Musical "dog beds"...til 4am

1st Week of September: I didn't have to get chemotherapy this week because the last one was supposed to last for two weeks. My mom called my oncologist and told him that she definitely wanted a bone marrow transplant for me. She told him she talked with Dr. Suter at NSCU and that she was going for the "cure." My mom felt better now that she had made that decision. They didn't have an opening until November so we were just going to have to wait 2 months. To celebrate my mom took me out shopping to the organic dog food store again.  She bought me some herbal immune system booster in powder form to add to my food.  I think it gave me gas.  At night it was uncomfortable for me to sleep.  By the end of the week I just couldn't sleep at all. I did my usual "musical dog beds" and was up for hours and didn't sleep until 4am.  I ended up sleeping in because I spent so much time trying to get comfortable.  The next morning I got up but I wasn't hungry.  My mom tried hand feeding me but i just didn't want anything else in my stomach for awhile.  At around 11am she became very scared.  She called my oncologist who said that it was very unlikely that it was from my chemotherapy because it was already over a week since my last treatment. He told me to come in.  When we got there he checked me out. He pushed on my belly and checked my nodes and told my mom that I was fine.  He asked if I had been experiencing excessive gas lately and my mom told him no more than usual.  The next day she realized that it (the gas) might be due to my "Herbal immune booster."  Sure enough once she stopped giving me that I was able to sleep comfortably. 

Bone Marrow Transplant?

4th week: When we got back from that WONDERFUL beach weekend it was business as usual and I went in for my chemotherapy on Tuesday again.  This was supposed to be the BIG chemotherapy day because they were going to give me some real potent stuff that was supposed to last two weeks until I'd get my 1/2 body radiation treatment. However my mom had second thoughts as she had been reading about canine bone marrow transplants. She had spoken with the medical director of oncology, Dr. Suter at NSCU.  He's the one who does all the bone marrow transplants.  She realized that a BMT was my only real hope for a cure.  My mom talked with Dr. Lurie after my chemotherapy treatment about a possible change of plans.  He told my mom to think on it for a week and then let him know which treatment I wanted for Daisy (apparently you can't do both 1/2 body radiation AND BMT). After chemo I felt fine except for feeling a bit restless during the night.  

Stop and smell the "Ocean"

3rd week of August: I went in for chemotherapy the next week as usual.   Only this time they said that my white blood cell count was too low and so my immune system couldn't handle the chemotherapy. I thought maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was completely weaned off of that prednisone (you know the drug that made me so hungry that I ate a plastic clip?)  I felt fine over the next couple of days.  My mom kept taking my temperature everyday to make sure I didn't have a fever. I was actually feeling pretty good. I continued to go to my agility dog class where everyone rooted me on. I was like a celebrity there! By the end of the week my mom said to me "do you want to go to Jupiter Beach for the weekend? OMG she has to ASK??  We stayed with my close friend Jada that weekend.  My mom is friends with her mom....well actually Jada's mom is my godmother.  We had a blast.  My mom even made a video called JUPITER BEACH AUGUST 2011:

 I'm glad that my mom is putting more of her energy into having fun with me instead of worrying about me.

"Daisy don't you cry"

2nd week of August:  Whew ......I actually made it to my chemotherapy appt. in one piece.  As usual I felt fine afterwards but at night I started to feel really restless.  I would lay in my dog bed and could not find a comfortable position so I'd jump up on the end of my moms bed for awhile but I still couldn't get comfortable so I'd jump down again and lay on the floor. I tossed and turned and played "musical beds" most of the night.  My mom was losing sleep too because she felt helpless to do anything. Finally my mom had an idea. She laid me down and started singing a song to me while she gently stroked my belly.  I hadn't heard that song in years but I knew it very well.  It was the same song my mom used to sing to me when I was a puppy : "Baby Don't You Cry" from the movie "Waitress."  Only she sang it "Daisy don't you cry." It worked like a charm just like it did when I was a puppy.....only this time it took a little bit longer. 

Prednisone: Plastic hanger clips are like biscuits

First week of August: I seemed to have developed quite a RAVENOUS appetite.  I think it was the prednisone they gave me.  I began jumping up on counter tops trying to get extra food.  I even started barking furiously at my mom to get her to feed me more. I had been eating like a pig lately and my mom just couldn't understand.  I practically bit my moms hand off when she would give me a treat!  I was like a human vacuum cleaner! I was so hungry that inanimate objects started looking attractive to me. As a matter of fact I grabbed a very big hard plastic hanger clip and swallowed it within seconds....(I thought it was a biscuit).  My mom had to take me to the emergency room that night to get it out. Unfortunately the "abdominal radiographs" could not see the hanger because it was made of plastic and whatever they gave me to induce vomiting didn't work either. So at about 3 am they finally told my mom that they were going to keep me over night for "observation" (quite honestly I was the one doing most of the observing.....what else was I going to do in my cage?? I don't like cages because no one ever hugs you when your in there.) So after two nights of observation they finally sent me home and told my mom to watch me closely because I would probably "pass" it.  Well I passed it two days later i threw it up!! Apparently it was so big it never left my stomach.  I heard the doc tell my mom later that it was too big to move through the opening of my colon.  After I threw it up I had diarrhea and bloody stools for a couple of days.  I left the vets with antibiotics. They didn't give me chemotherapy that week because my white blood cell count was too low. They told my mom to take my temperature on a daily basis to make sure that I did not have a fever over 102.8