Let’s just say this week sucked. And it’s only going to get suckier from here on out. We’re trying to prepare ourselves for the inevitable, and the inevitable keeps showing hints that it’s coming sooner than we want it to.We took Abby in for her maintenance chemo treatment on Wednesday (11/14), which she gets every three weeks. Her lymph nodes were swollen again. Last time, the vet said that they were normal (they shrank during the chemo and came back to their normal size), but this time, they were larger than normal. He’s worried that she’s coming out of remission, although her blood test results were good. He asked us if we wanted to put her on an additional pill (the cytoxin, which has to be handled with gloves), or if we wanted to increase her prednisone dose. We opted for the latter option, because we’re nervous what an additional dose of cytoxin would do to her system even though she’s only getting an IV every three weeks. We’ll need to start coming home during the day again, because the prednisone makes her thirsty. We’ve already had a couple carpet-cleaning incidents.
We’ve been keeping the basement door closed. Climbing up the stairs is getting to be too much for her, and Tim has to follow behind in case he needs to carry her. We’re worried that something will happen if she tries to go downstairs on her own.
On Friday (11/16), Tim came home and couldn’t find the dog. She wasn’t sleeping in her usual spot in the living room. He knew she wasn’t on the bed. He looked on the porch, and she was lying on her stomach with all four legs splayed. She must have slipped on the wood parquet floor after trying to jump down from the love seat. He had no idea how long she’d been there. He was able to help her up, but her legs were weak from being in that position for a while, so she was really shaky. She laid down in the living room for a while, and finally worked up the strength to sit, and then gingerly walk around the house, and eat dinner (nothing entices her like food). I felt horrible when I got home because I’d been out with some friends from work, and I had no idea what Tim was going through while I was out. He called the vet to try to figure out what to do, and they suggested using a towel under her belly to help her walk. Luckily, she recovered enough to be able to move around the house, but Tim had a moment where he wondered if this was it.
Our walks had been getting progressively shorter lately. And now, they’re out of the question, at least for the next several days. Last week, she was able to go about six blocks, but she got pretty tired at the end and we had to coax her. You know the part in “Marley and Me” where they go for a walk and the dog falls behind, after years of being out in front? And you know what happens in the next chapter. We’re just trying to make her as comfortable as possible, as long as we have her.
