RIP 11/15/05 - 10/17/10

Goodbye my friend. You will be missed.

Keep moving along

It has been awhile since the last update, it's just hard to write about the steady decline of my friend. Since we haven't had any additional doctor appointments and divine intervention hasn't happened yet(still hoping)I don't have any good news, so here it is. Saturday Zoey had a dark tarry stool which is an indication of blood in the digestive system, luckily it hasn't been as bad the last few days so that seems to be healing. The growth on her shoulder is huge, I would say it's about the size of a grapefruit and that's just the part you can see on the surface. I do know that it goes much further down into her neck and chest area. Yesterday it started to puss up a little bit and today it is very obvious that the skin is pulled tight and starting to split. She has a round spot about the size of a silver dollar that is bleeding and oozing up, and since the growth is getting bigger its just a matter of time before the skin splits. The skin just cant handle the high growth rate of the tumor and has stretched to its max. She starting to have a bit of trouble breathing, it seems to be erratic while she is laying on her side. She has stopped eating most of her food and will only eat one can of wet food at night. Even with that one can it takes her a couple hours to finish, she does however still love the chicken jerky so that's keeping her alive. Last night she chased the bright orange toy around for about 15 minutes then she started to get very tired. I have also upped the amount of pain killers to two tablets every eight hours from one and half every 12 hours. So now she is super drugged up and feeling a little loopy.

My plan this weekend is to go to the beach for one last time, as I think the end is very close.

Short and to the point without much visual flavor text I know, it's just been a rough few days.

HOME!!!

Ahhh home from vacation, finally. The wonderful person I have watching Zoey while I was away (thanks Lia) said she was full of energy and didn't seem to be in much pain. She must have had fun because we both took naps when we got home Thursday afternoon. This morning I took her for a walk and she chased the ball around the field for a little while. This afternoon I took her to the river and she must have been in pain because she didn't want to go swimming (first time ever.) I have noticed that when she try's to jump up on the chair at home she hesitates as if the leg is hurting a bit, I'll have to keep an eye on that. Right now she is just on pain medication so hopefully it's helping with any pain she might have.

Another Dr. Appointment

Well we had another doctor appointment today and the news is not all that great. It has been a week since we started this new chemo therapy drug and it doesn't seem to be working at all. The growth on her lymph node was 6cm last week and this week it is 11cm. Not good. Since the new drug and the old drug don't seem to be doing much we have decided to stop the chemo drugs all together. At this stage of the game we are talking pain killers and best comfort of life. The risk of the chemo drugs is just to great since they aren't effective. Instead of talking about a life expectancy of months we are now talking weeks, the Dr. thinks 3-4 weeks before the discomfort of the growth just becomes to much for Zoey and she wont be able to do any of the fun stuff anymore.

Just in the last week I have noticed that she doesn't like to jump as much as she used to. On Sunday we went to the river and I had to stop throwing the toy in the water after about 5 tosses, she was just sucking in way to much water. Luckily the field was open so I could throw the ball around. She was still huff'n and puff'n but at least she wouldn't drown.

Dr. Apt.

Well we had Zoey's doctors appointment Tuesday, the growth on her neck is 5 times larger than a month ago and the Cytoxin doesn't seem to be working, the good news is that her blood test came back normal so shes not having an adverse reaction to the drugs. However, with the growths on her left shoulder and the large lump on her neck we decided to try a new type of therapy drug. This one is called Palladia, it's currently under study at the University of Washington for a different type of cancer but at this point its a Hail Mary to see if we can get this cancer to slow down. Since its much more potent then the Cytoxin she has another appointment in a week, then another in two weeks to see if she has any negative effects. Apparently the effects can be very nasty and the whole goal of this therapy is to extend the quality of her life and if that is affected in any way then we will stop the treatment.

Yummm lunch

Zoey came to work with me today and she has been waiting so patiently to go do something other then watch me type away on a computer. She was very stealthy during lunch and we only had one food takeover attempt. She failed and as a result got a very spicy cucumber slice. Now we can go home and play.

Gaarde Ranch

Thanks to the Gaarde Ranch for a fun time this last weekend. Zoey had oodles of fun playing with the other dogs, swimming in the pool and playing with all those humans. She got a little over excited and made herself sick, although it might have been the food that the two legged Zoey kept feeding the four legged Zoey. She rested the whole day Sunday, she didn't even want to go for a walk. Poor thing.

Monday rolled around and she was ready to play all over again, I took her for a walk by the river and she slipped out of her collar to take a little swim. I guess she was feeling much better. Today is nice and warm so I will give everybody two guesses as to where we might be headed after work.

Next Dr. appointment is Sept. 7th, but I'm sure I will have another update before then.