Lately Lucy has been having some problems. We don’t think she has cancer…. well, the vet doesn’t think so, anyway. Which is good. She probably has calcification of the lungs. Which, really, shouldn’t affect her life.
But the last week or so she has been eating and drinking, and then throwing it right back up. Not all of it… some stays down, or she eats it again, as dogs will do. And she has been pooping, though it’s been very small.
We took her to the vet last week and they think she could have a partial blockage. That girl will eat anything, dangit. But if it’s partial, then some food is getting through, and she’s not loosing a lot of weight so that’s good. We had xrays done, and they couldn’t see anything. But last night after giving her a little kibble (she’s been on white rice and canned for a few days) she had a bad bout of hacking stuff up again. And it’s so hard for me to sleep when she is throwing up! I feel bad putting her out of the bedroom, but I don’t know what else to do and I feel so helpless I can’t help her in any way.
So my husband called the vet back and scheduled an ultrasound. So hopefully if there is something in there, they’ll find it, and be able to take it out.
My husband is running low on money, too, and he hasn’t been able to find a job yet. So this is not a good time financially for us for this to happen. But we’ll work it out. I do wish I could put the dogs on my health insurance!
Well, USDAA today… we did teams. Teams is pretty cool in that you run the same courses for all dogs. So there’s not started, advanced, or elite levels. So the courses were pretty challenging. I’ll use that as an excuse for not qualifying. 
However, Chase does run at the excellent level in AKC agility so I really don’t have that much of an excuse. And he is capible… okay I am capable of doing more and better. Chase actually does great, and he was even paying attention to me today which is hard for him coming off a flyball weekend as we did last weekend.
So I’ve been thinking… I have been trialing a lot lately. And actually for the last few years. And I used to like trialing better than training. But now… I’m getting frustrated that we don’t Q (Q stands for Qualify) as much as I’d like to. And I don’t know how much other people Q, but really it doesn’t matter, it only matters what my own standards are.
So I think I’m going to seriously consider skipping some trials and do more training instead. Though it’s kinda a good time to say that anyway, because it’s not high trialing season anymore. There’s one AKC trial in July I’ve already entered, and there’s another USDAA agility trial in August. There’s more AKC in September but I’m going to have to reassess where we are and see if I can have some goals and then determine if I want to enter them.
Anyway… I’m not so sure I like teams in USDAA because it’s more stress and the other person(s) is depending on your Qs. Tomorrow and Monday will be better because it’s just for Chase and I.
On a good note, I brought Tatum and Muffit and they both did really well. Tatum, of course, loves going to trials. And Muffit just needs to get out and get used to the environment and learn to think and understand that he needs to pay attention to me in those sorts of situations. He is dead tired now… which is good! He is fairly high energy so to poop him out is a good thing.
Well Chase is not in the elite level so I think we are going to go late tomorrow and try to sleep in a little bit. I do love sleeping in. And hopefully we can work together a bit better tomorrow. Chase did tunnel suck on me a couple of times which wasn’t good, so I still have to watch that and train that more, too.
Well, we took Lucy to the vet on Monday and had her re-xrayed to see if the stuff in her lungs has changed at all. Well, the good news is that there was no change in the xrays!
So the vet is fairly certain that, instead of cancer, she has calcification of the lungs. They said that if it were cancer, even a slow growing type, that there would be some change. And there was no change at all.
When I left the vet it was like a weight off my chest. A weight I didn’t even know I’d been carrying around for some months. I am so excited! Yay! Lucy is okay!
Of course she is still 9 years old, so we watch her health pretty closely. But this is great news! And she is acting the same as she has been for months. So we are very happy for sweet Goosey Lucy!
Now I need to get more blogging done, using our used cisco that we got off ebay!
February 25, 2008 – 7:20 pm
I took Lucy in to Dr Hennemen today. I just love Dr. Hennemen. I feel very good energy from her, and she really knows what she is talking about. We are so lucky to have her in our little part of the country.
So anyway Lucy does have a lot of striations (I hope that is the right word) in her lungs. More so than spots. It reminded me of Mars and all the alleged canals that people used to think were up there. But Dr. Hennemen was not convinced it’s cancer. But we are going to treat her like it’s cancer. She did say that it might be calcification. She also said it looked like one of Lucy’s ribs had been broken a long time ago. Goodness… dogs. Man, they can hide pain so well. I wonder if it was when we had our rollover all those years ago in the snow. That’s the only thing I can figure, since she’s never been on her own really, except the week we went to Maine and put her in boarding with Levi and Angel. Hrm.
Anyway Lucy has lots of calcification on her bones in her rib cage, too. Now I’m just saying what i remember, and my memory isn’t all that great. I like it when my husband comes because he remembers better. But anyway…
So we are going to strengthen Lucy’s immune system, Vitamin C and E. Antioxidants too. And I’m going to give her more whole foods in her diet that are seasonally appropriate. And some cooling foods, too, like Celery and Duck. I wrote more things down and they are in my purse. But we are basically gonna see about getting her as healthy as we can. And then, in a couple months, get new x-rays and see if there is any more growth of this stuff in her lungs.
So we have some hope. Oh.. and while I was gone, our regular vet called and my husband answered. They said they had someone look at Lucy’s x-rays as well and he said it looked, to him, more like calcification than cancer… so, I am a bit excited. However, still worried. Lucy’s energy level is still very low and she’s being cranky. But Dr Hennemen also said her lymph nodes are swollen and we have to keep a close eye on her.
So that’s the scoop so far.
February 23, 2008 – 1:01 pm
Just a quick update on Lucy. She is doing okay. She is pretty low energy, and I do think she is lower energy than she has been before. And the swelling in her legs comes and goes. I hope it doesn’t hurt her or make her uncomfortable.
She and I have been talking a lot.. before bed, or in the mornings. She likes to come and lay on me and we have a nice chat, ear rubs, and ear licks. I do the chatting, she does the licking, and I do the rubbing. She is such a good girl I want her to be happy and healthy for as long as possible. She is slowing down, but she still seems pretty happy for now. Let’s hope it stays that way.
One of the things I fear most is regrets. I have regrets about Kip my shepherd mix… I wanted to give him more, spend more time with him, and I feel bad that I dragged him with me from bad relationship to bad relationship. But he was always there for me. And I feel bad that I made him go lay down too much instead of snuggling with him. He panted so much, it was an annoying habit of his.. but I loved him, pant and all.
So I am afraid of having regrets with my current dogs after they die. I think I just have to have confidence that all my dogs have had good lives, and they are loved and they have given me more than I can even have hoped to give them. I love them all. I love Lucy, she is my heart girl, and she will always have a big piece of my heart.
February 20, 2008 – 8:20 pm
Lucy is our beautiful smooth collie girl. She does seem to be slowing down… with her cancer diagnosis and all. But she got to chew on a Kong a lot today, and carry it around and guard it, and guarding is one of her favorite things. Though she doesn’t like it quite as much as Levi does.
Lucy is doing okay. I watch her closely now and I think that her low energy is because of her cancer. But my husband says she is still the same. I just wonder. I worry about her every day. Monday I am taking her to the holistic vet to see what she can do, if anything, and get her opinion.
The rest of the dogs are doing well. I took Muffit and Tatum to Sugarhouse Park today for a walk. I haven’t taken Muffit out until now because he was sick. He’s done with his meds now and he is much happier, he is even enticing Tatum to play. He wants to play with Chase, too, but Chase isn’t ready yet. Having yet another new dog in the house has thrown Chase out of whack, but Chase is doing well and he hasn’t instigated any fights, which is nice. And we are helping him and making the other dogs respect his space, which is good and will help Chase adjust.
I’m please to say that Muffit ignored the people we walked by, sniffed everything, and seemed very well adjusted.
Fortunately we don’t need any eca stack around here to lose weight, but I am cutting down Tony’s food as he is a bit chubby now. And Muffit gets a lot to eat, since he is still too skinny.
February 15, 2008 – 5:07 pm
I guess I’ll be up and down for a while with this diagnosis of Lucy having cancer. I have managed not to think much about it since Wednesday… thinking about it now just makes me cringe.
Wednesday was a bad day. I was really down all day after the vet appointment on Tuesday. Even though it wasn’t too bad… what.. what am I talking about? Any cancer is bad! Ugh. The vet said they had ‘good news’ so we were really hoping to go in and have them say “It’s not cancer!”. But they did not. They just said they could not find a main tumor. I didn’t think that was good news at all.
Anyway, Lucy gets to go to Dr. Kim Hennemen on the 25th so that will be good. I like her a lot. Her limp is doing okay… as is mine. LOL. I need some posture correction, and some ankle and knee therapy, it seems.
I have agility all this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday. I hope it goes well. I’ll try to get and post up some videos. I run Chase and Levi. It’s AKC. I have to really be serious about it… get the Qs! Bah.. just have fun, eh? Yeah, just have fun. And hope I don’t hurt my ankle or my knee anymore.
February 13, 2008 – 7:30 am
Well good news, after a couple of days on the new meds Muffit is much better already. His breathing sounds clear, no more snuffling and no more major green nasal discharge! Yay! He is eating well, and starting to play, too. Still a bit low on energy but that will come.
I’ve started him on the clicker and he doesn’t quite understand yet, but he will soon. We’ll start with what he knows, sits and downs, and add the mat work. Tatum really liked starting with the Mat.
So the days go by, we wonder what to feel and do about Lucy, and we just plug along.
February 12, 2008 – 8:24 pm
So we went into the vet today to pick up Lucy. She had an ultrasound to see if they could find a cancer tumor, from where the cancer in her lungs may have originated. Still there is a 15% chance it’s not cancer, it could be something else.
They didn’t find a tumor. All her organs are fine.. her heart, spleen, liver, kidneys… so if it’s cancer, the tumor is too small to find. I saw the xrays, too, and they are very spotty. My husband’s mother died of Melanoma. And he thought Lucy’s xrays looked like his Mother’s xrays when they diagnosed her 15 years ago. She died within 4 months of diagnosis.
Anyway, the vet said that there’s not much we can do at this point. However, I’m going to take her xrays up to a local holistic vet, Kim Hennemen, and see what she has to say about Lucy. It can’t hurt, and I actually prefer holistic doctors, for humans and dogs, to traditional doctors. Unfortunately my husband prefers traditional doctors. So hopefully we can find some middle ground about treating her.
February 8, 2008 – 9:28 pm
I don’t believe in the rainbow bridge. I hope that Kip is out there, somewhere, doing something a heck of a lot more interesting than waiting for me by some bridge. Maybe he’s dancing on the stars, or he’s existing in some alternate reality where he gets to be some other type of entity, something I cannot even imagine. I like to think maybe he looks in on me once in a while… hopefully with fond memories.
My husband and I are going to take Lucy in to the vet next Tuesday and get her an ultrasound. They will put her under and examine her whole body. They didn’t see a tumor in the xrays they took, just spots on her lungs. Lots of them. Even my husband could tell. Of course there is a small chance that it’s just some sort of lung infection… but the vet is pretty sure it’s cancer. Hopefully we’ll get an idea of what the progress of the cancer will be, and how long she will have to live. Gads, what an awful thought.
And so, I am trying to prepare myself. I don’t know how to feel happy about other things in life, while being devastated about Lucy’s cancer. I have tried to appreciate every day I have with all the dogs, because I know too well how short the years are. I have never had anyone close to me die, with the exception of Kip. And I was in a bad place when he went so I didn’t even see his signs of age.
With Lucy, I am in a good place in life which, I hope, will help me to cope with this. I am happy to still have her here. I am thrilled that I got to spend the time with her that I have.. and am. I am happy about the other dogs, my relationship with my husband, my job and my friends… so it’s a parfait of emotions that I’m going to have to learn how to live with.
Not something I ever wanted to experience, but knew, eventually, I would have to.
Cynthia Blue
