We decided to do one of Gizmo’s favorite things over the weekend: go to the beach. I was so impressed that he was able to walk to the car and back with partial assistance and without many breaks! He was especially speedy when moving toward the water. It was a lovely day. Gizmo enjoyed hanging out in the shallow water, sniffing other dogs, and people watching. We enjoyed a picnic lunch and washed our swamp puppy in the backyard afterward.
Monday I was traveling to San Jose for work. Colin noticed that Gizmo was drinking and peeing a lot more frequently and contacted the oncologist. Apparently, this was to be expected as we started the Prednisone and he had the first injection. As I laid in my hotel room, I browsed old photos of Gizmo as a puppy and was tearing up. It feels like that was so long ago now, but not long enough and I was missing precious time with him now.
Tuesday we got good news: he has B-cell lymphoma, the one that has the better prognosis. We felt more confident continuing with the CHOP treatment knowing that it could possibly buy us another year with our boy. As long as he handled it well and kept having good days like the one at the beach, we would keep going.
Wednesday we resumed his physical therapy sessions. We had to do some schedule adjustments so that we wouldn’t be putting him in the tank within 72 hours of chemo treatments, and they are only doing the water treadmill and no longer also the laser in light of his diagnosis. However, we had to end is early since he pooped in the tank. He’s always a little constipated after being sedated and we were to expect some GI irregularities with starting treatment. It’s the first time he’s ever done that and it was a bit of a mess. We had to wash him in the back yard again once I got him home.
He still hasn’t been wanting to eat enough (he’s had a reduced appetite ever since his femur surgery even though it is starting to come back a bit now) and is under weight. He’s only about 92lbs now (~42kg). I gave him a cheeseburger just so he’d eat enough for the day. When it was time for bed I told him “pen” and helped him up. He made it very clear we were going into the bedroom and he was sleeping by the foot of the bed. I’ve always expected my commands to be obeyed when given. I’ve gone soft and he knows it big time.
I also got a call from his primary this week because he’s due for some vaccines. I contacted the oncologist and they said that we should skip them while he’s going through chemo (unless it’s the rabis vaccine which is required) so we’re skipping them for now.