Well, today Yogi went in for his 6th session. It was great from the start as he didn't have that initial panic that has been apparent over the last 2 weeks. He just trotted off happily with the nurses. I think he probably thought it was a good chance for a food raid from all the other inhabitants. Once again there was no problem, he had the drugs with no reaction and came out like a bouncing bomb :o) And he has continued to bounce for the rest of the evening. Absolutely superb.
I sort of can't believe it. Other dogs seem to go through ups and downs with their treatment. Yogi hasn't really looked back at all. He hasn't had any down days and the only thing that appears to be different is his appetite. He has even stopped (virtually) weeing in the night. Now I don't want to think all this is too good to be true, but it does seem a little unusual ?
I have been reading some lymphoma sites for example Help Your Dog Fight Cancer and Chemo (Dogdoggiedog) and they both talk about diet e.g. eliminating carbs. I haven't gone down this route and am thinking that maybe I should. But then I think that he is doing so well, should I change this? Difficult. I have been adding flax oil for the omega 3 but other than that he gets the same diet he has always had, just more of it. It is a good quality one, he has Burns plus some Nature Diet, plus of course his regular snacks of chicken, cheese and veggie sausage :o)
They also talk about side effects, he doesn't seem to have any. By all accounts, the dogs I have read about do.
It seems strange, we worry about them when they're sick and worry about them when they're well. I guess we are just programmed to worry full stop.
He has 2 further chemo sessions before we begin to reduce. That means just having medication every other week for a couple of months. How scary will that be? I will probably turn into a compulsive gland checker. More so than I am already.
I remember Graham once saying that he used to check Prince's heartbeat. I haven't done that yet but I do check his gums pretty often (if he is bleeding internally, they will go pale). Soon I think that he will lift his lips for me as I approach :o)
The bouncing bomb is now barking for attention, better go and see what he wants however, I suspect it's food :o)
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On 2nd November 2007 our beautiful dog Yogi was diagnosed with Lymphoma. He fought it hard but sadly lost his fight on 26th February 2008. This blog is in memory of a wonderful dog who touched my life in a way that I could never imagine. Run free Little Bear your spirit lives on.
4 comments:
He is doing so well and it is just wonderful. Stop worrying and in my opinion forget changing anything about his diet. If it's not broken don't try to mend it! Enjoy these "Golden Days".
Yay!! I love reading that Yogi's doing so well!
He and the rest of the pack look fabulous in the photos from your previous post too.
I decided not to try and cut carbs out of Princes diet. I was working on the basis that he had a rough enough time ahead, and to start denying him things that he enjoyed was simply too much for either of us to bear. As much as I hated to admit it, we only had a limited time left together and I was really aiming for quality over quantity. In reality, he got whatever he wanted, and if he'd wanted caviar decorated with gold leaf he'd have got it.......
Glad he's doing so well! I know what you mean about the compulsive gland checking - now when I hover a hand over his neck, he groans sometimes as if to say "Give it a rest, woman!"
I've cut carbs out of Herbie's diet now, but he is resistant to the standard drugs and not achieving remission - he was diagnosed late, months after first showing signs of lymphoma, because the biopsy results came back negative and the vet thought it might be an auto-immune disease. By the time we found out it wasn't, the cancer really had a hold. I'm making Herbie's meals from scratch and it is really time-consuming.
I'm so happy to hear Yogi is doing well and not suffering any nasty side effects from his treatment.
Toodle pip,
Harry x
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