east tennessee gayle

today marks ten years with my wonderful family.  it was rainy, dark and stormy that evening in 2000, when my charon came down that road by the lake and found me trying to fight my way out of the muddy ditch.  i was but a wee little girl then, but what an adventure it’s been.  good fortune for me and for our entire family.  here’s to many many more fortunate times!!!!  lets celebrate!

yesterday we put chemo #3 in the books… what a loooonnnggg day!! got there at 8:30 am and didn’t leave til after 5 in the afternoon..  i was exhausted!!  of course my sister charon sat on a little stool next to the cage the whole time i got fluids and the red koolaid and then more fluids..her butt must be a bit sore i think.  she almost finished knitting the whole pair of socks she brought to work on.  i’m really tired today, need to nap extra hard i think…  only two more of these kind of days, then no more … i’ll be glad to get this all done.  just the thought of two more makes me need to nap…  last one to the sofa bed in the library is a rotten egg!!!

today was bath day for me and my older sister jane.  ughhhhhhhhhh how i hate the bathtub and all that shampoo and water…  i like being shiny and clean, but ughhhhhhhhh  the bath is just no fun for me.  just cause i look like mostly lab doesn’t mean this girl likes the water!!!  i need a nap!!!

when i was diagnosed with cancer, charon would gladly have given me her limb, to save mine.  but we know that wasn’t possible.  she did the next best thing, by putting my footprints on her right front ‘leg’.  we share this limb now.  this reminds both of us that we’re sisters forever, and nothing can ever change that…  forever is good.

wow, it sure doesn’t seem like it’s been two months since that fateful day, but here i am, april 17th, enjoying a beautiful day with my family!!  slept a little late (but who wouldn’t want to celebrate with a nap), and had a little nosh for breakfast so far.  i’m pretty proud of how my hair is growing back over that ginormous scar, and i must say i’m even more beautiful than before (if that’s possible!).  i wish my charon would let me use the stairs more, but she insists on me wearing my vest and her holding on…she’s pretty brave, but not with stairs i guess.

  i raced down the back yard yesterday when i saw a strange dog in the woods, but he scooted away before i could get to him to find out his story.  our yard backs up to a park, so i’m hoping he was looking for his human and wasn’t lost!!  

glad to be doing so well today, and everyday…life’s a gift fur sure!!!!!

yesterday was chemo treatment number two.  it’s such a long day, with the blood work, the fluids, and all that noise at the vet clinic…  wow i never knew how loud dachhounds (how do you  spell that…) can be!!!  there were five of them their, and wowsy…it was like a rock concert!!  after a bit of trouble getting my catheter in my ‘good leg’, it was smooth sailing otherwise.  when i got home in the afternoon, a long nap was called for, and then another prior to bed time.  i’ve decided to enjoy a wonderful spring day today, by celebrating with yet another nap.  my older sister jane (a 14 year old shepherd mix) and my kitty brother murphy joined me in the library for a nice snooze.  wow, sunshine, cool breeze, birds singing…life is good here for this little gal…  think i’ll try just one more nap before dinner!

after fighting an ugly infection in her remaining elbow, we decided that the chemo treatment would be completed with our vets.  they are the BEST, without a doubt.  i remain with gayle for every procedure, and the fear factor is greatly reduced for all. 

we had our first chemo treatment on monday march 4th.  gayle’s getting doxorubicin – projected to be five treatments (every 21 days), if she can tolerate it.   so far, so good.  she’s been pretty tired and rests alot since the treatment, but no ugly side effects so far.  a few soft poops, but nothing like i’d worried about. 

so, here we are, hanging out with many belly rubs and kisses…hoping for even more.  more ‘blog’ as we continue our path together!!

in january of 2010, we noticed (quite by accident) that the ‘wrist’ of gayle’s right leg seemed slighly swollen.  at first we thought spider bite, etc, but it didn’t go down.  there was no pain associated, so it didn’t seem like a ‘big deal’. 

our vet (and we LOVE our vet team at Bluegrass Animal Hospital in Knoxville) decided it was a bigger deal, and did a needle biopsy.  there were a few broken spindle cells, but, it wasn’t clear what was going on.  gayle went under the knife to do a biopsy (i was allowed to be with her the whole time, which was conforting to both of us) – the tumor wasn’t large, but it was very deep. 

the results from this indicated soft tissue sarcoma, high grade.  we went to the local vet school for further tests, etc.  no visible tumors elsewhere, with ultrasound, xray, etc.  gayle’s right front leg was removed on february 17th.

looking back, we probably should have kept all the procedures with our vets, but so much happened so fast…it seemed like the vet school was the best answer.  we had a few complications/issues but all is better now so i’ll not go into bashing mode here.  this is my only comment – when people or animals go to a ‘teaching hospital’, i get the idea that any outcome is a ‘learning experience’.  i just don’t feel they have a focus on the best for the patient in all aspects.  that’s just me.  anyway, gayle came home thursday february 18th, our beautiful tripawd sister.

well, here’s where we’ll start.  gayle came to live with us in may of 2000.  we’d recently lost our 10 yr old afghan hound in march, and i was still very ‘un-ready’ to rejoin life.  but, life has a way of reaching up to grab you if you’re ready or not.  coming home one nite, during a terrible thunder storm, i just decided to take a back road near the lake… i don’t know if phil (our afghan) lead me to gayle, or if he lead gayle to me – but during the drive i saw something fussing in the muddy ditch, and there she was.  no bigger than a minute…don’t know how she got there, but she ran to me and we’ve been together since. 

i’ve always said gayle’s alot like me, being sturdy and ‘farm girl’ like.  who knew the path we’d take together.