Month: April 2021

Tomorrow, Ellie the Great celebrates completing week 5 as a Tripawd.  She also celebrates life and still being with us!!!

How is she doing???  GREAT.   Even though she still has one reddened area on her incision line, it was healed enough for her to get her staples out last week.  She will also be on antibiotics for another 4 weeks to assure the infection is totally gone.  But, her gabapentin and amantadine have been decreased.

Since Ellie is feeling better, she is eating LOTS!!!  She gets homemade chicken soup, pork roast with drippings, and organ meats in cooking juices (this week it was beef heart!!!).  She is even eating the vegetables!!!

Due to her increased appetite, Ellie has put some weight back on.  Plus, her energy level is rising.  Today she tore across the yard doing her favorite thing…BARKING!!!  So good to see her finding a new normal.

I cannot thank everyone enough for the thoughts and prayers.  Because of all the good wishes, she has passed the first survival milestone and made it through all of the initial hurdles.  Next milestone…chemotherapy starting April 20th.  With all of us together she will make it through this as well!!!

 

Hi, Ellie here…

My mom has been good about telling you all the “health” stuff…BUT…she has forgotten all the “fun” stuff.

I have travelled quite a bit and met lots of new people.  The people have all been kind, and I like the hotels.  But, seems some of it does not end all that well…I mean…I seem to be minus a leg after all this travel.

However, I have been able to get around okay.  In the beginning I was sort of dizzy when I got up.  My mom kept saying it was the medicine…I kept trying to tell her I just did not feel too well.  I think she knew because she kept taking me back to different places for people to look at me.  Just felt like I wanted to sleep all the time.  And, I did not want to eat…usually I would be the first in line for food.  But, after our most recent long trip, the nice people at the cancer center helped me to feel much better and now it seems the pain I had weeks ago is all gone.  My mom kept telling people I had a big infection…all I know is I feel better.  I am eating all kinds of good stuff!!!

I even had a big adventure when we went to see this special person who is going to be giving me special medicine (this is what my mom told me…not so sure about the “special” stuff).  Mom and I were driving down the road.  I was in the middle section of our van.  When mom started to slow down, all of our dog show stuff (mom always has it in the van…crates, a table, and a chair) came flying forward and pinned me to the floor.  Mom was there in seconds, digging me out…not easy with my e-collar on and did not have my fourth leg.  She got me out and put me into the front seat while she tried to get things straightened out.

I saw this dark truck pull up behind us.  Having no idea what it was, I got very scared.  Mom opened the side door and I decided it was time to escape.  Even with my collar and only one leg, I was able to climb into the middle section and out the door I went!!!

Mom was calling for me as I was standing in all these tall weeds.  Then I saw this lady in dark clothes come from the back of the black truck.  She was calling to me, too, although she did not know my name, and it scared me even more.  I had enough!!!  I jumped onto the hard surface…my mom called it a “road”…and started running away from the black car.  I was doing pretty well on only 3 legs!!!

Then I saw this car coming towards me…it stopped and a door opened with another person coming out.  I stopped as did not know what to do.  I looked in all directions and saw this person coming that looked like my mom.  She was a ways off, and I was not sure if it was her, but she knew my name and I could just start to get a whiff of what smelled like home.  Without having had any exercise in weeks, I was getting tired.  I started trotting towards her.

Sure enough it was my mom!!!  I was relieved as now I was REALLY tired. I was NOT having as much fun as I thought.  My mom and the lady in the dark clothes (she turned out to be very nice) walked me back to our van.  Mom had cleared all the stuff out of the van and secured it so it would not fall again.  Off we went to our visit with the special people with the special medicines.

My poor mom was upset and crying.  She kept saying she was so scared because we were on a “highway”.  Not sure what all that means, but I hope our future adventures will be more fun than scary!!!

At the end of last week, things were not looking too good.  BUT, this is Ellie the Great!!!

Last weekend a bit hairy, with a visit to the ER vet on Sunday to assure that things were okay.  Another antibiotic added to the regime at that point, but nothing further.  The early part of the week saw Ellie begin to eat, the incision swelling beginning to go down, and her becoming a bit more active.  On Tuesday word came that her incision was infected with staph, a normal skin bacteria, which was susceptible to the antibiotics which she was taking (meaning they should work).

And they did just that!!!  Swelling started to go down, drainage less, Ellie eating more.  All good news.

Thursday Ellie saw the oncologist for the first time.  They took a look at the drainage under the microscope…no more bacteria!!!  Due to the infection, however, she cannot start chemo for another 2 1/2 weeks (April 20th).  Now we just keep getting her to stay on a healthy track leading up to that date.

Overall, Ellie is looking happier and “brighter”.  She has always had this luster to her coat, which she had started to lose over the last 3 weeks.  It has returned!!!  Ellie is also getting around well and looking for those opportunities on which to voice her opinion!!!

So happy to see our great gal looking to be moving in the right direction.  Now to hope for a quiet but improving couple of weeks until chemo can be started!!!