Patchy ~2008, looking over the edge of a steep cliff. No fear

Sleep continues to remain elusive. I’m typing this at 3am. Patchy spent the last hour pacing and going in and out the back door. I finally resigned myself to not sleeping and gave her a second dinner, which clearly was her goal. Apparently meals are middle of the night now too.

I can’t really blame her. She eats so irregularly. She hardly ate anything Saturday, but i believe she had at least one bowl earlier today (Sunday). She binges and starves, binges and starves. Continue reading →

Patch overlooking Monterey Bay, 2009

Patchy’s appetite continues to be erratic.  Some days she eats 2 or more meals, others she doesn’t eat anything.  It’s worrisome.  I’ve hand fed her a few times, but it isn’t my preference.  (I don’t usually have the time to stop everything in the morning and feed her for 15 minutes, though the bonding time is very precious to me.)

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I feel bad.  She’s been consistently having accidents every morning now, before we leave for work.  I let her out first thing (and she pees) and within an hour, while I’m cooking breakfast or getting dressed, she pees in the house.  Thankfully this morning it was on linoleum and not the carpet.  I’ve taken to isolating her in my bedroom when I’m home in the afternoon/evenings, and it appears I’ll need to do the same in the mornings.  (My bedroom is linoleum, and has an open door to the backyard.)  She looks so forlorn when I force her to be in my bedroom, but its necessary for her to avoid more indoor accidents.  Especially with her starting chemo, and her fluids needing to be “handled with gloves.”

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The pharmacy (based in Arizona) called today to collect shipping and billing information.  I was informed that her medication will arrive in 3-6 days, in a refrigerated shipping case.  With little dots that will change color is the medication didn’t stay cold enough.  Thats pretty intense.  To make it scarier, the oncologist emailed me her chemo instructions.

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The oncologist called just before 5pm today.  Patchy’s X-rays look good (confirmed by radiologist) and her blood work came back pretty clean.  They noticed a slightly elevated liver enzyme, which has been noted in previous blood tests dating back to her car crash on Halloween.  Its unclear what the cause of the elevated liver enzymes could be, or if its even affecting anything.  It could also be related (or not) to the nodules that were seen on her liver.  Its not clear what those nodules might be (cancer, benign or malignant), but its not an easy place to get a sample.  For now, it isn’t something to worry about, unless things change.

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After consulting with the oncologist, he explained that based on the location and description of the mass in her bladder, it is unlikely that this tumor could be a different diagnosis. There is not a 100% diagnosis without a biopsy, but Transitional Cell Carcinoma is the most common and likely for a bladder tumor.  Continue reading →

After weeks of unexpected and frequent accidents, I took Patchy in for another UTI check on Friday.  The previous two (one 2 weeks before, and the other a month or more prior) were both negative.  Though, the most recent showed evidence of an immune response, just no bacteria.  While taking a sample, the vet decided to take a closer look and scoped her vulva, finding an unusual mass.  When they both returned, she heavily suggested that we should look at it closer with ultrasound. Continue reading →