Things change fast these days. Last week Morgan’s lymph nodes in his throat went way down 10 days after the Doxorubicin but since his blood work didn’t support another chemo treatment last Wednesday, they went back up again—bigger than ever—on Monday this week.
The ever-irreverent Dad calls him “Lumpy”. I can’t stoop lower than “Mr. Shuffles”, as he does drag his feet a little.
However—Morgan’s feeling really good. He’s getting up earlier in the morning now, shortly after we do like he used to, and eating a smaller breakfast. He sure likes the organic, unsulfured molasses I added to his meals. He licked it delicately off my finger with gusto.
He’s still resting his head on his throat while lying down so, while I don’t understand how those hard, kiwi-sized nodules don’t bother him, I’m glad he isn’t suffering discomfort—just snoring a little louder.
He had a minor eye infection but we’re taking care of that with saline drops. If it persists, I use castor oil drops and it works like a charm.
Morgan’s been taking us on long walks in the desert—a different one every night—on routes we haven’t done in many months. He leads, chooses where to go, and we follow. He may stop for a brief rest once or twice, but he even leaves the trails and goes off roadin’ so we’ve enjoyed the time in nature very much on dead-calm desert evenings with spectacular sunsets.
He’s getting up off the floor much more easily now and hops up in the truck behind the driver’s seat. The hatch in the rear bed is still too high but he hasn’t been able to negotiate that well for quite some time. (We have an old, but one of the highest clearance SUVs) I wouldn’t expect him to be able to jump that without a spotter. Sometimes he can do it, sometimes he can’t. He IS getting close to twelve years old.
Speaking of SUVs, this is one of the vehicles in the oncologist’s parking lot yesterday. We must keep our sense of humour!
Our near 5-hour trip into the city yesterday found Morgan’s blood okay, just mild anemia, and the oncologist recommended a chemo drug for Morgan he hasn’t had before. They administered Vinblastine and Mustargen—a derivative of mustard.
They are part of the MOPP protocol you may have seen mentioned on the Internet if you’ve researched canine lymphoma. It’s an older one.
Dr. Hershey expanded on Mustargen and said they insert the catheter first, compound the Mustargen solution and then get it going immediately because if it takes too long to administer, it begins to turn to mustard GAS—the one they used in the war. Yikes!
Morgan continues on one 20 mg Prednisone each day for inflammation and Metronidazole and Immodium as needed for diarrhea. I’m intending the Mustargen won’t gift us with that side-effect. I found the Metro didn’t do the trick until the Immodium was added, and even then it took several days to firm up.
I found another web site you may want to visit if you have an ailing dog with cancer.
http://www.dogcancer.net.au/dog-cancer-canine-lymphoma.php
The new receptionist at the vet’s office has seven! Goldens and she said she had a couple that died of cancer between 4 and 7 years old, so we feel fortunate to be helping Mo through this at 11 years. He comes from a cancer-free line of champion show dogs and I think that may help. I can’t help but wonder if our WiFi is a contributing factor.
Morgan is taking phytoplankton every day now, and I’ve added green tea extract to the list as it’s recommended to boost the efficacy of curcumin. He’s not wild about the smell of the phytoplankton mixed with water so I use organic beef broth and he laps it up in no time.
I’ve found the MSM/colloidal silver makes him loose so I have had to cut way back on that but the MSM sure makes his coat soft.
That’s this week’s update. Thank you so much for the continued positive vibes. The web site above said canine lymphoma is one of the easiest to put into remission and I know many pets enjoy a high quality of life while on these protocols—with and without chemo—so that’s very encouraging. Until next week, much love from the desert.