Adventures in Dog Radiation Therapy

In between Buster’s amputation and our “move” out to Virginia for radiation, I gave Buster one day at daycare to say hi to his buddies there as his new three legged self.  He’s gone to the same daycare for nearly 8 years because he’s spoiled rotten.  I was nervous about how he’d do, but when I picked him up at the end of the day and asked how he did, what I got was, “Same dog!”

He did just fine.

He’s still doing fine even going through radiation, at least so far.  This morning was Session #6.  When I brought him back to the farm after he was done so I could get logged in and get to work on my laptop, he did more whining than usual, and seemed uncomfortable for a while.  But I gave him a few good short walks and then one longer one where I let him off leash and threw his tennis ball for him.  It was the first time I’d done real off-leash-fetch with him in a while since I don’t have a big yard at home.  And he did great.  He ran.  He wagged his tail and did a play pose to make me chase him.  He had a good afternoon.

Same dog.

This morning Buster had his cardiology appointment to figure out why he had a heart rate drop and some arrhythmia last week during anesthesia.  So we went down the street from the oncology office to the cardiologist office, and they did an echocardiogram.  This didn’t require anesthesia, just a vet tech holding Buster lying down.  Buster was displeased, but resigned to this latest indignity.

It was weird to see Buster’s heart bouncing around up on the screen.  He had some normal age-related deterioration, and a mild heart murmur, but this appointment was good news — no serious abnormalities or issues.  A minor tweak to his anesthesia regimen to prevent a recurrence.

Then we went straight to the oncology center for his fifth radiation session.  It went fine, they employed the new medication protocol, and this time he had no heart issues.

We are back at the farm and Buster is taking his midday nap to recovery from the morning’s unpleasantness.

Home sweet home!  I’m sitting with Buster on my sofa at home in Washington DC after finishing Week One of Buster’s radiation treatment.  I really lucked out finding a great Airbnb with super-nice hosts (on a farm!) near Leesburg VA, where Buster is being treated.  As great as it is there, I’m very happy to be back in my own house.  Nowhere in DC has the necessary veterinary radiation equipment, so the far, far exurbs have been the best option.  We’ll go back out on Sunday night for Week Two.  Spending the weeks in the country and the weekends in the city is the exact opposite of what many DC’ers do, but so it goes in this unique situation.

Buster did pretty well during his first week, although we’ll have a cardiology appointment on Monday morning before radiation to do some diagnostics on the arrhythmia and low heart rate he experienced this week.  Veterinary medicine is like people medicine in that once you’re in the system, the system has you, and there is no end to the appointments and precautions and additional findings to be probed.  My poor buddy is in the system, but we will follow the doctor’s orders to get the cardio workup done.

After 4 sessions there have been no obvious side effects, including at the radiation site.  Mild wooziness for about an hour after each session due to the anesthesia, but Buster has been his wonderful goofy, lively, loving, and occasionally obnoxious terrier self in the afternoons and evenings.

More next week, if not before.

 

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!