Sorry, I slacked.

OK, lots of updates.

First, I had a week of not having my “good listening ears” on. I was wrong about Spencer’s new chemo drug. It is actually mitoxantrone, AKA Mitox. With starting this one he will be dropping adriamycin and cytoxin. So now he does Mitox on week one, then Vincristine on weeks 2 and 3. Then back to Mitox and so on. Mitox isn’t quite as good as Adria plus cytoxan; but considering his heart issues it is what we can do. Don’t want to cure the cancer only to give him heart failure! Financially, the Mitox is more than the other 2 drugs combined. And… it looks like there is no generic for it. So, if you find yourself in the same position as us, just be prepared for a little bit of sticker shock.

So Spencer finished his first 3 week cycle – the one he did adria/cytoxin, then vincristine, vincristine. He did his first week of Mitox last week and moves on to another dose of vincristine tomorrow. So far he seems to be handling it fine; but his stomach might be having some issues. He has thrown up twice this week. He still has a big appetite though, so hopefully this won’t get to be more of an issue. I plan to bring it up at our chemo appointment tomorrow.

More of my not listening well… When I heard about the hemangioma I spoke with a tech at our family vet; but not to the actual vet. I don’t know if I just heard “hemangioma” because that is more of what I have dealt with (my youngest daughter has one on her hand, I had one on my shoulder); but I heard wrong. It was a HEMATOMA. So just a spot that isn’t quite healed. They don’t know if the problem is that he always has to roll a little to that side to stand, so he keeps re-injuring the spot or what. Last week they went ahead and drained off all of the fluid and they tried to then kind of bind the wound by wrapping gauze/tape around him. Yeah… that didn’t work so well. he has lost the weight that he needs to lose, so he now has the large chest tapering back that is typical of a doberman. The bandages just kept slipping back on him. I finally gave up and took them off that night. So far a little fluid has built back up; but not much. And the latest culture came back as no infection. Hopefully we are DONE with this issue!

On to the weekend. We did pictures with my dad dressed as Santa for our Christmas cards. Spencer and the kids did great. 🙂 Spencer was excited to get back up to the cabin and had the added bonus of meeting his “cousins”. My brother and sister in law brought their 2 labs up too. Spencer had never met them before; but they all hit it off. My dad ALSO brought his dog – a min pin named Snoopy – yeah… Snoopy doesn’t like Spencer much; but he was fine as long as my dad held him. Overall it was a fun weekend!

Today (Wednesday) I have started trying to push Spencer to go outside some on his own. In the past couple of months he has gotten used to me always going outside with him. Now he seems to think that he can’t go out without me. he gets in the back yard, I walk back in the house and he IMMEDIATELY comes right back in. Hopefully soon he will start to figure out that he is OK in the backyard on his own for a few minutes!

Author: justjac

Spencer is our 5.5 year old Doberman. He was diagnosed with an aggressive fibrosarcoma on 8/22. He had his left front leg amputated on 8/24/11. Finished 15 weeks of chemo on 12/22/11 (mytox and vincristine). Lung mets found 12/28/11. Fought hard and lived a full life right up until the end. Went to Heaven 2/28/12. View all posts by justjac