Hello! Cole had his 4 month scan/4th chemo treatment last week and I wanted to share the good news that so far it is clear! Our oncologist is really happy with his results. He does have some signs of minor arthritis in his back which she said could be just normal aging and not really have much to do with the amputation. We are going to keep an eye on it and have upped his supplements. We have 2 more chemo treatments to go. He is tolerating the chemo really well. His only side effects so far is he gets really tired and a bit weak for a few days after. We are now weaning him off the Gabapentin and he should be done with that in a few weeks. We tried this before about a month ago and he was not ready. He seems to be doing better this time and has only had a few random yelps so far. He is still taking Rimadyl and will likely take that for the rest of his life. The doctor also plans to add the osteosarcoma vaccine to his treatment when it is available. She said it is really close and thinks that will be some time this summer.

Other than that, things have been nice and quiet. I quit my job in February for a variety of reasons, the best being I get to spend all day with the dogs. They come with me for errands though that will have to stop now that it is getting so hot unless it is a short trip and they can come in. Cole loves to ride with his head out the window.

We celebrated Cole’s 6th birthday on March 1st and he and Ella got some chunks of steak and extra cookies. We have been working on the garden a lot and fixing up the back yard so we have been spending a lot of time outside.

He is doing so great. He still gets tired a lot faster and seems sore after a big day but that is slowly getting better. We are continuing to use the brace on his wrist to help support that weight which really helps. He can even do some very short wrestle sessions with Ella and their friend Lucy. He learned to shake (like when a dog shakes off water) again a few months ago which was something that frustrated him. He would stand up and try and was too wobbly but he has it down now. He has also mastered one-armed toy chewing. He was frustrated by not being able to grab the toys between his paws at first and I’m really glad he relearned how to chew.

That is all for now. We are enjoying normal life with him and trying to not think too much about the cancer for the time being. He is my big, sweet beast again. I’ll keep updating as things happen or just to add more cute photos from time to time 🙂

Cole had his checkup today and the staples removed from the incision. He was not thrilled about the t shirts so it is nice he can go au naturel when we are home to watch him. He even has a lot of fuzz coming back. He has mastered his ramp for the car and was pretty excited to get out of the house today. Everyone at the vet’s office was happy to see him and he got a lot of pets and love. He was saying hi to people and even pulled on the tech who took him to the back. They took a video of him walking to show other patients. They are also planning a supply list we helped them make after reading Tripawds. They are putting it up with his name and picture to help future patients prepare. He had his blood panel done for chemo but we don’t have the results yet so I’m not sure when the next round will be. Everyone is really happy with his progress including us. He doesn’t feel sick to us anymore. He is still slowly building up his stamina but he doesn’t feel sick. I know there will be more ups and downs in this but I love that he is himself again.

Belly rubs!

He started doing one of his habits that we thought was gone for good. Our living room window has an 18 inch deep sill so it is sort of like a window seat. When one of us comes home, he stands up with his front legs on the window and wiggles and screams. We always crack up at the sight of his silhouette in the window when we come in the driveway. He went from lifting his head to sitting up in bed then to walking to the window. Yesterday for the first time, he jumped right up like it was nothing. I am worried about him hurting himself coming back down but he did that very gently. I think we will block the window for now just to be safe though. I watched through the web camera we set up to keep an eye on them while we are at work to see if he would do it again when Mike was coming home and got this screenshot. Also pictured is our resident tyrant, Rufus the cat.

Here is one of Ella and him from I think last year. I had an appointment after work so I was later than usual. Mike took this and said they waited for me like that for about 30 minutes.

The only other update is we went to visit our friends who live around the corner Sunday evening. We drove him in the car since it is too far for him for now. He got to see his and Ella’s best friend Lucy who is also a mastiff for the first time since before the surgery. She was so sweet and careful with him. This is from about 3 or 4 years ago but it is my favorite picture of the three of them.

Cole from about a week ago

Cole has been doing really great. We had the one hiccup in recovery with the Tramadol not working but the Fentanyl patch from the ER vet did the trick. The first few days, he was like a bag of wet sand and feeling really fantastic. It hit him a little harder than the doctor expected. This is a pretty gross detail but a big part of why I write here is to help others going through this not be surprised by things that might happen along the way so here you go. He didn’t start leaking pee again but he did start … oozing poo lol. We think he couldn’t feel his body enough to know he needed to poo. We would take him out at his usual time and he would sort of stand there and sway in the yard after peeing then want to go back to bed. We kept puppy pads under him and would periodically pick up the turd that was on the pad behind him. Luckily this only lasted a few days as the Fentanyl patch wore down.

The Fentanyl patch came off Thursday and he is finished with Amantadine. We started Tramadol again after calling the doctor when he was uncomfortable yesterday. It seems to help enough to take the edge off of whatever he is feeling and he is comfortable. He is still taking Rimadyl, Gabapentin, Tramadol, Cefpodoxime and Trazodone. The last few days have been really nice. We have gone back to our normal routine and Cole is able to do most things for himself now. He can get to his water to drink though we still sometimes offer him water in bed if he seems especially wiped out in the evening. His appetite is really good though the permanent addition of canned food to his kibble is probably part of the reason for that. He and Ella LOVE it. Mike went back to work Wednesday but we watched them with the nanny cams through our phones. Cole was a little whiny the first day but they seem to have settled back into the work week routine.

Another normal thing that has come back is his stubbornness and boundary testing. He has always been a little ornery and periodically checks to see if he can get away with things like not listening and doing what he wants. I am more strict than Mike and I had to convince him at one point that Cole is being naughty, not helpless or tired from recovery. He didn’t want to get up and seemed to enjoy making us heave his 150 butt out of bed. He has this certain side eye look he does when he is testing his boundaries and he was totally doing that look. He would be sitting up in bed and giving me the side eye and when I would say ‘come on, let’s go out and go potty’ he would flop on his side and go limp. He wanted us to move him around the house. We were able to encourage him to get up on his own and he knocked that off after a few days and as soon as Mike agreed that he was being stubborn. I love that he is feeling well enough to be a brat lol!

Another small challenge was he stopped wanting to take his pills when he used to love the smelly pill pockets he gets with them. Our attitude was the problem. Somewhere along the way, he noticed we thought of them as medicine and our “not a fun thing” outlook transferred to him. I started treating them like fun cookies and would bring treats for Ella too. I would give one to Ella first then one to Cole and back and forth until they were all gone. It worked like a charm.

He has had some visitors. Our neighbor said hi to him in the yard and he ran!!! to see her. My heart stopped when I saw him run but it was only about 10 feet total and he seemed ok. My neighbor seemed shocked because she hasn’t seen him since before the surgery then he runs right up to her. Our best friends live around the corner from us and we get together with them every Saturday night and take turns cooking dinner. They came over last night and Cole was happy to see everyone. This friend is an amazing photographer and she did our family photos the weekend we found out about Cole’s cancer. We ordered prints yesterday and the pictures are so wonderful. It is a little weird to see Cole’s right arm in the photos. It is weird to look at it partly because I am getting so used to tripawd Cole and also the fact that his arm was there and now it isn’t. It doesn’t make me sad to see it anymore though.

Speaking of Cole’s arm, the tests came back from analyzing the leg and it is confirmed as Osteosarcoma. There was one lymph node that was taken during surgery and it was cancer free which is good but we know the lungs are really our next hurdle so it doesn’t mean much.

He has a checkup and the staples come out Tuesday so I will update with how that went. Here are pictures from Friday night of Cole and Ella on their pillows. They love their pillows!

The vet said that Tramadol can be kind of hit and miss with dogs and I think Cole is one of those unlucky ones who it doesn’t help much. It was fine when he had the Bupivacaine catheter but as soon as that was taken away, he became increasingly more uncomfortable. We told her we never see much of a difference with the Tramadol other than that one desperate moment the first night when they told us we can give him an extra tablet. We are stopping the Tramadol and they put a Fentanyl patch on him and gave him an injection to hold him over until the patch kicks in. He is doing much better now and is resting after he ate dinner. He seems much more comfortable.

He has some fluid along the bottom of his ribs but not under the incision but doctor said it is ok, keep an eye on it but this amount is not out of the ordinary and she doesn’t think she needs to intervene unless it gets much worse. We will keep up with the icing and other medicines and I will keep updating as we go.

Cole started showing signs of distress mid yesterday. We waited and comforted him to see if he was adjusting to the bupivacaine not being administered anymore but he is not responding to the oral meds much and it has gradually gotten worse. We brought him to the ER vet and they are giving him a fentanyl patch and an injection to hold him over until it kicks in. I hope he feels better soon. I hate seeing him like this. He does have some fluid collecting under his incision but doctor said it looks OK and doesn’t need intervention at this point. We are to keep an eye on it for now. Wish us luck.