The girls

With all that's been going on with Attley, I've fallen a bit behind on posting anything about the girls so I thought I'd just post a bunch of pictures. Oh, and Clare is walking now!!
Watching TV (probably Dora).
Our little fire chief.
Like my hat, Grandpa??
Apples and pumpkins day.
Cate with her "peeps" - (Grandma and Grandpa Schwake).
This is my juice!
Are we related??
9...10! Come out come out where ever you are!
The nightly ritual of picking out our water cup for bed.
Mmmm, mac n cheese!
Visit to the Fire and Rescue Station.

Attley pics

Attley has been recovering really well. He seems to be getting the hang of the 3-legged deal and does better and better every day. We also seemed to have gotten his medication dose and timing figured out so he seems much more comfortable and not so out of it. In fact, he's seeming more and more like the old Attley every day. Here are a couple of shots the day before the amputation.


And here he is one day and one week after amputation.
One day...
And one week...

Hopalong Attley

Just a quick post for now to update you on Attley. I'll try to post pictures later.

Attley is now a 3-legged dog. He's doing amazingly well with both walking and recovery. He went in for the CAT scan on Thursday. The spot they thought was an abnormality was nothing and the rest of his lungs looked nice and clear, which was especially good news considering the CAT scan can see even more detail than an X-ray. There was one small (1 cm) nodule located on his chest wall. They aspirated it and found no cancer cells. Our oncologist told us that it was not consistent with this type of cancer and their belief was that it was possibly scar tissue from an earlier injury or just a fatty deposit. Her gut said that it was something we shouldn't be too concerned about and felt we should still go ahead with treatment. Since she's an expert, and probably because we wanted to believe her, we agreed and approved them to go ahead with the amputation on Friday morning.

Friday morning was sad for me thinking of them chopping off his leg and thinking how much harder life would be for him now. But we got the call later in the day that the surgery went fine and he was sleeping.

We picked him up on Saturday and were surprised at how well he could walk already. He's continuing to improve his gait and navigation of stairs and seems to be coming out of the worst of the pain. And other than a liver scare due to the Deramaxx he was on, he's doing pretty well.

More later.

Naturally

Nothing can be straightforward, can it?! The radiologist found a slight abnormality on Attley's lung x-ray which could either be a cancer nodule or the overlapping of two blood vessels. If its a cancer nodule, we probably wouldn't go ahead with amputation or chemo since dogs respond poorly to treatment once they've gone that far. We'd just work on pain management and, when the time came, euthanasia. He'd likely be gone from us in a month or 2 at most. However, if it is just two overlapping bloodvessels, then he's a very good candidate for full treatment (and could likely be with us for over a year, possibly 2). So it was recommended that we do a cat scan, at an additional $900! We really can't make a decent decision without it so we're going ahead with it. He's scheduled for Thursday for the cat scan and, on the assumption that his lungs are still clear, he'll have the amputation on Friday, come home with 3 legs on Saturday.

God must be trying to teach me something through all of this but I'm not quite sure what it is yet.

Toss Toss

I had a fabulous weekend with my two girlfriends, Nancy and Sharla, in Chicago. It was just what we all needed I think. We didn't have our time overly scheduled and we all traveled really well together. I didn't even feel a need to have some alone time until late in the day on Sunday (after a long day of travel... more on that later) which is saying a lot. We flew to Chicago on Friday morning, got checked into the Marriott on the Magnificent Mile on Michigan Avenue (41st floor, view of the lake. Nice.) and quickly proceeded to find a place to eat seeing that it was now about 3:00 and we had all had a light breakfast at around 8:00. We found a nice little italian restaurant where we all had very good food. The only problem was that our waitress kept asking if we wanted more Diet Pepsi (which we did) and failed to inform us that we were being charged for each one. And she seemed to act surprised that it bothered us that we paid over $15 for pop! In today's day and age, where free refills are the norm and not the exception, a wait staff person should most definitely tell you there is a charge associated with refills. We made sure not to make that mistake again by asking if there were free refills everywhere we ate all weekend long. Everyone seemed gave us a strange look that said, "Uh, yeah! Who doesn't give free refills??!" so we of course had to regale everyone about our tale of woe concerning the fizzy beverage and the italian waitress who didn't get a very big tip. After eating we did a bit of shopping before heading back to our hotel to freshen up for our trip to the theater to see Wicked. What a fun show. I can't believe God blesses some people with such good pipes! We all agreed it was highly entertaining and that the singing was outstanding but the songwriting could have been a bit better. After the show we met up with a couple of other girlfriends of mine that were taking their own (albeit strangely copy-cat version of our) chicago trip at a bar and had a few drinks.

Saturday we blissfully slept in until 9:30!!! Thanks to the dark curtains and Nan's white noise machine. I haven't slept that long in ages. What a blessing!!! After a quick stop at Dunkin Doughnuts (apparently the best coffee in Chicago) we hit the stores where I proceeded to spend myself into serious debt. But, I know I will keep all the stuff I bought for years. I got a leather blazer and 3 cashmere sweaters that will never go out of style (or so my fabulous partners in crime convinced me to ease my buyers remorse - who can ask for more out of friends??!). We did clothes and shoe shopping in the first part of the day followed by housewares shopping in the afternoon/evening with a little Spanish Tapas in between (I'd never had tapas before and it was so good!). That evening we went across the street for some seafood and wine at Joe's - super yummy. We climbed into bed and this time didn't wake up until 10:00!! Died and went to heaven. Sunday we did a little bit more shopping and grabbed lunch at this mexican place before grabbing our stuff and getting on the train to O'Hare. Our flight was scheduled for 4 something in the afternoon. We got a call from Eric, Sharla's husband just as we were getting to O'Hare to inform us that our flight had been canceled. Thanks to Sharla's cell phone, quick thinking and somewhat pushy attitude, we found ourselves on the way to midway in a taxi paid for by Northwest to catch an 8:00 flight home. We grabbed dinner at Harry Carey's to pass the time and had an uneventful trip home...until we went to get our baggage. Sharla and my bags came off the carousel right away but Nan's was nowhere in sight. Sharla went looking all over while I stood in a line (that wasn't moving) to report missing luggage. 4o minutes after our bags came off, Nan's finally slid down the shoot onto the carousel and Sharla grabbed it. Who knows where they were keeping it. Its always been a huge mystery to me what goes on behind the scenes at baggage claim. Anyway, we were finally on our way home to our own families. So happy to have gone and so happy to be back. That's what a vacation should always be like.

The highlights for me (above and beyond just being able to catch up with my two best friends) was the Wicked show, the sleeping and the eating. We've decided that we need to take this trip every year. So, I have something to look forward to now!

I'll post some pics after I get some from Nan...she was the only one who remembered a camera.

Through the wringer

Uggh! What an emotional week. I got a call from the U of M oncologist on Tuesday so that we could schedule a time to come in and have a consultation. She started right off the bat talking as if he had cancer and what our options would be. I told her that our vet had said it might possibly be an infection. Was that really just a false hope? She said, yeah, pretty much. They were quite certain it was cancer, specifically osteosarcoma, which apparently is a very aggressive cancer. We made the appt for Thursday morning and I promptly went online to find out what I could about osteosarcoma. Apparently, once you see the tumor on the leg and see a prounced limp, it has already metastasized (moved) to the lungs. If you decide not to treat it at all, the leg will get continuously worse and way more painful and the dog will succumb to LUNG cancer within 2-4 months! The next option is to amputate the offending limb which is really just a pain relieving option - it doesn't prolong life by more than a couple more months than doing nothing. The third option is to do chemo along with the amputation. 50% of dogs who go this route will live for one more year. Of course each option has its associated costs, all expensive.

Scott and I both went home early that day to hang out with our pup. It was hard to comprehend that this robust, wanting-to-play, beggin for food dog could be so close to death! I was sad beyond belief and started envisioning the next couple of weeks and getting all depressed.

We met with the oncologist this morning and both Scott and I came out feeling way better. I had convinced myself (and Scott too) that Attley was pretty much a goner. I assumed he had very progressed cancer and our only option would be to put him down. It turns out, however that his lungs are clear (no visible tumors but cancer is likely still there microscopically). Additionally, according to the oncologist, his leg tumor has been caught fairly early and he's walking on it way better than most dogs he sees for this condition. He said many dogs aren't even putting any weight on that leg (Attley was running and jumping still). And on the x-rays, Attley still had a lot of intact bone. Many dogs come in with their leg bone almost disintegrated. So given that information (that we apparently caught it fairly early), we've decided to go ahead with the amputation. His leg tumor will only get worse and more painful and send more cancer to his lungs more quickly so the sooner its off, the better. The next decision will be whether to go the next step with chemo which ended up being cheaper than we had initially thought. I never thought I'd go so far as to give him chemo, however we've caught it fairly early so he would likely have a good prognosis. Its equally likely though, that we spend a ton of money and he may still succumb to cancer in a few months. Its a gamble. We'll just have to weigh all the options and come to a decision.

Regardless of which option we go with, he will eventually die of lung cancer (the chances of him being cured with chemo are extremely small). Fortunately for him, lung tumors are not painful. The major complications are difficulty breathing (which can cause extreme anxiety for the animal) and coughing from obstructed airways. A decision will still need to be made as to when to put him down after he reaches that point. Regardless of whether or not we do chemo, I think we've decided on the least painful option and best chance for a continued good quality of life (if not quantity of life).

We're scheduling surgery for early next week. Next time you see him, he'll be gimping around on 3 legs. But he won't be in pain. And we can start treating him a bit more normally again. I'm sure he was a little stressed wondering why I was crying all the time and hugging him tightly every hour or so. A weight has been lifted for me. His death isn't right around the corner as I had originally thought. I wonder if I can every be ready for his death. Is there a way to prepare??

Anyway, thankfully I won't be a mess at my MOPs group tonight. And I won't be such a big downer on my girls' weekend to Chicago. And now, not only will I be rushing home on Sunday to see my girls, I will actually be equally ready to give my big mutt a huge hug, one of the last on 4 legs.