Off Phenobarbital and doing well

Well we have been off Phenobarbital for a week now. And Fuzzy is doing just fine. Really, she is almost back to her old self completely. She is still blind in her right eye. But she has tons of energy. She seems happy. She has even started playing with her toys again! She is down to 7.5 mg of Prednisone and 25mg of Zonisamide in the morning and 10 mg of Leflunomide and 25mg of Zonisamide in the evening. She even loves taking her meds because she gets it in a small bite of cheese and then she gets food after. So she comes running when she hears the pill bottle noise. :)

Changes in Meds

We are now trying to get Fuzzy of the Phenobarbital because it cases liver damage. So she is being switched slowly to Zonisamide. She is taking that now twice a day and the Pheno only in the morning. Soon she will be off it all together but the doctor said it does not work quite as well so I am crossing my fingers hoping we will not have any trouble. He is also working on reducing her Prednisone which is the drug with the nastiest side effects but that is the most effective in treating the disease. She has been taking 15mg a day in the mornings and yesterday she dropped down to 7.5mg. She will be on this dosage for 2 months and then go to that same amount every other day instead of every day.

So far she is doing good. A happy but still hungry puppy.

Hungry Fuzz

Well we just got back from our trip to Yosemite this week. Fuzzy was well taken care of by Eric (and my mom for the last 3 days) while we were away. She came back home looking better than ever... full of energy. I think she had a great time on her little vacation. :)

The only thing is... she has gained more than a full pound since I dropped her off at Eric's. She has weighed 10lbs her whole life until recently... she weighed 11.4 lbs when I took her to the vet both the first day she got sick and also when we were in Boston. My mom weighed her when Eric dropped her off because I thought she looked a little fat in the photos... and she weighed 12.6lbs. Ugh! Chubby puppy! Dr. Sisson told me to be sure not to overfeed her.... the steroids make her hungry all the time. So Fuzzy is now on a strict diet. When I weighed her yesterday she was 12.4lbs. I want to get her down to 11.5lbs at the most.

She is so hungry all the time though... she cries and cries in the kitchen... and she growls too when we ignore her. But she is getting plenty of food... it is just the steroids growling. :( I feel bad for her but I have to take care of her health first.

Photos from Sunday on the boat

Cytosine treatment at home

Today and yesterday are Fuzzy's days for her injections that I have to give her at home now. She has been a very good girl.... she didn't squirm at all. I do think that is having an effect on her though... after the first injection yesterday she starting having to pee A LOT and having accidents in the house which has never been a problem before. I bought a little steam cleaner for the carpet and hopefully it is a temporary problem because of the injections... it seems to coincidental that it only started after her first injection...? Hm...

Besides that she is good. We are getting ready for a trip to Yosemite with family... for several reasons the trip really cannot be cancelled. Originally Fuzzy was going to go with us but now that she is sick I am not going to take her. Someone I trust will be watching her and taking care of her. She will need to go in Tuesday (a week after her injections) to get a CBC done and sent to Dr. Sisson. I have already arranged it with a vet near Eric's home. Hopefully she will have a fun vacation with him and it will be uneventful as far as her GME goes.

My mom's Bichon Riley

This post isn't really about Fuzzy. She is doing good on her new meds. Pretty much the same. She is still having panting fits about 2 hours after getting her meds at night too even though she only is getting the Prednisone in the morning. I am surprised about that. But she is doing good. I am preparing to go out of town to something that is unfortunately unavoidable and will write about that later.

For now, this post is about Riley, my mom's Bichon that she adopted from a rescue facility several years ago... he had cancer about a month and a half ago... a tumor that they removed but warned the cancer was likely to come back. Well he was very ill and they took him in and it turns out the cancer had returned and it was bad... they had to put him down today. :( Riley was an awesome dog. Full of fun and life... he loved to chase balls and play... but lately he's been doing a lot of snuggling. My parents are very sad of course. Please keep them in your thoughts. He will be missed so much.

Back from Boston

Wow today I am exhausted. Yesterday was so long. We got up at 5 but after almost no sleep because Fuzzy was really restless on her new, higher-dose of Prednisone that Dr. Sisson had me start her on. So with almost no sleep we headed to the airport. The flight was 3 hours to Boston. Then we got on the train which dropped us a half a mile from Angell where Dr. Sisson works. Fuzzy was cramped up in her carrier for the past 6 hours so I let her walk from the train stop and she was able to walk all the way there! Good job Fuzz!

Dr. Sisson ended up spending about 2 1/2 hours with us, which was awesome. He checked her over, they took blood, and he took down a detailed account of everything that has happened so far with Fuzzy. He also showed me how to mix and give her the chemo drugs that I will have to inject her with once a month. He also explained the differences between the different possible drugs for GME and why he uses the ones he does. He seemed to have a LOT of experience with GME dogs... I was very impressed and satisfied when we left. We got 2 months worth of drugs for Fuzzy and left. One of the blood tests was for infectious disease... just to rule out 10 or so other diseases that she could, although probably does not have. Doesn't make sense to treat a dog for a disease that she doesn't have of course!

Actually, I just got an email from Dr. Sisson a few minutes ago that let me know that the infectious disease test that he gave her came back negative for all diseases except two they are still waiting for the results for. (they are sent to a bunch of different labs that specialize in testing for the different diseases)

By the time we got checked out of the hospital and took the train back into town, I had just over an hour to spend with my friend Daryush (from high school) who lives in the area. He took us into his work and showed us around... and then we got back on the train and headed to the airport. Unfortunately, when we got there we found out that our flight was delayed and in the end, it ended up being 3 hours late. We finally took off at 11pm and arrived back in Orlando at 2am. By the time I got back home to Saint Cloud it was 3am and Fuzzy and I were pooped, as was Danny who had been up as long as us since he took us to and from the airport. It was probably close to 4 when we finally got to sleep... and again, Fuzzy was quite restless all night.

Today has been rough for me and Fuzzy. I feel like I got hit by a truck. The days of being able to stay up until 4am with no consequences is long past it seems. :) And Fuzzy looks as bad as I feel so I bet she feels the same. It was a long long rough day.... and longer than we thought it would be because of the long delay at the airport. But she was a good little pup... only barked at one little girl and some birds, all day. I wonder if it would have been better to stay the night? But I was afraid sleeping in a strange place would stress her out and be a lot more complicated.

Tonight was her first night on her new drug, Leflunomide (10mg, once a day at night) so we will see if she has any reaction... so far she seems the same. And tomorrow Dr. Sisson is dropping us down to 15mg of Prednisone once a day instead of the 15 twice a day she had today and 20 twice a day she had the previous two days. Looking forward to maybe not having her not quite so restless at night.