GREAT NEWS!

Upstate Veterinary Specialists, Greenville, SC

The Staff (Doctors in blue, Technicians in purple)

We took "Sweet Pea" back to the oncologist yesterday for her first re-check. I had quite a time catching her to put her in her carrier. After I tore the sofa apart in my daughter's bonus room, I ended up having to turn a chair over to get her out from under it. Finally, we hit the highway! We made excellent time as traffic was not heavy mid-day as it is during the morning rush hour. We met with the oncologist, who examined "Sweet Pea" quite thoroughly. She is doing very well, has not lost any weight, and is free of all cancer! They had done another CT scan last week, plus some portfilms, and they showed NO cancer at all! We were told to discontinue the Buprinex, a morphine-type pain medication, but she will remain on the prednisone for a while longer. Her site area is looking quite well but is beginning to show signs of peeling and flaking. I got her settled back in at her home and headed for the pharmacy to get some aloe vera ointment for her back, per doctor's request. Then back to my daughter's home I went to drop it off. I was rushing around as I had a 4 o'clock vet appointment for one of my diabetic cats, "Daphy," (short for "Daphinia" which was her given name by her former owner who passed away in August 2000). She has been having a tooth problem. She is now on antibiotics and scheduled for a complete dental cleaning Tuesday morning. She will soon be 14 years old! More on her in a later post.

Tim's little "Punky" also is doing quite well. Her tumor is still shrinking and has now turned from rose color to white. The oncologist said that means that the blood supply to the tumor has been destroyed. So we are still deciding if we should go for the most aggressive treatment for her and have that part of her jaw removed and then proceed with chemo. She would definitely have a pretty good chance then. I discussed this with my own vet yesterday also, and he assured me that cats that have had this jaw-removal surgery, amazingly, do quite well afterwards. If my son decides to have this surgery performed, he won't do so until the tumor has finished shrinking. Maybe the two miracles we've been praying for are really happening! Both of these little gals have been little troopers through it all! I just know in my heart that God has been beside them all the way. I hope he has assigned them each a guardian angel....maybe my mom and my dad.

While we were at the veterinary facility yesterday, "Bailey" and her owner came in. "Bailey" is the female boxer from Lexington, SC (just outside of Columbia) who wouldn't take her eyes off Stosh last week! She was absolutely fixated on him! She wouldn't even look at the other dog in the waiting room! She had eyes for Stosh and only Stosh! This week, though, she wasn't feeling very well and didn't even give him a second glance. Poor girl...her last chemo had made her quite ill, as they had used a different drug on her since the first one didn't seem to be doing much for her cancer. She really is a wonderful, wonderful dog! I was raised with a boxer myself, and they are truly an incredible breed! Our "Dutchess" was the queen in our home! I may dig out some photos of her someday and do a post about her in the future. She certainly is deserving of a post all her own.