I never meant to go so long without posting.  I guess I just got overwhelmed with life in general.  It made me sad when I noticed that when I posted last, my beautiful Adena was still with us.  For those who don't know, she passed away May 24th.  I really should write about that, I think it would help me to heal.  What would have been Adena's 13th ( Read more... )

Yeah, I'm still around, and so is Adena.  She's doing really well on her chemo treatments.  Her actual treatments are 2 weeks apart now, instead of every week.  We still go to the vet on the off weeks for a CBC.  Her blood counts have been great and her lymph nodes are still down, so she's still in remission.  She has been in remission for over 2 ( Read more... )

Adena scared me this morning.  I mean REALLY scared me.  Scared me to the point that I was rummaging for my cellphone to call my parents.  (They're at an appointment with a lawyer to make a new will, but I don't care, I would have interrupted that for this.)  I was half asleep when Adena came upstairs to get me.  Rather than try to wake me up, she ( Read more... )

Ok, so I'm a little behind on updating everyone on Adena.  She's doing great!  She had a chemo appointment yesterday and everything went very well, as usual.  Her bloodwork last time was so awesome, even the vet was astounded!  Her white cell counts are not only good, they're as high as they would be in a normal, healthy dog not undergoing ( Read more... )

Our vet spent a long time talking to us about Adena's treatment options.  I wasn't sure that talking to her would help make any decision, because I already knew that there just isn't a lot of information out there about how dogs with this gene mutation react to chemo.  I have to say though that I feel much better now about the whole thing.  I mean ( Read more... )

My family and I are probably driving our vet crazy, but we have asked her to meet with us all today to discuss Adena's treatment.  Fortunately, she has time.  She's in surgery today and she only has 2 to do, so she said she would meet with us around noon.  My mom, dad, Adena, and I are all going up there to get as much info as we can and ask a ton ( Read more... )

Adena's test results came in.  She has one copy of a mutated gene and one normal copy.  I don't quite have all the deatils on this thing, but basically if we go with the best drug protocol for canine lymphoma (the Wisconsin-Madison protocol) she has a greater chance of having a bad reaction to the drugs.  It could just mean a little more upset ( Read more... )

Adena went for her third chemotherapy treatment today.  Because we are still waiting for some test results from Pittsburgh, she is on a modifeid version of the drug protocol, but it seems to be working well.  Her doctor said that she is in remission!  All of her lymph nodes have gone down.  Even after her first treatment I couldn't really feel the ( Read more... )

Adena did so super awesome today!  I am very proud of her.  One of the vet techs showed us a scrapbook she made for her dog who passed a year ago from lymphoma.  She thought it would help us to see the photos of him (clearly happy and healthy) after finishing chemo.  He was 8 years old when they found the cancer, had 14 weeks of chemo, went into ( Read more... )

I was feeling pretty good about Adena's chemo treatment because she did so well with the last one.  Apparently I am more worried about it than I thought.  I hardly slept at all last night.  She goes in around 11 this morning for her next treatment.  Giving the drug itself is pretty quick, but then they need to watch her for any bad reactions, so ( Read more... )