Month: July 2018

Buster had his second session of radiation today. A little bumpier than the first. He’s fine, but apparently heart rate and BP dipped in a way not to the radiation tech’s liking. We will need a cardio session soon to do an ekg and ultra sound to make sure all is ok. I think the concern stems from a prior finding that he had a minor (previously believed to be not of clinical significance) tear in his heart lining. I’m going to pretend for now like it’s nothing but have scheduled a cardio appointment as directed for next week and hope this won’t delay more radiation.

other than that, Buster did great today and had a few short walks this afternoon around the Airbnb farm where we are staying. He is woozy for about the first 1-1.5 hours after anesthesia, but otherwise fine. He may have been slightly more heat sensitive today than usual.

no treatment tomorrow, we get a break for the 4th of July!

Buster’s first radiation session was yesterday. It went fine. This dog has been under anesthesia enough times at this point that seeing him slightly woozy after he wakes up makes me sad but doesn’t ruin my day or seemingly his either. The whole appointment ended up taking only an hour and a half. Some days it will take longer if another dog goes before him. They book two for the same two hour window so they can pick who goes first based on how the dogs are doing from the prior day.

I could tell when he was awake in the recovery room because that dog howls like crazy in any type of cage situation. Then I could tell when they fed him because it stopped. Then it started again when he finished his meal.

anyway, no bad effects on day one; it doesn’t even look like they did anything, and I’d say Buster overall probably had a good day because we’re staying on an Airbnb farm near the treatment place. It was godawful hot yesterday but I took him out a few times and he seemed to love it.

1 down, 17 to go!

This morning I took Buster for a short (sweltering) walk at the National Arboretum — a beautiful spot in DC and one of his favorite places to go for walks. Tomorrow we “move out” to Virginia from DC for the week, to be near the veterinary center that will do Buster’s radiation. While I feel uncertainty about how this is going to go, nervous about all the anesthesia and potential side effects that could start emerging in the next week or so, and I feel stressed out about juggling work while doing this, I feel pretty at peace with the decision. I hope that lasts.

One of the best pieces of advice I read in one of the tripawds fora, when someone was having a hard time deciding what to do for their pet, was to write down the decision making process so you’d always be able to remember how you made the decision of what to do so you don’t end up beating yourself up or second-guessing down the road if things don’t go as planned. My prior post was part of my way of writing it down, so if I end up putting Buster through a long and uncomfortable course of treatment but his cancer comes back, I’d remember why I thought I was at least making the best decision I could at the time. That’s really all I can do.

0 radiation sessions down, 18 to go.