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Nikki is Officially a Tripawd!

January 19, 2010

Wow!

We got the call that we could pick Nikki up around 7:15pm.. We had a pretty intense, but quick snowstorm here this afternoon and the roads were icy, so we had to take it very easy.. I was having a difficult time driving just because all I could think about was getting Nikki home….

Well, we got to Banfield and met with Dr. Pyne. She spent a lot of time explaining to us how the surgery really couldn’t have gone better, and how she was sending the leg out for pathology on the cancer, but that it just looked like everything was caught in time and we should be relieved about that.. Then she started explaining about how no matter how many pictures of 3-legged dogs we looked at, and no matter how many people we’ve talked to about it, when you see your baby come out of the room you’re just not going to be prepared… Well, she was SO right…… I was convinced that we did the wrong thing just as soon as I heard her crying and saw her being carried through the door…… I know that’s the wrong thing to feel, but it’s very hard to look at what we’ve done to her. (yeah, I know, it will all be better soon, and we should remember that we saved her life)

Anyway, here’s a picture of Nikki on the cart ready to get loaded into the Tahoe:

DSCN0064

And here she is on the bed in the front room, where we’re going to spend the night:

DSCN0066

I suspect it’s going to be a long night, but the great thing about that is now that we’re done with this part, this is just the first night in many, many, many more……

Thanks again for everyone’s comments and messages. They are really appreciated, and while I don’t take the time to respond to each of them, please know that both Mary and I really do appreciate all the support we’ve gotten here.


Halfway Through Surgery Day!

January 19, 2010

Today is the day! It started with me getting up early and taking the dogs out.. They of course didn’t get treats this morning because Nikki wasn’t allowed food, and of course it wouldn’t be right to treat the others.. They didn’t seem to mind too much, I think  they knew something was up. I know that Nikki knew something was up, because she was much more attentive to me and playful than she usually is in the mornings. (She’s always attentive, but this morning she was clinging and playing around like crazy)

After my early phone meeting, Mary and I loaded Nikki into the Tahoe (ok, that’s an understatement, she FLEW into the back and then immediately went forward and jumped into the drivers seat) and headed out to Banfield. We got her all checked in, and then it came time to say goodbye. This is where things got tough… Nikki did NOT want to go in the back with the tech, so I had to walk her to the door and coax her in… We took a bunch of pictures (I’m at the office right now and the camera is home, so will have to post them later) so we’ve got the process all documented…

Then the waiting began…. I had to head into the office after dropping Mary back at home.. This was around 8am…

The process for Nikki was to begin with full chest X-Rays to make sure that there were no mets in her lungs and that everything was OK… Knowing that Dr. Pyne was planning on starting that around 9 or so, I was dreading that phone call starting from about 10… The call never came, and Mary finally couldn’t stand it anymore and called around 3.. Everything was clear, and Nikki is currently in surgery! She’s doing fine, and everything is going exactly to plan!!!

I have another hour here in the office, then I’ll head home and we’ll wait impatiently for that call telling us that we can pick our BabyDog up… But, I thought I would put a quick update out here as to where we were at this moment… WOO HOO!


T minus one…….

January 18, 2010

Wow, what an insane day! I had to be in the office early, so I was up and downstairs by 0530. Nikki and the others of course followed me down, went outside and did their business, then came inside for treats.. As is the custom, after the treats, Nikki laid by my chair in the home office while I drank my coffee and caught up with the non-work email/facebook stuff, Sasha laid in front of the desk, and Buddy went back upstairs to be with Mary…

When it came time to leave, I took Nikki and Sasha back upstairs, and noticed that Nikki was really favoring her leg along the way.

When Mary got up and went through her morning routine, Nikki was busy with one of her favorite things: Gazing out the front door at all the goings-on in the neighborhood…

DSCN0044

Mary spent a good portion of the day out running errands and getting all of this weeks shopping done, as we figure that she’ll probably be staying very close to home for the rest of the week. So when I came home for lunch (not normal for a weekday, so it truly surprised the dogs) Nikki seemed overly excited that I was home, and she spent more time trying to make sure that I was paying attention to her than usual.

We had some friends over this evening and all went out to dinner, and when we came home, Nikki was really asking for attention from me, to the point where she put her paw on me and “asked” me to bend down so she could lick my face…. Not sure what this behavior is all about, but she did it several times. Our friend Kay thinks that Nikki senses how worried I am about tomorrow, and it’s her way of letting me know it’s OK… I don’t know, but it was definitely different.

Tomorrow morning starts with an early conference call with my team in India, then loading up the Tahoe with Nikki and heading for the dreaded surgery. We have a bit of turmoil going on in the office right now that I unfortunately have to deal with, so after dropping Nikki off and the Vet and then Mary back home, I’ll have to head to the office. I guess that’s a good thing, since it will (yeah, right) help keep my mind off what’s happening with Nikki.

I’ll update this page tomorrow when we’re home from the vet. Keep your fingers, toes and paws crossed for us!


T-Minus 2 Days

January 17, 2010

Well, today was another lazy day of household chores and other misc stuff.. The dogs and I spent some time in the back yard filling the bird feeders and horsing around as usual.

Nikki seemed to be favoring her leg a bit more today, probably because she was so active yesterday. (She actually chased the laser for a little while last night.. This is not normal, she usually just watches as the other two chase it around before we go to bed)

I thought about taking Nikki for a ride today, but she tends to get very active in the back of the Tahoe, and the docs have warned us that we need to be extremely careful that she doesn’t fracture her hind leg. So, even though Nikki really loves the big R, we decided it would be best to let her enjoy the trip to the vet on Tuesday instead..

One thing Nikki really likes doing is destroying cardboard boxes… I don’t really know how this started, but pretty much anytime I have an empty box (she won’t touch it until she knows it’s OK) she wants to destroy it. I decided to take some video of her doing that today. Not the most exciting of videos, but I imagine I’ll be happy I took it at some point in the future.. You can also see her sister Sasha here trying to help out. (Sasha will turn 1 year old in a couple of weeks)

On the video, when she gets to the second box (about 40 seconds in), you can see how she really favors her right-hind leg.. On one hand it’s going to be very strange seeing her as a TriPawd, but on the other it’s going to be nice to not see her in pain when she walks.

Mary and I went to the store today in preparation for Tuesday. I’m sure Nikki won’t be able to handle the stairs for a few days post-op, so we bought an air mattress that we can put next to one of the dog beds on the main floor for me to sleep on. (We figure at least for the first week she’ll need to sleep downstairs and I’ll stay with her) I also picked up (ok, I tried to pick up. Seems as if I got the wrong kind and will have to try again tomorrow) a canvas grocery bag to use as a temporary sling until Nikki heals enough to use the harness.


T-Minus 3 days and counting!

January 16, 2010

Today is Saturday, a day that I don’t have to get up early and go to work, and a day where we generally get the collective errands that need to be done taken care of.

As far as Nikki is concerned, this is just another day. She was happy as we trudged down the stairs to start the normal morning routine around 7am. I let all 3 dogs out, then watched them from the deck for awhile. Nikki spotted a rabbit and half-heartedly took off after it (she has always done this, it’s like she knows that she’s supposed to chase them, but doesn’t really want to catch one because she wouldn’t know what to do with it) and then came in for treats with the others..

A bit later she decided that it was time for her to get in my lap (even though she’s 105+ pounds, she still thinks she’s a lap dog) and sleep for awhile.. Later as Mary and I were watching some TV, Nikki decided to get on the couch next to Mary and watch me play with the others..

All in all a normal day… It is very hard for me to watch this behavior of hers and not feel like she’s OK.. I’m glad though that she’s acting like this, because it gives me hope that we’ve caught this in time!

A quick correction

In re-reading my earlier posts and some of the comments from folks (by the way, thank you SO MUCH for your comments, it’s VERY much appreciated!) I think I might have led some people astray.. While we consulted with the fantastic folks at CSU in Ft. Collins, we’ve elected to let our “regular” vet handle the treatment, with consultation from Dr. Michelle Nanfelt at CSU. Dr. Nanfelt wrote up a very nice treatment plan for Nikki, and our Doc (Dr. Pyne) will be taking care of everything. When it comes time to move to Chemo, we’ll use the good folks at Veterinary Specialty Center in Colorado Springs. Dr. Hines and Dr. Morgan there are the ones we consulted with and got the first diagnosis.

Again, I want to thank everyone here for their comments and supports. It has not gone unnoticed!


The importance of a health maintenance plan

January 15, 2010

I certainly don’t want this post to be perceived as an advertisement, but one thing that has been on my mind as we start this journey is that I am very thankful for the care that Nikki has received up to this point.

When Nikki was a puppy we enrolled her in a “puppy plan” from Banfield (Banfield is a national veterinary center here in the States, they have locations inside many PetSmart stores, but also have stand-alone centers) and kept her on that for her first year. Then we let it slide…

Early last year we decided to get Nikki back on a health plan, mainly because we were taking her in for normal vaccination boosters and noticed the money we’d save.

I honestly believe that decision saved Nikki’s life! (Yes, I know we’re just now starting this journey, but I don’t think Nikki would be with us today if we hadn’t caught this in time) and I know it’s saved us a LOT of money, which certainly reduces the stress that one feels at this time.

So, if you’re reading this and your pet is not on a health-maintenance plan, look into one NOW!

You can read about the plan we have Nikki on here: http://www.banfield.net/optimum-wellness-plans-adults

I highly recommend Banfield. They truly care about the animals that they serve, and are not afraid to send you to experts when the problem is beyond them.


The Beginning of a (hopefully) very long journey

January 14, 2010

I found this site today while I was searching for information about bone cancer in dogs. After reading some of the stories here and seeing just how similar they are to ours, I knew that I had to create a blog here to share the story of our BabyDog Nikki…

The “About” page contains the background on how we arrived to this point, so I won’t bore anyone with repeating it here, however I did want to provide a little more information about the diagnosis that started us down this path.

Sometime in early November (I honestly don’t remember the date) The dogs and I were playing around with a remote control car in the back yard. Nikki was doing her normal thing, which was chasing the car, and then when I’d turn it towards her she’d run and bark.. We play this game now and then, and it was just another normal day.. Afterwards as we walked back inside, I noticed that Nikki was limping. As the day wore on, Nikki seemed to limp more. Mary finally convinced me that we needed to take Nikki to see the vet, so the next day we took her in. They checked her out, didn’t find anything wrong other than tenderness, so they prescribed some pain meds and sent us home.

On December 1st, we took Nikki to see her regular vet (Dr. Pyne at Banfield in Colorado Springs – She is the best!) because her leg just wasn’t getting any better. She took some X-Rays, and still didn’t see anything amiss. (Hindsight now shows that we should have been looking for something other than a torn ACL)

Here is the telling X-Ray from that visit:

NikkiRightLegXrayDec1

We saw Dr. Pyne a couple more times for regular checkups, and while the pain meds seemed to be working, Nikki really wasn’t getting better, so Dr. Pyne suggested that we see an orthopedic specialist here in Colorado Springs.. We finally got her in for an appointment on December 30. New X-rays were taken, and it was pretty clear to them what the problem was.

NikkiRightLegXrayDec30

Cancer! that word nobody ever wants to hear, and especially hard for Mary to take, since she had only last year lost her Mother to the disease.

At first we didn’t want to believe it. We were convinced that it couldn’t be cancer, it just HAD to be something else… We decided to look for a second opinion, and in talking with Dr. Pyne we found the Colorado State University Animal Cancer Center.. We took Nikki in for a consult, and they definitely agreed with the diagnosis.

So, after all of this, Nikki starts the “normal” treatment for this disease; Amputation of the limb and chemotherapy treatments.

Nikki is scheduled to go into surgery on Tuesday.

We plan to use this blog to chronicle our journey with Nikki. She’s only 8 years old, and we’re just not ready to let her go yet, so we’re hoping that this journey is a long and happy one. We know it will be tough at times, but we’re confident that we have the best docs in the world looking out for our baby.