Chico's Latest Update

Winter is here and the roads are getting nasty.  Rather than driving 60 miles two towns over, I felt it best to have Chico's bloodwork completed at our local vet's office, which is probably 5 miles away at best.  I took him in last week and was able to get his results back in about half an hour.

Everything was exactly the same.  There were no changes whatsoever!  I was really shocked because Chico had been doing so well!  He's gained weight, his sores have healed, his hair is growing back.  And yet his white blood cell count is sky high.  This was so not the news I had wanted to hear!  I know the steroid is only treating the symptoms and not the cancer, but I truly thought he would be doing better!

The vet reminded me that his office doesn't offer chemo treatments, so anything further regarding Chico's cancer will all need to come from the oncologist's office.  The vet did give me another refill of the steroid meds, at least.

So that's where we stand as of right now.  I haven't decided what to do from here.  I would love to get him the chemo treatments, but I don't have the money.  There really isn't anything closer where we could go for his treatments, and the roads are just going to get worse as winter progresses.  At the same time, he's my responsibility, which means I need to do all I can for him.  My heart is breaking for him.

In addition to the steroids, the groomer place where he gets his nails trimmed recommended green beans for his dry skin.  I've just started giving him a little bit of ginseng too, which is supposed to help kill cancer cells.  So far he seems to be tolerating it well.  He only gets a little bit each day though because he's so little.

My laptop has decided it doesn't want to charge again, so I haven't been able to get around to say hello.  Anyone wanna buy me a new laptop for Christmas?  J/K  I need to fight with it some more and hopefully get it charged up again.  And then I'm not going to move it from there unless I absolutely have to!

Happy Thanksgiving

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Wordless Wednesday

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Wreck It Monday

Lynne was kind enough to send me a Wreck This Journal recently and I wanted to play along.  She usually does her posts on Wednesday's, but I'm doing mine today since I do Wordless Wednesday.  I don't know how often I'll post these, but I'm sure I'll do at least a few here and there.

The stain log looked fun and easy enough, so I started with that one.  Because I knew I'd quickly forget what the stains were, I decided to notate each one.  I made a mess with the Pepsi and accidentally poured it all down the side.  Oops!  Some of the stains are barely visible in the pictures (like the beer and eyeshadow), but are obvious in person.  If you have your own journal, you should join in the fun!

Wordless Wednesday

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November Chewy Review

My boys can't get enough of Chewy.com.  And who can blame them?  I'd love a company who sent me free treats to review and provided great service too!  This month we ordered the True Chews Premium Jerky Cuts dog treats.  We were sent a very generous 12 oz. portion which will last the chi's for awhile since they generally only get one treat a day.  They're nice and soft too, which means even Chico can eat them with his bad teefs.  I cut one peice in half, which they're not happy about.  They think they should both get one full piece each and every time.

As you can see from the bag, they're made with real sirloin steak!  They do not contain corn, wheat, or soy.  Even better, they're made right here in the USA, so you know the ingredients are safe.  All my boys care about though is just that they taste good.  The way they gobbled them down, I can attest that they apparently taste delicious!

I was bound and determined to get some pix of the boys enjoying these since the last few reviews I wasn't able to catch them quick enough.  Between the poor quality iPod camera and the fact that Chico would not stay still, this is the best I could manage.  You can see him here with half a treat in his mouth, trying to get away from Shiver.

A 12 oz bag sells for $11.99, or you can get a 22 oz bag for $19.99.  If you set these up for autoship, they're even cheaper!  Plus you would never have to worry about running out.  The boys give these 8 paws up.  Thank you, Chewy, for allowing my chi's the opportunity to sample these.

We were not compensated financially for this post, but were provided free samples of dog treats in return for our honest opinions.

Thank you for the continued contributions for Chico's cancer treatments.  I counted out his pills yesterday and he has about a two week supply.  I'll call next week and make an appointment for another blood test.  I think he's doing better since the sores are completely gone and his lymph nodes have gone down, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that his white blood cell count has gone down.

Happy Veteran's Day!

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Hello Hello!

I had to take last week off from blogging because my laptop decided to quit charging.  Don't ask me why, because I have no idea what's up with that!  I bought a new charger and that didn't work either.  It wasn't the new charger, it was my laptop that was the problem.  Took the new charger back and fought and fought and fought with my computer some more, and now it charges again.  I don't know why, I just know that I'm super happy about it!  I have an 87 year old PC that freezes up constantly most days, and that just was NOT gonna work for blogging purposes.  But my laptop is back, and so am I!  I visited a few of you last night, and will try to catch up with everyone else in the next day or two.  It's good to be back!

Chico is doing well.  The swelling in the lymph nodes have gone down to what feels like normal size again and he hasn't had any new sores since he's been on the steroid this past month or so.  He has a couple of tiny tiny persistent sores in between his eyes, but even those are almost completely healed now.  He's gained a little bit of weight, which he really did need.  His hair is even growing back now, so I'm praying that things will be better when we go back to the vet at the end of the month.  The steroid isn't going to cure his cancer or put him in remission, but it'll keep him comfortable for now.  If his white blood cell count isn't any better, then we'll discuss chemo.  Thanks again to everyone who donated to his cancer fund.  Shiver is also doing well.

Don't you just love his cute little coat?  Lynne sent it along with several others last winter.  

Nothing new to report on the job front really.  I went to a networking dinner last week and made a few contacts.  Sent my resume to them the next day and no one responded, which is fairly typical.  I did a telephone interview with a guy who is opening a business here in the next week or two.  I'm kind of iffy on whether or not I really want that job.  If it's offered to me though, I don't really have a lot of choice but to accept it.  I also have an upcoming interview this week with a nonprofit agency.  That one is a work from home job, which would be perfect!  But I'm betting it won't pay much and there probably wouldn't be any benefits to go with it.

What's new with you?