Gizmo has begun feeling very much himself. We have a camping trip coming up so we had our sitter come over to ensure she is still comfortable watching him. She watched him during the wedding and it was a little rough, but she noticed how much he’s improved. He’s walking less and needs more support, but he’s eating better and she noticed his mood change for the better. After his sitter visited he was happy to go for a walk, and even tried to go further than I was going to let him. A very good sign! He also did a little shorter walk the next couple of days.
He is able to use his legs (still with a prominent limp), but he often chooses not to. He barks to let us know when he wants us to help move him from room to room. He’s really figured out how to get his human butlers to do his bidding. He might move himself if he gets really thirsty and doesn’t want to wait for us to bring him water, but rarely. We have to get him using those legs again and build up muscle mass if we’re going to get to a good quality of life to justify continuing as we are. I read in the Facebook group that some dogs recover muscle mass after they stop the Prednisone, and we’re in the process of tapering that off so I believe we should wait to find out. A lot of owners use a certain muscle-building supplement (myos) as well so I decided to start using it. The oncologist said there isn’t a lot of research showing whether it actually works or interacts with anything, but what have we got to lose at this point?
As I was reading through the Facebook group for canine lymphoma I saw a post that talked about how this disease sometimes seems to take more of a toll on our mental health than it does on the dogs – a constant roller coaster of emotions and worry as to whether you’re making the right decisions. I really felt that. Just last week I thought we were getting ready to make the call, and here we are with him rallying to try and walk again, and seeing some options on the table to try over the next week or so before we give up.