If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!

Great news! Preacher got his all clear from his oncologist!! His lymph nodes are nice and small, he's at a great weight, he's eating like a horse, he feels fantastic - it's everything we hopped for when we started this journey seven months ago. In the way back recesses of my mind I know that lymphoma is terminal and that it might, and probably will, recur. But here's the deal: he is 11 years old and he is running around the house, prancing for dinner - right this minute, what more could we ask for?

Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive. Reading your comments, getting your phone calls, notes, e-mails, hugs - it made this all so much more bearable. And by making Tom and I feel better, we were able to not be basket-cases for Preacher! I appreciate it more than you know. And I know that if Preacher could he would send out a big Woof Woof (or Honk Honk as is the case with his deaf dog bark) to all of you. Thank you.

round 17

Well, Preacher had his 17th round of chemo today. And it was his final chemo - at least for awhile. We still have to decide about maintenance chemo and I suppose there could be further treatments down the road, but for now we are done! Whew. I can't quite believe it's been six + months. We have been through so much and I think we have handled it pretty darn well.

I might sound like a broken record but I can't possibly say it enough - Thank You. Thank you for your comments, your grab bag purchases, your e-mails and phone calls, your advice, your shoulders to cry on, your trips with me to the oncologist - so many of you have done so much and everything, everything from the comment on this blog to the hand holding in the vet's office, it has all helped and made a difficult time so much easier. Thank you.

Don't think for a second that this means I'm gonna stop the Preacher updates! He has quite the fan club now (I think it's going to his head!) and I will keep you all in the loop with info and photos. I wish there was some way for all of you to be able to meet him - I feel sure you would fall in love. Everyone who meets him does. My friends like to whisper, in case the other dogs are listening, "you know, Preacher is my favorite." I know. He has that effect on people.

round 16

Our boy is doing great. After all of the drama and scares of last week we are all finally resting easy. We got through the Thanksgiving week end fairly well. It was up and down but he did seem to be making progress each day. Then Monday and Tuesday were both great days. He went in for his regularly scheduled chemo today and not only did that go well but the oncologist felt like what ever mystery injury/disc disease had happened has resolved itself. ahhhhhhh, is my big sigh of relief.

In two weeks he has his last round of regular chemo before we meet with the oncologist to decide where to go from here. Do we stop chemo all together or go to a maintenance schedule? Whatever we do it will be what we feel is the best action for Preacher.

For now I am going to go sit by the fire and watch him sleep. It's amazing how much peace that brings me.

Preacher update

Just wanted to let everyone know what's going on with our big man. We took him to his oncologist this morning. He was concerned that the cancer was back and in his spine or central nervous system. The oncologist just called with an update. They did xrays and everything looked normal. So it still could be anything from muscular skeletal, to ruptured disc, to cancer. But something is causing a fair amount of pain in his lower lumbar area. So for now he gets to come home and be on some heavy duty pain meds in the hope that he gets progressively better over the next couple of days. If he does not improve or gets worse then we go get a CT scan and have to talk about the possibility of surgery. Not sure how Tom and I feel about that given the cancer and his age, but we'll just have to see.

For now we are hopeful and are choosing to be positive and believe that he is a big goof ball and over did it with the play on Sunday and, like his mom would do, injured himself with a very small amount of exercise and physical exertion!

Thanks for your well wishes, positive thoughts, prayers, love, everything!

round 15 and a icky day so far

So round 15 of chemo was last Tuesday and I was remiss and didn't post anything right away. I think I have said this before, but when things are good it is easy to forget to update on his progress and it's surprisingly easy to begin to feel like nothing is wrong. Unfortunately we had a reminder this morning that everything is not fine.

Preacher had an amazing day yesterday. I brought a toy home for Vincent and Preacher promptly snatched it up and started racing through the house with it. Tom threw it to him a couple of times, he jumped up to grab it, he spun himself in circles, he was just a nut. He was Preacher six years ago - not old man Preacher. So when he started pacing last night and acting uncomfortable we were really surprised. This morning he didn't want to get up, when he tried he fell off of the couch. Tom came home and we took him straight in to our vet. They did blood work and our hope was that he just over did it yesterday and with some rest and pain meds we'd be a-okay. But his blood work showed an infection.

Our vet called up Preacher's oncologist and they discussed everything. It could be a couple of things: he has an odd, random infection and antibiotics and pain meds will fix him right up OR he has come out of remission and the cancer is in his central nervous system. It's too soon to know what that would mean - but don't think I haven't already tried to get everyone to tell me the long-drawn-out details of every possible scenario - for now we wait. We give the meds 72 hours to work their magic. If in 72 hours he is significantly better then that is a great indication that the cancer is not back. Of course waiting 72 hours is sheer torture.

We've known all along that lymphoma is terminal. We are realistic about the fact that he is 11 years old. But none of that is making this any easier right now. The past few months have lulled me into a real false sense of security. and now I am scared. Please send our boy some good thoughts and well wishes. Your support has certainly helped more than you can know. Now, go kiss your dog or your neighbors dog.

round 12

Yesterday was round 12 of chemo for Preacher. This weeks drug was vincristine, which he has done really well on from the beginning. Thankfully it is the most frequently used drug he has been getting. But this week wasn't quite as easy on him as past weeks. Maybe we've gotten a little too relaxed about this whole cancer thing, I don't know. But he has had a little upset belly and frequent trips outside if you know what I mean. We've been cooking up the hamburger again and he's eating that. So hopefully this was just an itty bitty hiccup and he'll feel better tomorrow. Keep him in your thoughts and I'll pass on some extra hugs and kisses.

Updates and blog winners and ACL, oh my!

So I am a very bad blog contest runner. I promised to pick a winner on Friday and I never announced said winner! So, drumroll please...Janice, you are the winner of a lovely pair of concave disc earrings! Just send me your address and I will send them off to you lickety-split! Thanks to everyone who participated. It was fun reading all of your suggestions and very helpful!

Now for the Preacher update: No chemo this week. Hallelujah! But we did go in today to have blood work done just to see how he responded to last weeks chemo and to just verify all is well. Blood work looked FANTASTIC! Yippee!! And the wonderful news is that we are officially on an every other week schedule. I cannot begin to tell you how thrilling that is. And we don't have to even go in for blood work ... we are free and clear for two whole weeks! This is exciting for so, so many reasons. Most importantly because he doesn't have to go through it - the stress of going(it totally poops him out -see photos!), the mild nausea, etc. Second, it means that the chemo is right on track and he has responded almost as well as he possibly could (except for the week three upset). Third, one less week to worry about chemo reactions. And four, financially - I am not complaining about cutting out a weeks worth of vet costs at all! I know I have said it a bajillion times, but thank you all so, so much for your thoughts and prayers. I know, I absolutely know it has helped.

And last, I am in manic mode getting ready for ACL. I worked until midnight last night. I won't be doing that every day because I would be useless by the time ACL hits, but I am sure there will be several late nights and long days in my short term future. If you are coming out to ACL please stop by and say HI, I would love, love, love to see you!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

round 9 and Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Preacher! My big guy turned 11 years old this month! This would be amazing no matter what...a Great Dane's life span is usually like seven or eight years so 11 is pretty incredible. But given the lymphoma, well, we are so far beyond thrilled I don't know what you call it! I am wondering how to go about baking a cake that is high in protein, low in carbs...sounds tasty, doesn't it?!?

Today was the ninth round of chemo. He spent the whole day there and came home completely pooped. Today's chemo drug was doxorubicin - it's kind of the big daddy of the chemo drugs from what I understand. He's had this one once before and handled it fairly well so fingers crossed we'll get through this go-round without incident.

We also hit the two month mark today! I am beyond thrilled because this means we go to every other week for treatments instead of once a week. Yippee!!! It will be so nice to just get to be at home with him for two solid weeks without shuffling off to the vet and it will give us more time to bulk him up with good food between treatments! :)

We still have four months to go, but somehow it doesn't seem that bad. I look back at where I was at when we got the diagnosis and where I am now...I never would have believed I could be this okay. The body and mind are pretty amazing. And of course the fact that Preacher feels so good is probably what keeps Tom and I so okay. This new normal seems to be workin' for us.