Kodiak T. Bear, TGD
November 5th, 1992 - November 8th, 2004
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Kodiak T. Bear, TGD
November 5th, 1992 - November 8th, 2004
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2004/07/23 :-( Kodi goes to vet, has enlarged spleen and liver. 2004/07/26 :-( Results returned, high-grade Lymphosarcoma. 2004/07/27 :-| Dexamethasone shot & put on Prednisone, some appetite returns. 2004/07/29 :-) Kodi has started eating again. At first she wouldn't eat her old food, but she is eating again when I heat it up. 2004/07/30 :-| Kodi started chemo (week 1 vincristine). She's on the UW-Madison Protocol for Canine LSA. (Madison, where she and her owner grew up..) No ill effects yet! And she's eating more. 2004/08/03 :-) Kodi has started eating her dry food again. 2004/08/09 :-/ Kodi's chemo (week 2 cytoxan) this week is a pill that I have to wear gloves because I can't touch it because it's dangerous to me. That's sad. Kodi has her tail up at 3/4 curl. That's happy. 2004/08/12 :-| She's been having runny stool, but her spirits are up. Started her on antibiotics (Flagil) today. 2004/08/13 :-( Bad day. Her back legs are a little shaky and she actually fell down this morning. The doctors think it might just be a medicine side-effect and is probably not from the cancer. At least her stool is getting better. 2004/08/14 :-) Kodi went to the Oncologist, week 3 (vincristine). Her white-blood cell count is good and her lymph nodes are shrunk. This is very good news. 2004/08/16 :-) Kodi goes off Prednisone. 2004/08/21 :-( Week 4 (diphenhydramine, asparaginase). Kodi's appetite is waning again, so she's going back on a 10mg daily dosage of Prednisone. The Oncologist says that the Pred doesn't have any serious side effects, and it keeps the swelling down, so I think I'll just keep her on it. 2004/09/05 :-| Week 6 (vincristine) 2004/09/6 :-| Kodi's appetite is up and down - trying to figure out how to match the Pred to her chemo. 2004/09/11 :-) Week 7 of the Madison Protocol (Cytoxan, ugh). I'm told that Kodi has been in remission. This is great news - her oncologist says that if she stays in remission for the first six months (the first run of the Madison Protocol is six months) then her life expectancy is another 6 months after that. (She goes back on a shorter protocol when her remission ends in an attempt to get a 2nd remission). On top of that, her white blood cell count is still flying high (it's been steady at 6500). The concern is that if it's too low (below 2-3k?) then she has to be taken off chemo for a week or more. So her immune system is still cruising along fine. 2004/09/14 :-( Kodi's having problems with holding her bladder. The Pred doesn't help (excess water drinking), so it's another factor. Her hips aren't doing so good either, but I guess that's moot at this point. 2004/09/21 :-| Week 8 (Vincristine IV). She's getting along fine except for the excessive hunger and water drinking. 2004/09/23 :-? Putting her on hormones to try to help with incontinence (taking her off the stimulants that weren't doing enough). 2004/09/27 :-? Switching her to 1/2 Prednisone pill every other day (instead of each day). Hoping to find a balance between not eating and acting like she hasn't eaten in weeks. 2004/10/02 :-| Week 9 (Diphenhydramine/Doxorubicin). She's decided that she really doesn't like the oncologist's office. Next week she goes to every other week off for chemo! 2004/10/11 :-( Kodi suddenly goes downhill. She's lame in one of her rear legs. Perhaps it's because of the change in Pred? (Though that was 2 weeks ago) 2004/10/12 :-( Even worse. Her leg is still bad, and she's lost appetite. I've put her back on 1/2 Pred each day and called the vets. 2004/10/12 :-| Took her to vet - according to X-Rays it doesn't look like a tumor, which I suppose is relatively good news. She got a big shot of Pred and is temp. on Tylenol w/ Codeine. A couple hours later she actually ate half of her breakfast, so that's good. She's also down to 67 pounds which is surprising. Need to fatten her up as soon as her appetite returns so we have some better margins for her next hunger strike. 2004/10/13 :-( No improvement, still won't eat, though her knee is a little smaller. Very slight fever - 103, so possibly we're dealing with an infection. She got a big antibiotic shot, and now she's getting a full dose of antibiotics. 2004/10/14 :-? Temp is up - 103.6, and I think that's good, since it implies she has an infection (treatable) and not problems with her lymphoma (not treatable). 2004/10/15 :-? Temp down to 102.0, but still won't eat her food or weight her leg. 2004/10/16 :-( Kodi's in the hospital. They think she has a septic joint, which at least would mean they'd know what's wrong. Problem is trying to get the infection under control. They tapped her knee and they also tried flushing with saline, but it looks like she's going to need a big surgery. She had to skip her chemo (week 11, vin) 2004/10/17 :-( Still in the hospital, will find out tomorrow if surgery is needed. 2004/10/18 :-( She's in surgery right now. I'll be going to see her tonight. 2004/10/19 :-( Back from the hospital. She's not happy. Still not eating. 2004/10/20 :-( She's getting better - she actually ate a chicken foot and drank some water. We'll see. 2004/10/21 :-) She ate her dinner and she's putting a little weight on her foot! She's trying to go to the bathroom but it looks like it's too hard for her. 2004/10/22 :-( She won't eat her breakfast, still can't go to the bathroom. 2004/10/22 >:-( I'm pissed. The good news is that Kodi just ate about three meals. The bad news is that the reason she had stopped eating and the reason she couldn't go to the bathroom was not because of her leg but because the bastards at San Francisco Vet Specialists had sewn her anus shut when they did the surgery on Monday and left the sutures in. Unbelievable. I just rushed her over to the good people at the SF Pet Hospital and they pulled the sutures out, and when Kodi got home she gobbled up about all the food I threw at her. (update - almost a year later, 2005/08, after going through collections, they finally gave up on the 1/3 of the remaining balance I refused to pay. They're still bastards, and as far as I'm concerned, are partially responsible for killing my dog.) 2004/10/23 :-) Kodi's eating. Yeah. 2004/10/26 :-) Kodi's walking, sometimes! Now to get her back on chemo.. 2004/10/29 :-| Week 11 finally (very late) - Vincristine. 2004/10/27 :-( She's constipated again and won't eat. The bastards at SFVS have alot of explaining to do. 2004/11/01 :-| Switch to antibiotic Baytril. 2004/11/02 :-| Switch to antibiotic Amoxy. 2004/11/04 :-( Upped Prednisone to 20mg twice/day to try to get appetite back 2004/11/05 :-( Kodi's 12th birthday. Unfortunately it's not much of a celebration, because she's still not eating and she's getting worse, so she's going in to the hospital. 2004/11/06 :-! Wow. Kodi almost died last night. She got worse while at the hospital. She's come out of remission and the cancer has spread from her liver and spleen to her bone marrow and lymph nodes, and it looks like her liver is shutting down. She couldn't hold down any water, she became anemic, had jaundice and was dehydrated. She was starting to bleed internally because her blood couldn't clot anymore, and they were telling me that she probably only had 24 hours to live, but if we were *lucky* she could spend a week in the hospital and have a small chance of coming home for a couple weeks. I had finally decided to bring her home where she could at least die with me and Mr. Peterson instead of in the hospital, but when I went to get her I couldn't bring myself to do it. This morning she was a totally different dog. She's able to walk and her internal bleeding has temporarily stopped, so we decided to start the Madison Protocol over again in hopes of a second remission, which is unfortunately not likely. She needs remission very soon, because she's not eating and she's barely able to keep down water, and pretty soon she'll be anemic again and then we'll have to watch for D.I.C. where she dies from internal bleeding. Last night I was ready to let her go, and today she's not ready to give up just yet. So, here we are, back at: Week 1: L-Spar & Vincristine. Let's hope for remission, Otherwise I think she only has a few days left. 2004/11/07 :-( Not good. I just got back from spending the whole day at the hospital. She's gone into kidney failure, and her clotting had gone bad again. She got a plasma transfusion which helped clotting, but not as much before. They let me stay with her in the hospital until 1:30am, which is nice, but a grumpy tech there finally kicked me out. Way to go. Kodi is sedated now and hopefully stable enough to make it to morning, and we'll go talk to another oncologist over in East Bay to see if there's anything we can do to spank her back into remission. It looks like this is it, though. 2004/11/08 :-( I'm told her kidney failure is likely irreversible, and she's not able to actually produce urine anymore. I'm going to get her from the hospital. 2004/11/08 Goodbye, my love.
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Kodiak T. Bear, TGD \ \/ |
daveAndKodi at Daveola com \ / --\ /
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Daveola of
GD &
MH