Monday, October 13, 2014

Chemo #3 Update

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.