Audrey's 3rd Chemotherapy Treatment

January 2, 2014

Off we go on a rainy, gray dreary day - Audrey headed out the door and immediately went to the door of the RV!  I would rather trek to the Vet in the RV; it would be so much more comfortable than my small car, but the Vet has a huge nice building and a crappy parking lot and it is always completely full of cars. I have trouble finding a parking spot for my car much less an RV!!  The first day I was there, a UPS truck was parked in front of the Vet's door and had traffic blocked all around that section of the lot.  Their parking spaces are so small, it is difficult to get your dog out of the car without opening your door into the car next to you.

Audrey was given Vincristine IV in her right front leg - same drug she was given on December 19.  It only takes about 20 minutes or less to administer.  They do a Complete Blood Count (CBC) prior to each treatment.  I asked for the results this time.  I wanted to see how her numbers were doing.  So far, all of her numbers are in normal ranges.  The Vet said Audrey is responding well to treatments and her lymph nodes are continuing to be small.  A victory.

Cost of this visit $178.45

We are settling into a routine at home.  During the night, three hours is the magic mark; she has to go out every three hours; except the one night when it was seven times.  She really does need to go!!  Once we are up for the day, she does a bit better. She has been having an "unsettled" time between about 6 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.  She wants food, she wants to go out every 30 or 40 minutes and she drinks lots of water.  I'm trying to find the balance.

In previous posts I've stressed how much water she drinks....how much is "a lot"?  About two gallons a day.... I need to keep a close watch on the water bowls in the house.  I used to have one of the big two gallon containers that gravity feed into the bowl....I also have a cat that thinks it's great fun to push that container all around the floor until he turns it over!!

I always bring water with me on our drive to the Vet.  As soon as we get parked, she is ready to drink and after the appointment she is ready for more.  Today she drank a 20 ounce bottle in those two servings.  When we got home and back into the house, she went straight to the water dish for more.

Her next appointment will be January 9th and she has to be there by 8:00 a.m. and most likely not be finished until around 2 or 3 p.m.  Apprehensive about this visit; this treatment is the "big" drug.  The traffic is our area is brutal in the mornings and I have about 35 miles to drive to the Vet.  Luckily, my daughter lives near the Vet office, so Audrey and I will spend the night with her.  She's a cat person...lol

I posted pictures the other day and I think I finally figured out how to make them appear directly in the feed rather than in an album...jury is still out on that... Soon I want to hunt up some of my pics from when Audrey was a puppy...what a cute little baby!  January 16th is her 5th birthday - afterward I'll post pictures of what we always do on our dog's birthday!!

I am new to blogging and still learning how this page works.  I finally found the "STATS" section and have been amazed where readers are coming from...lots of people from Malaysia....HI to you all and thank you for taking time out of your day to share mine...   : )