Jake continues to have good days and bad days.  He will have 3 good days, then a bad day.  A good day is one where he doesn't lean, barks a lot (duh, he's a Sheltie) and wants to go out for a walk. A bad day is one where he leans, looses his balance, vomits, spins in circles, moans in pain and eats very little. He is moving slower than he did before CK, but there is improvement.  He is still on Dexamethasone (steroid) on a tapering dose.  His next step is starting chemo.  We need to make sure he is not vomiting or having diarrhea.  He still has his wonderful personality and still makes me smile everyday.

1st post- cyberknife follow up doctor visit

Driving to 1st follow up

1st follow up done! Jake had his first follow up visit with Dr Joseph this week and the dr was pleased to see his progress. Even though he still leans and is much slower than his normal self he is making good strides. Jake was a trooper, glad he wasn't poked as much as last time but was sad he missed seeing his nurse Emily (her day off).

Not feeling well. The morning we were set to go to the dr follow up Jake got sick in the middle of the night.Truthfully it's unclear if he threw up or had diarrhea because it was hard to tell what we found. If that's the case then this would be the first time ever that he went to the bathroom in the house. Also, he peed in the house first thing in the morning just as we were about to take him outside (He's done this 1 or 2 times since he first got sick but these are the first times in his life he's ever had accidents in the house). Then to cap things off he threw up in the drs office that morning. Not sure what this was all about but he definitely didn't feel too good.

What to expect. The dr wasn't overly concerned about this all and said he will have good days and bad days. He took a blood and urine test to check for infection just to be safe. He says the goal now is to let the steroids buy us time while we wait for the full effects of the cyberknife treatment to set in (which could be several months). We tried lowering his steroid (dexamethasone) to 1 pill per day and he started leaning much more and was having a hard time so the dr said we should give him 2 pills one day and 1 pill the next and then in 2 weeks try to re evaluate. The goal is to get him to the lowest possible dose of steroids.I wish steroids had no negative long term consequences because he is so much better on them and wish he could stay on them forever.

Chemo Discussion. We were supposed to start him on chemo at this visit (hydroxyurea) but considering the diarrhea, throwing up, etc Dr J says we should wait a week and then start him. We're concerned about the potential side effects of chemo but we understand from our reading that dogs handle it much better than humans and if all goes as expected he should take it and not feel sick. More to come on this when we start.....

Had to mention this. We're pleased to say Jake is back to some of his old tricks. Jake always used to place himself right in from of the tv staring at us as if to say "hello don't ignore me, stop looking at the tv and look at me!!" He's still the same old Jake :)