Retired Pro Athlete Waiting At the Bridge

So the Cookie Monster has to be difficult.  She’s doing well but she’s had everyone freaking out and scratching their heads as to what on earth is going on.  It is 3:00 AM and she just smacked the human with a hot pink bunny toy in order to encourage a trip into the backyard.  Yep, still 100% Cookie.

Two days before Cookie was supposed to start palliative radiation, she appeared to have suffered a stroke.  Dr. Huff and Dr. Williams looked her over and agreed with us that we shouldn’t move forward with radiation without knowing what is going on with Cookie.  Off to the Neurologist.  The appointment with the specialist took some time to happen.  The appointment was on 2/18.  Cookie started to decline on 2/15.  In 8 hours, the tumor doubled in size and Cookie went lame.  Her backend weakness was hindering her ability to move on 3 legs just as we had feared.  It took all morning for her to be able to stand to go potty.  She refused to accept any help.

The humans sat down on the couch once again to discuss what the game plan was.  Increase her pain medications, if no improvement, than 2/18 or 2/19 would probably be the day to say good bye.  We would still see the Neurologist.

Adding Rimadyl to her treatment was a game changer.  It didn’t help much with the tumor pain but it helped a lot with the hindend pain.  We all headed to the Neurologist with high hopes.  The Neurologist cleared Cookie for radiation.  2/19 – Cookie had her first treatment of radiation and zoledronate.  And this is when the roller coaster went into a corkscrew and then way too many loops!

Any sort of sedation has always been hard for Cookie, even when young and fit.  This was no exception.  Cookie went into ventricular tachycardia while under.  Then she started having VPCs.  They wanted to monitor her for a bit longer but felt it was best to get her home and in a less stressful environment.  Cookie was up and moving for a bit and decided she no longer needed her IV and started to remove it herself.  She had a very hard time walking out of the building and when she saw her humans, she decided she was done and just oozed onto the floor, refusing to go any farther.  Did you know my humans keep a dog stretcher in the car?  They do.  Cookie was placed in the stretcher and carried out to the car.  The vet techs stayed with her for a bit to make sure her heart wasn’t doing anything weird and it was just the anesthesia.   It was.  The hour long ride back to the house was kind of scary.  Cookie was just completely out of her mind, panting hard like she couldn’t breath.

It was raining too.  Friends came over to help extract Cookie out of the car.  As soon as the car pulled into the driveway, Cookie was on her feet demanding to get out of the car.  No friends were needed.  Cookie just let herself get picked up and taken out of the car.  She walked about 3 steps and then was ready to go back in the house.  She accepted being carried up the stairs – not even one growl.

It was a long night.  A very long night.  Lots of panting and Cookie acting like she was in distress but there was nothing that the humans could find to be causing this.  Cookie was supposed to be back at 8 AM for her second dose of radiation.  The humans didn’t sleep much that night but eventually did fall asleep briefly only to be woken up at 4 AM for the first round of Cookie needs to empty her bladder.  She needed assistance walking around at first but she really did have to go.  About once an hour after that, Cookie wanted to potty.  She started to drink water on her own too.  At 8 AM, she was finally able to swallow food and we got pain meds in her.

The oncologist agreed that we weren’t going to do another dose of radiation.  Not sure if we’re ever going to do another one actually.  Cookie needs to be seen by a cardiologist to make that determination.  It took two more days for her to really wake up.  Thursday night, she greeted the humans after work with a toy and then carried it to the back door.

The change in Cookie now is amazing.  She is feeling good, she’s prancing about and running.  The humans hate to see the running or play bows right now but it is awesome to see Cookie feeling good and enjoying life.  She still wants to slap things and go for rides in the car.