Despite losing Havanna six months after her amputation I wanted to convey to anyone reading this that I would do it all over again. I am not sure if the chemo did anything for us. The radiation probably helped and i’m sure the Codine, Rimadyl and Tramadol helped. But what gave Jack her life back for what she had of it was that amputation. Two weeks to heal and the pain from her primary site was gone and she was playing like a puppy again and did so for about four more months. Unfortunately it later spread to the hip and rib and ultimately it was a mass that was on a soft tissue area that took her. But during her good months following the amputation she had a blast. We took the best walks, she chased the squirrels and birds and she played again with her toys and my two other huskies. Here’s a video shot two days after getting her sutures out. So like day 16 after the amputation. See for your self if it was the right decision.
Our six month journey with Osteosarcoma ended yesterday. Havannah had been having trouble eliminating for the past two weeks since her last chemo treatment. We had thought it was just a side effect of the adria but then in the past four days it got much worse. To the point where I couldn’t tell if she had diahareah or was constipated or what. She would just try and try and try and only a small amount of waste would be produced. At first it was runny so we gave her a new diahreah drug which helped but the amount was so small and she literally would need to go out hourly and she would just try and try and make an o face that was pained. She also was drinking a ton of water and urinating often and alot. We took her to the U of M suspecting the chemo had harmed her kidneys. The Oncologist palpated her and felt a large mass around her rectum. Basically it was closing it off so she could not get any waste out. This explained the all the time attempt at going and pain. They said that while they could do more chemo and radiation it would take weeks to know if it helped and she’d be suffering in the mean time. We took her home and spent the entire day walking and letting her lay out in the sun with her two friends. She got to bark at the neighbor dogs and chase the squirrel that uses our fence as a highway. Finally we brought the pack back to the U and at 5:30pm she passed peacefully in the room they use for euthanasia. She had relaxed on the floor and was napping when the Dr gave her the injection so it was quite peaceful. She endured six months of chemo and radiation and drugs but continued to give us lots of love none the less. Sadly the cancer was spreading faster than we could treat for it. I love you Jack. Thanks for living with us.
Jack is still with us but we almost put her down last week. We’ve racked up $18k in medical bills. It’s hard to know if she needs to go or if she has time. That day was the worst, she was clearly in pain that you would not want to leave your dog in. The drugs were not strong enough. However after receiving her acupuncture she calmed down and returned to her normal self. The Rimadyl and Trumadal resumed being effective and we also started Codine for times like that where her pain spikes. She’s still so much a puppy when not feeling the pain. She has two more Chemo treatments that we are hoping will stop the tumor in her hip that causes the pain. I feel either we’ll have a breakthrough or it won’t be long now, I just wish I had a clear sign. We also started giving her herbs for the pain and inflamation from our eastern medicine doctor. We’re hoping those help augment the drugs. The good news is that when the drugs are managing the pain she’s not doped up or anything just is not in distress and is her normal self. The chemo also makes it hard to determine what is pain and what is a side effect of chemo and radiation.
Ahh of course as things get better we’re back at the U for more Chemotherapy. However the red devil Adriamycin isn’t so far as bad as the Carboplatin was and which by the way didn’t do anything for us. (not that it’s the same for everyone.) Jack got Moxa and acupuncture from the eastern medicine vet and then had her Adriamycin. She then was put out with the Michael Jackson drug and had her radiation which is her second treatment. We hope to see some pain relief from that so we can give her less drugs. Taking her off the Tramadol and onto the Rimadyl has been a great move. As long as her belly is full the Rimadyl is no problem. It gives her pain relief with no dopyness. Back to yesterday’s treatment. She came home and slept the entire rest of then evening and night. NO RAISED TEMP Thank god! I was pleased to wake up to a personality and wide brown eyes. She didn’t have any pain medicine all day until a Rimadyl around dinner. Still not eating on her own but takes the pureed food easily. So far on the Adriamycin / Doxorubicin she’s less sick, no naseua but we’re giving her drugs anyway and still has some minor diarrhea but not so bad and we give her a drug for that too. I never thought i’d say this but we were relieved to get a $2200.00 bill at the end of the day yesterday. We also had two other dogs there one 14 full of tumors but with no discomfort and the other with tears in the acl and groin injury getting therapy and acupuncture.
I couldn’t put it any better so i’m just going to past in an email my wife sent to my parents today.
Havanna is doing pretty well given whats going on with her. She was all lovey this morning and just wanted to cuddle in bed so I didn’t get out of bed until about 9:15 am! We stopped the morphine type drug and put her back on the NSAID so she’s not so doped up all of the time. Her personality really comes back when she’s not sedated but she is still up most nights in pain. Not sure why bone cancer is so much more painful at night, in humans and dogs, but I’m guessing its something with barometric pressure or some kind of atmospheric change. I am doing a lot of massage on her at night and have rotated the ice packs and now heating pads. Not sure what works better as she’s kind of tight lipped about it but something seems to help her here and there. She just started eating on her own again yesterday but its not a full blown chow down like it used to be. She will eat a little bit of kibble and then turn her nose up so we are still feeding her pureed food through a syringe.
Some how we seriously pissed off the animal gods. Sonoma has been a little sick the last two days and today we came home to a poo covered dog in a kennel. She was PISSED and stinky! UGH.
Wednesday will be a tough day for us. I have booked all three dogs for some kind of appointment at the U of M. We have to be there by 8 am to check Havanna into Oncology.
Havanna is having acupuncture, blood work, if the blood work is ok she will get her first dose of Adriamyiacin (chemotherapy) and after that she goes for Radiation.
Sonoma is having acupuncture and if she’s still sick, maybe a check up with a general vet.
Taylor is meeting with Oncology for a check up and then will have a follow up ultrasound to see if any of her tumors have grown. (Cross your fingers that they have not but given our luck lately, I doubt we’ll be so fortunate!).
Anyway, we’ll probably be at the U from about 7:45 am to at least 5 pm or later tomorrow. It will depend on how well Havanna does with chemo and radiation and how fast she comes out of the anesthesia.
If her blood work is bad they wont be able to do chemo but if its not that low they can still do radiation. I just hope everything goes smoothly!!!!
I can’t explain it but Jack didn’t need any Tramadol since 7:00pm last night. When she gets to the end of her 8 hours she tends to have more personality and is less subdued but is also uncomfortable so we end up giving her another 50mg of Tramadol. Well last night she didn’t seem to get uncomfortable. My wife applied a heating pad and also cold packs so perhaps those helped? We decided not to dose her unless she was uncomfortable and i’ll be damned we slept until 5:00am when she wanted to go out and then just came back in and went to bed. Then today (still no drugs) she didn’t seem uncomfortable and even chewed on a bone toy and took her rubber ball outside. Maybe we’ll get really lucky and she’ll eat on her own from her dog bowl. We’re still feeding her from the 1oz syringe of pureed dog food. I’m afraid she seems to like it so i’m not sure if she’s not eating because she’s spoiled or if she still doesn’t have an appetite.
Monday was Jack’s first radiation treatment. She was sedated and given radiation on the leg and hip where her bone cancer is. She was pretty out of it for the entire evening. She’s still not eating anything solid on her own. Sometimes will take a biscuit but most times not. We’ve been pureeing her dogfood and water using a food processor and then use a 1oz syringe we inject it into her mouth. She will thankfully eat the food that way. I’m beginning to wonder if the cancer hasn’t gone to her jaw as well and maybe the hard food is painful. She’s also started to cough alot in the past 24 hours. Her platelets have also crashed from 300,000 to 60,000. Next week she is supposed to get Chemo but if the platelets are still low she won’t be able to get chemo. We’re told the radiation doesn’t really help the pain until the 2nd or 3rd treatment but it did seem she was a bit more comfortable until late yesterday. The Tramadol helps but causes her to pretty much zone out. After about 6.5 hours it wears off and she is more like her old happy self but will whimper from the pain when she gets up or rolls over. You can alway tell when the pain is returning because she curls in a very tight ball. She’s a very tall skinny dog so it’s quite unnatural for her to do that. Usually she’s sprawled out stretched out pushing us off the bed/couch. After about 45 minutes after taking Tramadol she uncurls and relaxes but is pretty much zoning out or sleeping.
We called the U of M this morning because Jack was a bit uncomfortable and we didn’t want to give her any Rimadyl because it seems to give her diahrreah and we thought it might be why she wasn’t eating. We had laid off the Tramadol as it seemed to cause her to breath faster and it worried my wife. The U of M felt she may not have been eating due to being in pain so we started the Tramadol again. They said the rapid breathing is fairly normal and just to watch that she doesn’t actually have trouble breathing which we’ve not seen. We also had a small victory. She ate a small bit of pumpkin from a can but the U said it acts as a stool softner so we only gave her a little bit. She would also eat a small amount of cold pasta if it was rolled into a ball. My wife then took her dogfood, a bit of hard boiled egg and water and puree’d it in our food processor. She put the paste into a large synringe that we used to give water when the dogs are sick and sent me outside. I expected a very unpleasant experience for both of us. Much to my surprise, I squirted a small amount on her tounge and she just swallowed and licked it up. She oddly would lick the mess from my fingers and the snow but would not eat the paste from a spoon. So we gave her three synringe full of dog food without any fight and she didn’t even seem irritated. It’s nice to know we now have a way to keep her fed even if food is not currently appealing.
I can’t explain it but Jack had a MUCH better day yesterday and today as far as the pain is concerned. I’m so happy. She had a Tramadol in the morning yesterday and that was it all day and evening except for a 1/2 Rimadyl at about midnight. She didn’t seem uncomfortable dinnertime and beyond so we just let it go. Today she was also not uncomfortable so that’s just awesome. Now if I could only get her to eat. I’m not sure if it’s the Chemo, or the pain drugs or what but she is very tough to get to eat dog food and even fresh human food. Of course she’ll take a dog cookie but I can’t fill the bowl with dog treats. Since she didn’t get pain drugs this morning and did finally eat last night i’m less concerned but hoping we can get her to eat good for dinner in case she becomes uncomfortable this evening. Monday we go to the U for an Osteoperosis drug and radiation.
