and i have no idea how to rotate this video.
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Other Cool Shit
Recent Brain Food
- Art of Preserving all kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances for Several Years (really, from 1812, translated from French)
- The Art of Preserving
- Every book ever written on dogs and arthritis
- Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition
- Ball Home Preserving Guide
Too close for missiles, I'm switching to guns.
7 comments:
After finding your blog via a Google search for "post-radiation sores", I am appreciating your blog very much. I just finished the same treatment with my dog, Scout at Boston's Angell Memorial and was looking for reassurance about his sores. We have a slightly different cancer--nasal adenocarcinoma (I think you were luckier in the diagnosis, if lucky is possible in any of this)--and had a shorter treatment of 10 days. He finished a week ago Monday. It's hard to see him so drugged up that he doesn't follow me like usual and with the sores, particularly surrounding his eye, but your blog has helped me realize it'll get better soon. Thank you, and best wishes for a long and happy life for your dog.
I'm so sorry about your baby - the week or two after radiation finished, when she had the sores was the worst. They are really terrible, but my vet was right, it looks awful and the dog is really incredibly sick, and then within a day they will start to heal absurdly fast. If you'd like me to send you photos of Honey (and it was really gruesome) I'd be glad to.
Thanks for your message. Two weeks ago today was his last radiation treatment. The sores for the most part are healed and pink--such a beautiful pink! He didn't lose fur all over, just in patches, although it continues to fall out. He's got a new scab from a roll in the snow this weekend, which I was about 5 seconds too late to start. Did you see any snotty-type side effects? He seems sneezy and has had a discharge from his nose. It's been pretty gross. We got a new antibiotic, which seemed to turn the goop from greenish/brown to clear, but he still seems congested. We go back to Boston for our post-radiation check tomorrow. We, like you, are seeing one of 2 radiation oncologists in New England and have been thrilled with our care. I just can't wait to see him running around healthy again!
It was so helpful to see your pictures and know that what we were dealing with was normal. Thank you!
Yes, we've had constant goopy weird-colored snot since January. They warned us it might not get better, so we've covered everything with old sheets and we do a lot of laundry. It does seem to come and go, and it's worse in the mornings. Her eyes are the only thing we're still having real trouble with, as the radiation has left her unable to produce tears in her left eye. She's taking eyedrops, i think they're called restasis, and we're really happy with the results. Give Scout some kisses from Honey and I and he will get back to normal, I had an out of town guest last night who hadn't seen her in over a year and he said he couldn't even tell, by her face or personality. It was a wonderful thing to hear.
Scout got a good check up from his vet! Unfortunately, he isn't better, though. I finally have the e-collar off, and the gross snot cleared up with an antibiotic. His eye (which also was in the radiation field) is bothering him now. The vet just checked it for ulcers and tear duct production on Tuesday and both were good. I don't know whether he managed to scratch it or if he got some A-D ointment (which we're using for dry skin) in it, but we're back to the antibiotic ointment in the eye. We may have to get him checked out again tomorrow if it's not better. He's also really sluggish and mopey. I can't tell whether it's because he doesn't feel well or is just sick of not getting to do anything. The vet mentioned testing his blood and then giving him a round of steriods as a boost. How long did it take Honey to get her energy and playfulness back? I just want my dog back!
Erica - we stopped steroids and painkillers at the same time, and she got really despondent as well. And it was just as she was starting to physically get better, so it was really discouraging. What we wound up doing was keeping her on prednisone while we weaned her off the painkillers, then taking the steroids down. The vet said it had something to do with us moving, but what helped her most was having friends come over, and getting to go ‘with’. She stopped radiation on Feb 29th and we weaned her off painkillers within a month, but she had a mass removed from her ear and had to go back on them. She was on prednisone (which we went on originally because she was refusing to eat) for a total of about two months, but she’s 'clean' now and happy. I think in her case, the depression was caused by taking the drugs away at the same time, coupled with moving. I don't know if Scout is on painkillers or if you're weaning, but taking Honey places (even just a ride around with the windows down) made her really happy, and having visitors did too, so we focused on that. It took about two weeks to get over her depression and I didn’t see any sign of it when we weaned meds at different times. Let me know what the vet says about his eye. And you can give dogs artificial tear drops for humans, we did that a few times for Hon when her eyes were bugging her for no apparent reason. They’re also less goopy than the antibiotic cream.
Erica - we stopped steroids and painkillers at the same time, and she got really despondent as well. And it was just as she was starting to physically get better, so it was really discouraging. What we wound up doing was keeping her on prednisone while we weaned her off the painkillers, then taking the steroids down. The vet said it had something to do with us moving, but what helped her most was having friends come over, and getting to go ‘with’. She stopped radiation on Feb 29th and we weaned her off painkillers within a month, but she had a mass removed from her ear and had to go back on them. She was on prednisone (which we went on originally because she was refusing to eat) for a total of about two months, but she’s 'clean' now and happy. I think in her case, the depression was caused by taking the drugs away at the same time, coupled with moving. I don't know if Scout is on painkillers or if you're weaning, but taking Honey places (even just a ride around with the windows down) made her really happy, and having visitors did too, so we focused on that. It took about two weeks to get over her depression and I didn’t see any sign of it when we weaned meds at different times. Let me know what the vet says about his eye. And you can give dogs artificial tear drops for humans, we did that a few times for Hon when her eyes were bugging her for no apparent reason. They’re also less goopy than the antibiotic cream.
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