benjamin

24juliii211

So its been a while and so much has happened over the past two weeks.

After getting my stitches out the first highligt was my first swim in Greifensee. We have to drive away a bit but the river by the house is too dirty and we don’t want the skin allergies to start up again. 

Being a bit chicken my mama forced me to wear a bright orange swim vest  and I guess she forgets that I was a dolphin in my past life. Swimming with the vest was a bit wierd. I did not really have much control over my body but what the heck…I finally get to SWIM.!!!  After a few rounds she kept calling me out for a break. I have had a two month break lady!! Let me be!!  I was not ready to come out, so she came into the lake with all her clothes on just to hawl me out.

But I have to say I pooped myself out that my mama had to carry me 200 meters to the car…ooops.. I guess I overdid it. Did I learn ? Hell no the next 4 visits to the lake were just as entertaining..only this time mama brought her swim suit  with her.

I have had 2 visits to kynofit Hydrotherapie and they make me swim against the current in warm water. This is supposed to help me relax my muscles and move my body in ways that a tripawd does’nt.  I am not very fond of some man bending my body in ways he likes and not being able to swim free but at 130 dollars for a 45 min therapy I guess it must do some good. I also started with Accupunture the same week and am hoping that it relieves me from taking my Rimadly tablets as pain killers. So after the first Accupuncture and 2 swims I was taken of pain medication for atheritus and now am only on Frankincens, Ginger and Cosequin. Mama has ordered Duralactin but its still in the Mail.   I guess the combination of everything helped me walk better and get off pain meds which would only damage my kidneys.

The first round of Chemo was two weeks ago and went well. I did not have any side effects or feel sick. My White blood cell count and liver and kidneys were checked up this week and the good news is that liver and kidneys are good ( apart from the losing protein ) but I am take Fortekor , a drug that is supposed to protect the kidney from failure. My White Blood cell count is a little low two weeks after Chemo. The minimum to start with  the next round should be 3000 and I have 3300. My vet  thinks that we should not take the risk of going through to  the next round until my count hits 5000. This because I am having such a happy life and not feeling sick and losing more bloodcells with the second round may make me catch some kind of Infections. Nope!! We don’t want that. We will test the blood count again next week. I have been getting a very nutritous diet which Mama cooks every two days with fresh meat and vegetables, herbs and vitamins. I am taking my K9 Immunity tablets everyday and also added Spirulina into my diet plan.

Gave my mama a scare today as she was watching Damian Swim in the river. I was in the cart and wanted to swim as well. So I jumped out of the cart,noone thought I could do that. I also landed flat on my face, but got back up in seconds. Mama panicked and did alot of fussing over me. 

Her 3 Week vacation is unfortunately coming to an end and now she won’t be at my beck and bark every minute. I am gonna miss that, But still look forward to my daily massage and Infra red light therapy which we do every night before bedtime and my weekly swim and accupunture sessions. I am so happy that I even started playing rough with Damian this week.  All in all , Life as a tripawd definately has its perks!!

So we are now 10 days past surgery and things are still going well. Benji still tires after a few steps but I guess thats normal after not being to walk around for quite a while. We will start with Chemo tommorow and Accupunture and Hydro Therapy the week after. I am not to keen on keeping him on Rimadyl because he is already losing protein in his Urine and the combination of Chemo and Rimadly may lead to a eventual Kidney disease, maybe I am just paranoid. The Vets said that his numbers in his blood test show that everything is ok , the only problem is the protein leaking out which has to be supervised.

Today was the first day that we stopped all pain medicine and he was alot livlier however was licking his front paw now and then . Will give him a Tramadol tonight and hold back on the Rimadly until I ask the vet tomorrow. He has light artheritus so the extra pressure on his front and hind joints must be causing him some pain at the moment. I hope that after we do some Hydro therapy and Accupunture that I won’t have to give him pain medis for a while or aleast stall it off until Chemo is finished.

He’s been eating well, sleeping well and has not been groucy at all. Kind of nervous about chemo tomorrow and hope that the side effects remain a minimum, if not I will have to consider other options.

So we have just finished day 5 and still getting better. Benji seems to be more confident and stable as the days go on. I thank God for this wonder every second. I recieved news that he is now losing protein in his Urine and that has to be monitored as we start Chemo on Monday.

He seems not to be drinking enough water and I am guessing that it is because that I am cooking Dr. Damien Dresslers Cancer diet and add alot of the meat juices to the food. I have also started to give him Cordyceps and K9 Immunity to strengthen his Immune system and lessen the side effects of chemo if there are any.

Benji slept well the first night home but was a bit uncomfortable for the first few hours yesterday. After cudlling next to him and putting him on his comfortable side he was ok the whole night through. Today morning he hopped out into the garden and did his business and hopped really fast back into the kitchen for his food.

I removed the pain patch today and he is on a NSAID and 2x50g Tramadol for the night. I hope we both get a good nites sleep since I have been waking up every time I hear something and get worried and paranoid that something might be wrong.
All in all still very happy about his progress.

On May 5th Benji left front Limb was removed due to Osteosarcoma. The hospital wanted to keep him on because he was having trouble getting up. I was worried that he would not be able to handle the weight of his body on his 3 legs due to his atheritus and 11.5 years. After being a pain in the ass and calling them 5 times to find out how he was, they finally let him go today because he could stand and walk by himself. He is a little wobbly however thats normal , its only been 3 days after surgery.

I gathered all my strength and looked at all the photos of Amputated dogs to prepare me for Benjis wounds. Going there and expecting the worst helped me jump with joy as I saw a handsome 3 legged Benji hop towards me each hop faster than the one before. Jumped into his bed and we carried him to the car. Benji was full of life and and it was amazing to see how relaxed and happy he was to have his limb and thus the pain away.
As we came home Damian was so excited to see Benji and was jumping up and down and wanted to kiss and lick him. We pampered him a bit in the garden and then he hopped up and went into the house by himself. I figured he wanted to go to his bed and rest. Boy was I wrong. He hopped into the living room , past the dining table , past his beds and straight into the kitchen in front of the stove. That convinced me I have the same boy, just with on limbs less. Who cares?

He seems to be drinking alot of water. It was a very warm day so I hope its due to that and not a Kidney issue. He pee’d thrice on his own and we are still waiting for him to poop:) I gave hime 2x50mg Tramadol just incase the pain starts at night. Not really sure about the pain killers but will call the hospital tommorow. Not sure how to detect if he’s in pain.

All in All day One at home was a good one. Gonna sleep on the couch next to him for the next couple of days. So happy to have baby back. What a fantastic Tripawd Mothers Day!!

So here’s an update on Benji’s. Due to uncertainity, Benji had to undergo a second bigger Biopsy on Thursday 28. April, 2011. Even though the chances of it be a osteosarcoma are very high, two other types of tumours cannot be completely ruled out. Results will be recieved either on Monay or Tuesday and if the limb must be removed it will be done on Wednesday 4th May 2011.

Trying to hold myself together and hope for the best and getting prepared. Changed the diets of both my dogs to Dr. Kresslers Cancer Diet. Wow, that was time consuming, don’t even cook for myself. The joy of seeing them eat made it worth the 2.5 hours:)

Got the living room carpeted for Benji so that he has his pathway and  won’t slip. Ordered all my supplements today: K9 Immunity and K9 Tranfer , Cordyceps for during the Chemo , Power Mushrooms, and Apocaps. Had to order 5 month supplies because we don’t get it in Switzerland so I wont have to worry about that. 

Benji is enjoyin his time in the Sun and we are both ready to KICK CANCERS BUTT!!!!

Benji has been diagnosed of Bone Cancer. it could be a Osteoscarcom but could also be a Plasmazelltumour which would not require for the limb to be taken. A biopsy will be done on the April 27. and if its a Osteascarcom Benji’s leg will be amputated the first week of May.  I hope this does not mean that the cancer will spread faster due to the lenght of  time. Benji first started to limp in March and started constantly limping since April 15.