December 30, 2011 – Update on all patients

Margaret's blood work is back and it was better when she only had 50% chemo which we expected.  Her white blood cells were 0.3, that is 300 since it is measured in thousands.  Her neutrophils were not enough to count (specific type of white blood cell that helps protect against and fight infection).  She did have a red blood cell count though, 3.52 and her platelets were low at 46.  She is feeling better every day, she is tired and naps a lot even though she says she is not sleeping, she is just resting.  Funny that excess never worked for me, really I was just resting my eyes the snoring was just to throw everyone off.

Riley (out eldest dog) is doing better.  I took him in Wednesday to get blood work and maybe get a fine needle aspriate of his liver.  Well his palettes were only 64K, up from 47K which is an improvement but not enough to poke him with a needle.  His ALT (liver enzyme) was 1715, down from 1843. The vet was hoping that it was going to drop more but no such luck.  He is not eating a lot which is a concern for me more than the vet, I can feel bones I never knew he had.  He was on 7 different meds, for 13 pills to get in his gullet each day but now they are taking him off the antibiotic so he is just on 4 drugs for 8 pills a day.  He goes back next week for more blood work and maybe a fine needle aspriate to see what is going on with his liver.

The one interesting thing was that the only people living things in the house (not counting uninvited guests like spiders) who was not on prednisone was Emma (other dog) and me (Amy was at school at the time).  Margaret, Matt and Riley were all on it at the same time.  I guess Emma and I were the special ones.

That is all I know, thanks for stopping by and have a great New Year!

December 23, 2011 – Everyone is home

As of about 7:30 last night everyone was home.  Now both Margaret and Riley are on a bunch of meds but it is easier to get Margaret to take them than it is to get Riley to take them. 

Merry Christmas!

December 21, 2011 – Margaret and Riley Update

Well I have good news all the way around.  Margaret had a PET scan today and it showed absolutely nothing!  Complete remission is what the doctor said and he was surprised that it worked this fast.  Everyone is pleased with this news.  She will have to continue for three more cycles of chemo to make sure they get it all, sometimes what is left is to small to be detected by the PET scan and they just want to make sure.  The transplant docs told her that people who get PTLD almost never 'reject' because one of the causes is that she was so immunosuppressed, they antirejection drugs were working to well.  Also the odds of her getting PTLD again after all the chemo cycles is 'infinitesimally small' (thank heavens for spell checker).  After she is done with the remaining rounds of chemo she has to go back for checkups every three months for a while.  ‘For a while’ has yet to be determined but we will take it.

As far as Riley goes his platelets are continuing to climb, we are up to 42K of them and apparently he has some big ones which the machine does not count.  This is considered normal and not unusual for dogs to have some really big platelets.  Since they can’t be counted they are not positive what his real count is but they know it is higher than 42K.  Assuming there are no bad changes he is going to come home tomorrow on a bunch of oral meds.  He will have to go back next week for blood work to get his blood counts and another measure of his liver enzymes.  Speaking of liver enzymes, his are starting to come down and if they get close to normal by mid next week they will probably not do a biopsy since whatever we are doing is working, if they are still high they will do a biopsy when his platelets get high enough to do it safely.  Pretty darn good since last week his odds of survival were not good.

So the bottom line to all of this is we should all be home for Christmas, actually we should all be home tomorrow!!  And that my friends is what I call a Merry Christmas!!

December 18, 2011 – Riley Update

Since there is nothing new for Margaret I though I would use this for a Riley update (our dog).  So far he is holding his own.  His personality is coming back pretty good and he started to eat some.  He is still not medically in good shape.  He currently has two problems, his lack of platelets and whatever seems to be wrong with his liver.  He now has 15k platelets and the normal for dogs is 200k to 400k.  They will not even think about doing anything invasive until his counts get to about 150K for fear he will bleed to death.  They know he is producing platelets but are not real sure what is 'eating' them or using them, they obviously think it is his liver since his liver enzyme numbers are REALLY bad.  So far he in not jaundiced (surprising) and it is a wait and see.  Hopefully he will get enough platelets so they can do a biopsy of the liver to find out the root cause of the issue.  The vet has not given up on him yet since he does seem to be improving but he could bruise and well, with his lack of platelets that would not be good.  We are visiting 2 - 3 times a day and he is acting more and more like his old self but medically there are still BIG worries.

Our neighbor's dog was sick earlier with similar symptoms and things did not turn out so good for him and they never found out what the issue was so we are very concerned.

Riley doing what he does best, relaxing.

December 15, 2011 – Next round of Chemo and some non-Margaret not great news

Margaret’s latest round of chemo went very well.  It was at 50% of the ‘full load’ and she tolerated it very well.  She was a little fatigued and run down but her numbers did not go into the toilet which is very good.  Her next round is next week along with a PET scan and echo.  We are not sure if they are going to keep the 50% chemo or go up to 75% or not, we will find out once she sees the doctor.  Amy is going to take her since she is on break now.

Some not great news we have, Riley our oldest dog has some very serious health problems.  Monday we took him to the vet because he was losing weight.  They couldn’t find anything wrong on exam but did blood work which came back as REALLY bad liver enzyme numbers.  He also has a platelet count of zero.  He was admitted to puppy ICU Tuesday night and has been there since.  They can not do anything invasive since he would bleed to death so they are somewhat limited.  He is on two of the same drugs Margaret is on along with a number of other ones.  While no one has given up hope for him it is not looking good at all.  His birthday is next week and I am not sure he will make it.  We are all very sad about this new development.

December 3, 2011 – She is home!

She is home!

December 2, 2011 – It's Go Home Time, for now

After her 'help my blood count' shot tomorrow morning she will be leaving.  She has been kicked out not to return (hopefully) for three weeks for the next round of chemo.  Yippee!

I have been home this week, her friend Goob was up with her.  Just a FYI, Goob is not her real name but a nickname someone gave her years ago.  I have known her for about 23 years and she has always been Goob to me.  Anywho.... I was planning on going back up tomorrow to replace Goob but since she is be sprung then Goob will drive her home.  She should be back mid - late afternoon.  So I am guessing that I should hurry up and do laundry, darn.

The chemo she got yesterday was about half of what she had the previous time and they stopped one of her anti-rejection meds since she didn't have enough white blood cells to attack her heart anyway.  Hopefully with the reduced chemo her counts will not end up in the toilet again, only time will tell.

Someday I do promise to take a look at the picture of the crows I took and if it is ok I will post it.  I wonder how the whole 'let's get rid of these darn birds' plan worked,  I will have to ask tomorrow.

That is all I got for now.

Thanks.