Raven is the best he’s been in a long time

I sure hate to jinx it, but it’s just plain wonderful enough that I can’t help but share it. He honestly is 100% in attitude/behavior now. We did a recheck of bloodwork and his white and red blood cells were both completely normal. On Dec. 7 his liver was enormous, riddled with nodules (never biopsied, may or may not be cancer), and was infected and necrotic with gassy pockets and he’d gone into a septic shock, hours from death. The ER staff, his oncologist, Dr. Harnagle who did his ultrasound, all felt he would die within days.

He’s been on amoxicillin (which Tom says targets the liver) and Baytril for a wider spectrum. Dexamethasone with b vitamins injected (this was more for hospice/quality of life) into a liter of sub q fluids every week. He’s also on pepcid and metoclopramide. The mass has actually gotten smaller, probably due to the inflamation reducing and the infection being gone. I have discontinued the Baytril and am weaning him down to 50% of the dex this week.

I am wondering if he’s had this mass for a very long time. It likely could be benign because his cancer doesn’t met there typically and that it could have been there all year and we just never saw it because we weren’t looking. But with the painkillers and stuff with the amputation, put too much strain on the liver maybe and he had liver disease result? I’m now readjusting to possibly trying to shoot for survival with this mass, rather than hospice. It’s inoperable due to the bleeding risk.

I don’t think I want to discontinue the steroid, I suspect it may have played a role in his improvement. But maybe we will switch to prednisone, I am waiting to hear from the oncologist on that…as a form of chemo sort of.

Meanwhile, Raven just plain feels good. YAY!

Here he is burying his bone, using his face as a shovel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSrT6Q4GCbU

And here he is this morning. Every morning when I get dressed, I toss my pj’s at him on the bed and uses them as a Face Rag. He hasn’t done that in quite a little while, but is back at it this week. It was laundry time and I tossed some stuff at him and he did his Happy Dog Sounds and rolling on the bed again. Makes my heart soar!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBRIk9yDznI

God is good. I am just so grateful for each moment, one at a time, that I have my boy still with me, happy and comfortable. 🙂

Author: dsimas

Rottie Raven, 8-1/2 years old, amputee on 10-27-09 and Miles, rottie mix rescue, hopefully no cancer. View all posts by dsimas