March 2017 – Shelby and family's scary, wonderful, amazing, heroic journey

Day 2 after round 1 chemo

Hello 🙂 Just wanted to give an update since we are a bit snowed in here. Shelby got her stitches out a few days ago and the doc is super pleased with how well she is doing and how well she is healing!! She still has a few spots that are healing but her site is looking good otherwise. I think Shelby is just as excited to have the stitches out as we are, lol.

On Monday evening, we took her for her first round of chemo. Her first dose was, Adriamycin (aka doxorubicin). We chose to hold her food til after her injection cause the doc told us she may vomit right after getting her meds. We didn’t have any issues Monday evening, and even gave her a little bit of food once we got her home. I was surprised at how fast he gave the medicine to her. When we went thru chemo with our last lab, who had mass cell tumors, it was a lengthy process that took a few hours for the IV to drip. He did tell us that her next med dose would be in two weeks and it would be cisplatin this time. He intends to alternate the two drugs. Below is a pic taken the evening before we left to go to her first chemo treatment. She always gets so excited to go bye-bye’s, even when its to the vets office, whom I might add have taken a real liken to her. They all spoil her with love when she gets there since she has become such a frequent visitor, lol.

Got my “Sunday best” on and I am ready to go 🙂

I will say, everyone in the docs office, raves about her harness!!! The doc, the techs, they couldn’t say enough great things about it. They like how easy she is to help and how much easier it is to handle her with it on, they even comment about how much added support there is with the “skidplate” as I call it, lol! They always take the pets on leashes and with her, they didn’t even bother, they were that comfortable and happy with the harness to just use it!Kudos to Tripawds for such a remarkable addition for these lovely furbabies <3 <3 I chose to add the emblems, because I am a little bit of an overprotective furmomma and don’t want anyone bumping into her and knocking her off balance, so I figure, they can see the warning just in case they don’t notice her beautiful uniqueness 🙂

The day after her meds was a little sketchy 🙁 It wasn’t as rough as I am sure some have had it so I am very grateful for that. She was tired and didn’t want bothered much Tuesday. I gave her food a little earlier than normal after not giving her much the day before and sadly, while she didn’t vomit, you could see her poor belly wrenching like she wanted to 🙁 🙁 Her potty breaks were normal and we didn’t have any issues with those so I will take any little thing we can get, lol. We are on day 2 of post treatment and she seems to be trying to get her spunk back, just isn’t quite there yet.

Doc plans to do bloodwork next visit prior to treatment, to ensure her levels are handling the chemo ok. He also said the next visit will be a little longer due to the med requirements.

Picture above is from Tuesday morning, she wasn’t feeling up to much 🙁

Well, that’s about it for now. Time to go enjoy my little superhero for a bit 🙂

Tail wags and kisses for now <3

Two weeks post op…

What a crazy two weeks this has been, for both Shelby Lynn and us. In some ways its hard to believe its only been just two weeks and on the other hand it seems like its been longer. Tomorrow Shelby goes to have her stitches removed, I can honestly say I am not looking forward to that. I worry how bad it will bother her again after finally, today, just starting to seem like it is easing up. She is getting around really well, though she does tire very easy still. I am really hoping that with time and some weight loss, she won’t tucker out so quickly. The weather has been on and off again as far as temps and rain, and tomorrow they are calling for snow and ice, so I don’t know how much she will get to go outside for fresh air. She and her cuddle buddy, Yoda, generally just lounge all day 🙂

On Monday we begin chemo with her. Last time I talked to the doc, he said we will be doing two treatments and the course will take 13 weeks. Monday, she will be given, Doxorubicin, and he said in total she will get 6 doses of that one. Then two weeks later she will be given Carboplatin, which will be off set from the Doxo weeks. I will say, as i am sure many of you here can agree with me at some point, I am very scared. I will fight for her every step of the way, but I find myself questioning which poison running through her body is worse, the chemo or the cancer itself. My only “light at the end of the tunnel”, is knowing that we could very possibly beat this nasty illness. Only time will tell, so while I have time with her, I am going to enjoy every minute of it <3

On good notes though 🙂 She is walking on her ramp, albeit only flat right now, but that’s because I am not ready to risk her at any elevation just yet. With not being able to have her harness on her full time or still worrying about her stitches, I am worried if she would fall. But she does walk on it with it laying on the floor, so baby steps I guess, lol. It took a few tries but she does well with it. She was really good about letting me try her harness on her and semi fit her with it. She walked around with it on and it didn’t seem to bother since it has a bottom and a top to it.

getting goodies and lovins for trying my new gear on 🙂

We also went outside for a bit and she was finally able to go to the front yard!! YAY!!! You could tell she was happy to have all her normal smells back again. We have been taking her to the backyard only so she didn’t overdue activity, there are 12 steps to go out the front door and only 3 out the back. Its a little bit of a walk for her from the back yard to the front, but she was more than satisfied when we got there 🙂 Of course, she decided to lie down for a bit while there, but the weather is nice today so she loved the sun.

Well, just wanted to give a little update and post a few pics since she is doing well. Hopefully the news continues this direction after Monday!

6 days later…

Just wanted to give a little update on Shelby Lynn <3

We are 6 days post op now, and so far we haven’t found anything from 7 days ago that she cant do. We struggle to keep her from jumping, her favorite spot is in our bed with us , so she takes it upon herself to climb on up through out the night while we sleep. We do try to limit her jumping so we know she wont injury herself, but she gets something in her head and there is nothing or nobody going to stop her.

I have noticed she is hesitant to eat the last day or so, I am not sure if that is due to pain or she is just tired from being so active and still learning. She used to eat 3/4 of her food as soon as you gave it to her then would pick at the remaining, now she seems uninterested and will pick little bits here and there and still have some the next day. She does take her meds, antibiotic and pain, twice daily, so I am hoping the pain med is strong enough for her. She does take two supplements (vet is ok with them) for immune system to help her fight her battle.

She is moving around good and doesn’t seem to be slowing down in that area. In fact, quite the opposite, we find ourselves guarding her more so she doesn’t fall because of how good she is going. Her surgical site is healing good, no inflammation or stitches are alarming.

We did order her some fancy new gear, both for her benefit and ours <3 She now has a raised food and water dish, the ruffwear webmaster plus (its put together but not on her yet), and a new ramp to help her get in and out of the vehicles. I am going to start today working with her on the ramp. I opted to go with one that had heavy rubber and ridges, over the sandpaper lined ones. Not sure one is better than the other, just a matter of what I think Shelby would be comfortable with and how comfy I feel with using it for her. Hopefully I can atleast get her walking on it flat and then the goal is to slowly raise it til she is comfortable walking up it with assistance.

Well, that’s all for now…. Hopefully Shelby gives me some good news with this ramp and I can let you guys know how she handled it.