Wed., Apr. 18, 2012 - No more therapy visits

Hardee has been on his new antibiotics for one week now, and they are not working.  He smells worse than ever, though the drainage seems to be the same.  In talking to the vet today, she has stopped all of Hardee's therapy visits.  We don't know what bug we are dealing with, and until we can get it under control (if ever), we need to be careful who we let Hardee come in contact with if they have weakened immune systems.  With some of the patients that Hardee visits at the hospice facility having compromised immune systems and Hardee having a very compromised immune system, it is just too risky to continue visits according to the vet.

Though we haven't been to the hospice facility for 1.5 weeks now for visits because of how Hardee smells, we will miss it terribly.  I loved seeing the patients' and the staff's smiles light up when they saw Hardee.  I loved the way our own smiles would light up when we would arrive at the facility.  We will miss visiting with the patients and the people we worked with there.  We also had a special home hospice patient that we really enjoyed spending time with, and she just loves dogs and loves Hardee.  We will miss her also. 

Since Hardee himself is on home hospice, I thought the hospice facility was the perfect fit for Hardee's therapy work.  It is where we felt at home, and it gave us an opportunity to take our minds off our own troubles.  I am so grateful to Nancy at the hospice facility for giving us a chance to do therapy work there, even though she knew of Hardee's terminal cancer and the associated problems that came along with his condition.  Thank you, Nancy, for giving us this opportunity.  You are great, and we will miss you most.  Hardee loved pulling me to your office after our visits were finished to get his treat from you.

Hardee had a successful weekend in agility last weekend.  He loved being back and running again.  He can run again this weekend if he feels up to it.  As always, it is all about joy and all about Hardee.  You know we wouldn't have it any other way

Wed., Apr. 11, 2012 - Vet appointment

Today we had an appointment with the Air Force base vet for Hardee to get some new antibiotics.  The drainage and the smell coming from him is pretty bad.  We have tried almost every antibiotic available, and we are running out of options.  The 2 antibiotics decided upon today were his usual, Clindamycin, and the new one, Doxycycline.

If these antibiotics don't work to help control the smell coming from Hardee's mouth (where the tumor has busted through the hard palate), we will have to sedate him, get a sample of his nose drainage, and send it off for a culture and sensitivity.  The lab will grow what is in his nose and then test for what antibiotic works to kill/control it.  Hardee has been on so many antibiotics for so long, we hope there is an antibiotic left that works.  We could be dealing with a super bug.

Hardee is still bleeding off and on (mostly on).  To control his pain, he gets a pain pill every 4 hours with 2 at bedtime.  He's had quite a few reverse sneezing episodes lately that are coming more and more often.  He cannot settle when these are happening and has to wander, mostly outside.  These can go on for well over half an hour as we follow him around.  I have taken to giving him some Valium to help stop the episodes and help him settle down and sleep.

The vet today agreed with me that it is not his time to leave us.  She said that every time she has seen him, you would never even know anything was wrong with him.  If she didn't already know about his cancer and if she hadn't seen what she did inside his mouth today, she'd have a hard time believing that anything was wrong with him. 

Hardee looks great but is a couple pounds over this normal weight, though the vet thought he looked fine.  He weighed 50 lbs. today.  I thought his weight would come down once we got his thyroid medication at the right dose but that hasn't happened.  Could be because we give him whatever he wants because it just doesn't matter anymore.

We are going to SoCal for the first time in 5 weeks for an agility trial this weekend.  We are tired of waiting around for Hardee to leave us, and since he hasn't, we've decided to regain some normalcy to our lives and see if he feels up to running.  Every time we think the end is close, Hardee rebounds and decides to stick around.  We've promised he can run until the end, so if he wants, he can run.

We're still letting the handsome one dictate his path with us.  We'll keep him around as long as he wants to stay.  We still hope for clarity when the time comes to release him.  Until then, we'll make sure it is all about joy and all about Hardee.

Here's some photos of Hardee taken the beginning of March (one with Thompkin, his tortoise).  Wishing you all a great weekend!

Sun., April 1, 2012 - Happy April Fools Day

I have been away from social media for awhile and my main email is broken, so apologies to those who have tried to reach me that way.  If you really need to reach me, you'll have to call or text, or email me at my gmail account.  Privately, I'm hearing that I need to update the blog so people know how Hardee is doing.  I didn't mean to make others worry.  I just need some time away right now to spend with my boy.

Hardee continues to endure.  He still eats and drinks with gusto and has quality to his life.  He has been bleeding for a month now, except for almost a week reprieve about a week ago.  During that week he didn't really bleed, we started to build hope again that the Palladia that we had done in Jan. was somehow working.  But, the bleeding started again this past Wed. night, and by Friday, was back full force coming from both sides of his nose.  During the week that HH didn't bleed much, we took advantage and did many therapy visits.  We also took Hardee back to the park with his favorite little person where he followed her down each and every slide. 

The smell coming from Hardee's mouth has been back for numerous weeks now.  I've tried quite a few different antibiotics, and the ones that worked previously, don't work anymore.  Hardee has been on at least 2 different antibiotics, sometimes 3, since Dec.  I've added Clavamox into the mix to see what that does, but I think we'll be trying some antibiotics we haven't tried before.  It is always trial and error to see what antibiotics work for awhile, then we start over.

Between the drainage coming from Hardee's nose from the infections, and all the bleeding, I couldn't take his longer hair anymore so Thursday I chopped it all off.  I chopped all the hair from his head too, so he looks horrible!  They won't even recognize him at the hospice facility where he does therapy.  I barely recognize him!  When Hardee leaves us for the Rainbow Bridge, I wanted him to go with all his long handsome hair, but it really doesn't matter anymore.

Jim and Hardee missed not attending the National Agility Championship held in Reno, NV this weekend.  They've been invited 2 years in a row, but because of Hardee's cancer they have not been able to attend.  Hardee did break back into the "top 5" of Portuguese Water Dog in the nation for the Agility Invitational over a month ago.  Currently, Hardee is ranked #4.  We are still amazed at our fantastic working dog and his will to live while doing what he loves.

Though we wish it was an April Fools joke, we have formulated a plan for when it is time to release Hardee from his cancer with a vet friend.  She has been a huge help to us throughout Hardee's cancer, and I do not know what we would have done without her, especially lately.  She has our appreciation and our thanks.

Deservedly so, it is still all about joy and all about Hardee.  Somethings will never change.