4 down....? to go

Chemo treatment 4 is complete! "M" checked Arlie out and cleared him for launch so we went ahead with the treatment. Earlier this week we were a little concerned that Arlie was being a little too careful on his walks and trying to shorten his time outside. We had a couple of nice days where I threw the ball for him and his girl, Bella, and he took the bait and ran and ran and ran to get every ball I threw their way.

This past Wednesday it snowed. For the folks reading this blog that aren't on the east coast, DC had a storm nicknamed "snowquestration." It was a lot of hype and in the end, didn't really amount to much. Arlie had a blast taking down every attempt of the kids snowman. The kids would form a snowball and then came a black ball of fur using his one paw to rip it apart. The kids found it comical. Arlie loved it.

Here is a video of Arlie playing with Pepper. Another new friend in the neighborhood.

Arlie in the snow

Fast forward to today and the treatment. We have added another pill to Arlie's repertoire....deramaxx. This helps for arthritis. Hopefully Arlie isn't getting this but with him being careful with his leg we assume he's getting sore from being a tripawed. With the deramaxx I noticed on his discharge papers we need to also give him Pepcid. So let's review what we give our pill loving dog....SMZ (antibiotics), Deramaxx (arthritis), Anti Nausea meds, Appetite stimulant, and pepcid. The good news is he only needs the nausea meds and stimulant about a week post treatment so we don't get a puppy that doesn't want to eat. "M" has lowered Arlie's carboplatin as he's just so drug sensitive. He doesn't want to lower it anymore as it become ineffective. Therefore, we will evaluate after the 6th (and what was supposed to be his final treatment) if we need to give him 2 more.

When I picked Arlie up from his treatment, the tech said to me, "Arlie was amazing again as always. He is such a great dog. He's our favorite patient right now." You would think that I would have said, "Aww, that's nice" or "Thank you he is a great dog." Nope, I said, "I know!!!!! I mean naturally he's your favorite as he's awesome!!". When I told Greg about this convo he said, "You didn't really say that did you??" I said, "Yes because it's true."  Do I need to work on my humility?? Nope. Because let's face it...he IS awesome.

Greg asked "M" how the presentation went. "M" told him how he ended his presentation on a slide of Arlie and the whole room was silent and did a collective, "Awww" and Arlie is the message of hope. When he told me that I cried. Arlie sure is. He's AWESOME!!!! Period. Exclamation point. End of post.

P.S. This blog has now reached Ireland!! Glad that you are enjoying this blog!