Greyt Matters

On Wednesday, Dr. Hamilton said Sarge’s lymph nodes were normal and that he looked great!  We are very happy!

Dr. Hamilton was not concerned about Sarge’s lack of desire to eat in the mornings.  As long as Sarge is not losing weight, then I guess Dr. Hamilton is not going to have a problem with it.  I just need to keep being creative (and coaxing) with the food. 

I fondly remember the days when I could throw down some dry kibble with a little water on top and he would lick the bowl clean.  But…you are allowed to become a picky eater after you have made it through 6 months of chemo.

Keep up the good work, Sarge!

Sarge sees Dr. Hamilton on Wednesday for a 6 week post-chemo check-up.  Paranoia reigns!

I keep staring at Sarge’s neck and feeling it for lumps.  Sometimes it looks like his throat might be a little swollen, and I kind of feel his lymph nodes.  But I never really felt his nodes before so I can’t say they are any different, and the swollen-ness depends on the angle from which you view his throat.

Sarge still is not interested in eating in the mornings.  He walks away from his food bowl, which is filled with lots of extra yummy stuff.  (What dog walks away from turkey meatballs?)  I literally have to feed him from my hand.  He even boycotted his dinner Sunday night.

He did eat his post-breakfast meals with enthusiasm tonight (rotisserie chicken for dinner!) so he may have been overly tired from our weekend activities.

Also, he is relatively low energy compared to his pre-lymphoma state.

Otherwise, I would say he is doing good!  I hope Dr. Hamilton agrees on Wednesday.

We are planning a road trip to Florida in May so he needs to stay healthy for the visit to Grandma’s house (and her cats).

Doing good, doing good, doing good.  Sarge did regress in terms of his desire to eat in the mornings, so I put him back on the Pepcid about a week ago (10 mg).  I’ve been giving him cottage cheese and straight-up meat (chopped chicken or turkey meathballs) as his first meal of late, and we’ve managed to get that down every day.  By the afternoon feeding, he seems back to normal.  I hope his tummy feels better soon.

The only other obvious side effect of the chemo has been Sarge’s natural gas production.  It’s not excessive in terms of frequency but when he passes gas, it’s enough to clear the room!

Oh…and I gave him flea treatment (Frontline Plus) today for the first time since we went on the chemo journey.  I hate to put that stuff on them, but I found a tick on Daphne a couple of weeks ago, and she has been doing a little bit of scratching of late, so I couldn’t put it off any longer.  The initial chemo instructions said it was okay to do the heartworm and flea preventative treatments throughout the chemo; we were just to avoid it within 24 hours of the actual chemo.

Overall, life is good at the moment.  In particular, the weather has been beautiful of late, and Sarge has enjoyed being a sun dog in the backyard.

Enjoying a sunny day