October 23, 2002
Lucky has been eating a lot of grass and licking herself. She sounds like she has a giant hairball/grass ball that she periodically is trying to cough up. We’ve added more fiber to her diet and are keeping an eye on her. She is still her perky happy self.
October 30, 2002
Lucky is sleeping a lot and I just have a gut feeling that something is wrong. She is trying to cough up something that is stuck. She has a well visit to get her rabies, heartworm shots. Our vet can’t find any obstruction in her stomach and she looks great. So she gets her shots and home we go to keep her under observation and try some hairball remedy to break up the hairball. Looking back - we should not have allowed the vet to give her the shots until we knew what was wrong.
November 6, 2002
Lucky is not herself. Now she is groaning when she lays down as if her stomach hurts when she lays on it. She has had arthritis since a pup and never complained so I am worried. Back to the vet we go to get an x-ray of her stomach. In taking an x-ray of her stomach, we get a side slice of the lungs. It was a heart wrenching sight. There were only specks of healthy tissue scattered between large tumor masses. Her lungs are full of cancer.
The reason she has been hacking is that the tumors are growing and pressing against her esophagus. My Lucky will eventually not be able to breathe deeply and will start to decline. We have days with her and at best a few weeks, according to our vet. We are hoping for more. We are not putting her through radiation or chemo therapy - instead we are going to provide soft food that is full of anti-oxident properties and give her prednisone.
November 13, 2002
We have had Lucky for a week now and feel so blessed for this time to say goodbye. Her breathing at times becomes very stressed but then she seems to snap out of it. We are watching her breathing – at times it is shallow but when she stands she is able to still breathe deeply. The cooler weather is helping. Our days are spent going for walks by the river, sitting quietly under the trees as they lose their leaves, watching our young pup Indiana try to play with her (sometimes she has the energy, other times not) and getting lots of Lucky hugs and kisses. My children have always treated her like a big pillow and she just wraps herself around them in a hug and gives them their bath. They are teenagers now yet it seems like just yesterday Lucky would follow them everywhere and make sure they were safe. I have taken so many pictures of her this week.
TREATMENT
Because Lucky's tumors are so far advanced, we are concentrating on keeping her as comfortable as possible. We have opted for prednisone twice a day, chopped up food twice a day full of antioxidant foods broccoli, carrots, brown rice, wheat germ, sweet potatoes, vitamin E (150 IU) and vitamin C (500 mg) and chicken for protein. Within a day the prednisone improved her condition 100% and the food is easy for her to swallow. Prednisone is recognized as a chemotherapy treatment and is often given with other types of chemo. It does not get rid of the cancer but some dogs have gone into remission for as long as 75-145-230 days on just prednisone. Be forewarned, prednisone will make your pet VERY hungry and thirsty.
Looking back, we are happy with the path we chose to keep her comfortable. The prednisone gave us the extra days with her that we needed for closure. We would not have had this time if we hadn’t put her on the drug. She held her own for a long while past the vet's prediction - sleeping a lot, alert and happy when awake, and setting her own pace for activity.
* Lucky's poem
* Beautiful thoughts page
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