January 5, 2016

White Dog and the rest of the White Dog Army have been slammed with changes to their routine. "It is only five days into the New Year," WD cried, "how can everything be so out of whack ALREADY?"

She does have a point. Today was Steve's return to work after a two-week vacation of being home everyday but it wasn't just that...it was a late teaching night in addition. So Steve left the house at noon today and will not return until after 11pm. Changes in our household now mean on late nights feeding schedules have needed to be adjusted...those two nights, the WDA will get an an extra snack time which I can manage alone but dinners must wait until late when Steve can help serve the Army. This is particularly rough as an Army runs on its stomach, it was pointed out.

Steve sprained his ankle yesterday and of course has been ordered to keep it elevated as much as possible and to avoid putting weight on it. This has hugely impacted the WDA in that their bedtime walk last night was a walk around the yard as supervised from the deck. Puff and Ferguson who needed to be carried to go out were distressed by the jostling gait. This is likely to be the case for at least several days, especially after Steve comes home from a classday of walking around to view student computers and conduct class.

The Army is unhappy that Steve sits on a bench to do things in the kitchen that he normally walks around to do...to them it just does not seem right. And it is nearly impossible for them to supervise without further unbalancing Steve's awkward hoppy gait.

And poor sweet Ferguson faces yet another challenge. While cuddling him and giving him meds last night we discovered his mouth tumor was weeping blood. It did not affect his swallowing or his desire for small pieces of treats.

This morning when we talked to Dr. Julia, she indicated the tumor mass was ulcerating. This has happened in the short span since the Tuesday before Christmas. He is eating with gusto as we spoon feed his ground up food and continues to drink water but he is increasingly lethargic as his body focuses on the fight within. She wants to see him next Monday provided we can get the piroxicam to work.

We are going to retry the piroxicam, an NSAID that has cancer slowing properties but whose side effects upset Ferguson's system when we used it right after his initial oral cancer surgery. This time we are going to pair it with pepcid in the hope it will be more agreeable to his system. We are also attempting some homeopathic healing by rubbing turmeric paste on the growth as well as continuing to mix it with his meals...also in the hope of slowing the growth and healing the ulceration.

We are all a little weary of the gremlins and demons that keep nipping our flanks and we struggle to stay positive and grateful for the multitude of good things in our lives. But same days it is hard.