Wed., Jan. 12, 2011 - Happy New Year!

Happy 2011 to all.  So far it has been a good year.  I know it has been less than 2 weeks, but we never know how much time we have so we are making the most of it.  Today is Handsome Hardee's 5 year and 10 month birthday.  Two months ago, we almost didn't make it to here, so we celebrate each month he gets older and is still with us.  It has also been almost exactly 5 months since the dreaded diagnosis.

To catch you up on Hardee, he is doing great right now.  He's had three I.V. chemo treatments and is getting ready for his 4th next week.  Also next week when we go for chemo,  Hardee is getting general anesthesia for another CT scan so we can assess the tumor growth.  It has been 2 months since we did the last scan, and I'd like to know if the chemo is having any affect on the tumor.  HH still gets a daily chemo pill, and I'm hoping the combination of the chemo is helping to shrink the tumor or at least stop the rapid growth that was occurring in November. 

This next round of chemo, I think we'll go back to the chemo that he got the very first time....the one that made him so sick.  We are better prepared to fight the side effects this time and hopefully ward off the effects.  We've done Carboplatin two times in a row now, and we need to go back to the original chemo sometime.  A person on my canine cancer list tried Carboplatin for her dog's nasal tumor and it didn't work at all, so now I am afraid to try it again without trying another chemo first.  We'll do the scan before we do the chemo, so depending on the scan results, we'll decide then on what chemo to use.

Hardee has lost so much hair while on chemo.  It has hit his white areas hard, and he only has small areas of white hair left that are patchy, at best.  Hardee's brown hair seems to be falling out much more evenly.  I'm thinking hard about shaving him down again.  After I got used to the shaved look in September, when I first shaved him down, it didn't look that bad to me.  The sad part is that HH is losing his tail flag.  The tip of his tail is bare where the white part of his flag used to be.

Hardee is his happy, confident self still.  He loves life, and we love him.  His nose still drains quite a bit of goop, that also drains down the back of his throat and gags him often, and is blood tinged.  He still sneezes often, especially when he is up and moving.  I still worry with each sneeze because it can set off a bleed that we might not be able to control.  Two months ago, we didn't think he would make it until now, and now my goal is to have him for his 6th birthday, March 12th.

Keep us, and especially Hardee, in your thoughts and prayers next week for better results from the CT scan on Thurs., Jan 20th.  Add in some special blessings for a friend's dog that has come out of remission for his cancer.  He is young, like Hardee, and such a special boy.  I'll update Hardee's blog when I know something at the end of next week.

Until then, it is all about joy and all about Hardee.  We can't imagine our lives any other way.