round of chemo when he wasn't feeling so great and might just prove that Cupid has some sympathy for good ole Hank.
Normally, Cupid will begrudgingly lay on the sofa with Henry, but Cupid's number one rule is no touching. But on this occasion, Cupid cut Henry a little slack and happily slept with him, even touching him, in hopes of helping him feel better.
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