Its a very good day.

Today we had an appointment with Dr. Beaver, Ernie's oncologist.  We went over the bloodwork results from yesterday's appointment with his holistic vet Dr. King.  His WBC was up and appeared there was a bacterial infection.  he ended up getting another skin infection and is on antibiotics for that - so it could be that or his bone marrow doing wacky things.  But she has seen this with other dogs and also so things go back to normal. So no big worry right now.  Also, the kidney values were a bit off and that could be due to the higher amount of protein he is getting in his diet.  The PCV is remaining stable, so no worsening of the anemia.  AND the very good news - his liver values went way down.  Yay!! From the 900s down to the 200s.  He has been taking milk thistle and SamE and recently switched to something called Denamarin.  It is actually both the milk thistle and SamE in one pill.  Believe it or not, this is commonly used and recommended by vets.  I guess I was surprised to hear that herbal and other remedies are starting to become more commonplace in veterinary medicine.  This is a very good thing.  Especially if that is what assisted with his liver values getting closer to normal so quickly!  

Ernie relaxing while we wait for Dr. Beaver

Because Ernie had such a weird week or so following the vincristine treatment, we discussed how to proceed with his chemo.  As I have said before there is a very rare side effect with vincristine and it appears that Ernie was one of the rare dogs that experienced it.  So I don't want him to get that drug again, and Dr. Beaver agrees.  He unfortunately did not have a response to two of the other drugs in the protocol and now the vincristine is out.  So, we decided to just move forward with the power packed chemo drug - doxorubicin.  Also because he had a not so great week last week, I wanted to see about waiting another week for his chemo treatment.  He hasn't put a lot of weight on, and being that the doxorubicin is a power packed chemo drug means Ernie loses his appetite completely.  At least he did the last time.  And he has just started in the past couple of days to get back to his normal self which has been very nice to see.  Dr. Beaver examined him and felt the lymphoma for now is under control and that it would only be a very small risk to wait a week.  We both decided that it would be in Ernie's best interest to delay.  Phew and yahoo.  This whole thing is really about balancing disease treatment and quality of life.  

Tonight we went to Petsmart and he picked out a new toy - well he took it from the sales guy!  :-)  So of course he got it.  And then we found another one he liked.  AND they had stuffed dogs that were only 5.00 and went to support veterans.  So we got that too!  He scored.!!

Tonight I was able to give him his meds/supplements in meatballs.  He also ate some spaghetti with turmeric And he ate chicken and broccoli.  Chicken and broccoli!!  I am praying that the appetite continues through the week.  One day at a time :-)

A new elf to welcome in the holiday season

Toys toys and more toys.  Oh and Charlotte!