Noah H. Stokes, Debonair Gentleman

Noah Humphrey Stokes is a 10-year-old shih tzu with b-cell canine lymphoma. He loves cheese.

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Traveling Dog

We left for Missouri today (a four hour drive). I was a little concerned about Noah making the trip so soon after chemo but I think he’s doing just okay. He had some bad gas last night. Which—yet again I’m talking about something gross—isn’t normal for him. That made me think he had a bit of an upset tummy. Otherwise, though, he seemed okay. On our morning walk sure enough he had just a slight touch of runny poo. I decided not to give him any food and instead just gave him his meds wrapped in bread & chicken (what he’s been doing for a few days). The car ride itself was a little rough. It was raining from the minute we left and he’s terrified of 1) driving in the rain and 2) windshield wipers (see no. 1). So he panted a lot and was awake the whole time. This is totally normal for him—despite this fact he still loves going bye bye. Nonetheless I kept a close eye on him because I didn’t want him to get too worked up. He had more bad gas along the way, but nothing else seemed to be wrong. For the rest of the day after I arrived in the MO he stayed in his house (crate), which he hates of course. When I got home tonight he was shaking, which worries me of course. But he seems to be acting alright. He ate some dinner and acted very hungry. He also had a regular BM so hopefully his tummy stuff will be resolved. If he’s shaking tomorrow I’ll, of course, be texting Dr. E. Fingers crossed for a good, healthy holiday! (And no more bodily functions talk.)

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Over the weekend we played with the selfie stick I got. So much judgment.

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Happy to be home from chemo!

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Chemo Round 2

Great news today! I dropped Noah off at the vet this morning so he could have another blood panel run and hopefully proceed to round 2 of chemo. His white blood cells came back around 10000. That's an amazing report, I think, considering they were only at 3600 on Friday (and that was 10d after his first treatment). I think such an increase must be attributable to restarting the Pred. So Dr. E went ahead and administered the Vincristine (via IV) today. She said she is so pleased by how he's responding to everything. She commented on how happy and active he is and how his face looks healthy--no hint of sickness. She thinks he's responding quite well. This second round, as I've mentioned, is less intense than the first so we are hoping for no side effects whatsoever. She thinks he's safe to travel, so we will pack up and head for Missouri in the morning. It's just about 4 hours away so we will still be near enough if we need to get home. Hopefully though he will be just fine. He's shown no side effects from restarting the Pred. He's been taking them like a champ (still wrapped in bread and chicken). We will continue taking it and the Famotidine twice a day (we finished the Sucralfate and Flagyl). I think the 3d treatment should happen about 10 days from now. Until then we are hoping for a very happy holiday!

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White Blood Cells

Well, I just spoke with Dr. E. She said the blood panel looks good, but he's currently sitting at 3600 for his white blood cell count. The amount required to go forward with the next round of chemo is 3500. While we are above the minimum, it's not by much, and she thinks it might be too soon to do the treatment tomorrow. So we are going to wait the weekend and redo his blood draw on Monday. Hopefully those results will look good and we can move forward with the second treatment then. I'm a little bummed, but glad that he's at least above the bare minimum. Hopefully restarting the Pred will help boost his immune system and increase the count. Keeping the faith!

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Feed me, Seymour!

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Prep For Phase 2 of Chemo

Sooooo remember when I was worried about Noah not eating or losing weight? We went to see Dr. E this morning in anticipation of beginning the next phase of chemo. This next one shouldn’t be as intense as the first drug—Dr. E said that there are generally no side effects (and really, aside from the little digestive issue he had, which seemed to be more prompted by the Pred than by the chemo itself, Noah hasn’t really experienced too many side effects from the first phase). The second drug is Vincristine. It too will be administered intravenously through a catheter in Noah’s leg. But it won’t take as long as the first day—I get the impression just an hour or two, as opposed to the full day before. To make sure he’s ready for the Vin though, she needed to take another complete blood panel. This is to make sure that he’s blood cell count—particularly white blood cells—are looking good. There’s a chance, based on my research, that the white blood cell count could be low and if it is then we’d have to postpone this administration. But Dr. E seemed really pleased by how he looked (great!) and said she didn’t think he was showing any signs at all of the lymphoma, in particular no swollen lymph nodes. I’m going to call her later this afternoon for blood results and, if they look good, then we will do the Vin tomorrow. Assuming that goes well, then we’ll come back in 10 days for the next dose (which will be just like the first phase).

Anyway, back to the weight: HE’S GAINED HALF A POUND! Hahahahahahahahahaha. This made me laugh and made Dr. E so tickled. Of course I really shouldn’t be surprised. Noah has been eating like a champ, as you know. I’m down to doing about 3 tablespoons (heaping…) of the wet food mixed with about 3/4 cup of his dry food per day. In general he doesn’t eat all of it, and whatever is left over I give to him the next morning (I keep it refrigerated of course). I gave him some yogurt yesterday, which he really likes, but I think he has a hard time seeing it in his white bowl, so I have to put some on my fingers and let him lick it off (admitting that takes courage—judge away). He really hasn’t been getting too many other foods beyond that, because I truly don’t want him to turn into Porky the Pig. But of course………there’s the cheese.

So, yeah, about that. I think he figured out awhile ago that I was putting his pills in cheese cubes. But I think he went along with it because a) he loves me, b) he wanted to humor me, and c) he effing loves cheese [mainly this one]. I think I did a really good job wrapping the cheese in the beginning (I was using those Kroger brand blocks of 2% mild cheddar), but then I might’ve started to slack a little bit. That was in part because I was worried I was giving him way too much cheese (he was getting 1 non-med slice, 1 pill cube, 1 non-med slice, 1 pill cube, etc. twice a day). So I started to make the cubes a little smaller. Welllllll…he finally put his foot down. He started refusing the cheese last night but ultimately couldn’t resist. But this morning he just would not eat it at all. Damn. I had to come up with a last minute solution—because we were already running late for the vet. So I wrapped each pill in a ball of whole wheat bread. I tried just that at first and he was not interested. So then I took a little sliver of shredded boiled chicken and wrapped it around each bread ball, making sure I really squeezed the chicken on there. He ate that. Fingers crossed that works for awhile. I DO NOT want to get to the point where I’m shoving pills down his throat 6 times a day. Ugh.

Dr. E asked how we were doing on the Pred. I reminded her we stopped after she told us to stop when he was sick. I hope I didn’t mess up—I wonder if I should’ve asked her earlier if we needed to get back on it. Oh well. She wants him to start taking it again. We are going to do 1/2 pill, twice a day. I don’t remember what the dosage is right now, but I’ll get that and post it later. Hopefully the week’s worth of anti-ulcer medicine he’s been on will give him an iron tummy and keep him from getting sick this time. 

Otherwise, all is well. He’s a stink pot! And we are ready for Christmas!!!

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Please don't do laundry, mom. I'm very comfortable.

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Loving his chill pill!

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My very sweet friend, Kerry, sent a surprise get well gift for Noah. I have such thoughtful and supportive people in my life. He, of course, loved it!

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Great day yesterday (I didn't feel well last night so I didn't get a chance to post). All still seems normal and Noah is still eating well. I did about 1/2 can wet food and 1/2 cup dry food. He left just a little bit that he finished off this morning. Otherwise our excitement consisted of going to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription, pulling over to take this video (he was really into this song), and then going home to watch Charlie Brown Christmas. He'd never admit it, but he ain't too proud to beg.

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Sweet dreams!

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Porky the Puppy

Another great day with meds, normal lymph nodes, and eating. In general I've noticed Noah seems calmer than he did before we started treatment. Not that he's quieter or lazier, he's neither of those things. In fact he's running and getting excited more than he used to. What I mean is that for the few months leading up to all of this he seemed to be having crazy anxiety. He used to just get upset by fire alarms, thunder, or carbon monoxide detectors. Then it was loud, persistent, and unusual sounds (prompted in part by a break-in of my house over a year ago). Then we devolved into him finding EVERYTHING frightening. The "on" sound of the space heater, noises from the television, any ding, dang, or dong. I couldn't get through a night without him cowering about something. It was actually to the point where I was considering calling the vet to see if he needed to be put on anxiety meds. Over the past week though I haven't noticed him being scared of anything. I'm not sure if it's because we've been being more active and taking long walks a couple of times per day. Or maybe it's the meds. Or maybe in a weird way that behavior is connected to lymphoma. Who knows. I'll take it. It makes him seem so much happier. He's also stopped panting and shivering. Anyway, I pray that this positivity continues. I'm so lucky to have him. I talked to Dr. E today and gave her an update on his health. She asked if he'd had anymore tummy upset and I was happy to report no. We are going to go in on Friday so she can look at him and run a complete blood panel. We have to make sure his white blood count is looking good. If it is then we will do the second treatment that day. I believe she said it'll be shorter than chemo 1. Fingers crossed for more good news. Anyway, about Porky over here. He is loving his food. I was able to stick to just the cheesy meds and his Lotus food (wet + dry) today. Well, I did give him a couple of tiny bites of chicken as an afternoon treat & about 1tbsp of kefir (yay!). Today I did about 1/2 can of wet food and 1/3 cup of dry. That might still be a lot (he also ate leftovers from last night this morning, probably about 3tbsp worth). But he ate every bite. Then he kinda walked around like an old man after turkey dinner. But he didn't seem sick or upset by it. Just a little bit later he was playing and going back in the kitchen to see if he'd dropped anything. He's never ever had a weight problem so I'm not terribly worried about his eating a little extra. Obviously I don't want him to be pudgy because that has its own concerns. But everything I've read about chemo talks about weight loss and loss of appetite so as long as he's willing to eat, I'm happy to feed him (again, within reason of course). I want all those good food fighters to get in there and knock those mean old lymphocytes out. Also did I mention he seems to be dreaming a lot more than usual? Maybe it's the food? It's awfully cute.

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Of course I'm going to post a picture of him sleeping on his paw.

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(Not So) New Med Names & Adventures in Kibble

Finally! As promised, the meds we started on Thursday are Flagyl/Metronidazole 250mg (given 1 whole tablet/d), and Sucralfate 1g (given 1/4 tablet, 2x/d). That's in addition to the Famotidine 20mg (given 1/2 tab 2x/d) that we've been on since chemo. I'm not sure if I ever put the dosage of Pred we were on but it was 5mg. We were to give a tablet twice per day for 7d, then trim it back to 1/2 tabs twice a day for 7d, but of course we stopped when the tummy stuff started. Shew. Lots of med names. I'll say this: I think the pills he's on now are working great (my understanding from Google is that they are all for digestive help). His appetite has been so healthy and he's been so chipper and sweet. I plan to call Dr. E tomorrow to find out the next step in our plan. Lymph nodes are still good today! In terms of diet, I decided yesterday would be the last day for the W/D (unless of course it looked like it was needed). I really want to get him back to eating his dry food but, as I think I've mentioned, I want to be sure he's getting enough protein. The senior formula of Lotus that he's on has more carbs than other varieties of the same brand. But I have nearly a whole bag still and it's expensive. I hate to buy something new. So I thought last night I'd put some cooked chicken breast with the kibble. Ha. He picked out all of the kibble and just ate the chicken (duh). So this morning I had the brilliant idea to use the chicken as an incentive for him to eat the dry food. Eat kibble, get chicken. Hahahahahaha. He was like bitch, please. Soooo I broke down, went to our pet store, and bought some Lotus wet food (they actually call it "stew" and it does look very stew-y). I looked at other brands that probably would've been just fine, but I read something online about how mixing different brands could have a funky taste. Better safe than sorry. The plan was, of course, to mix the kibble in with the wet food. I know, I know, the kibble loses some of its beneficial powers by getting all soggy. I don't effing care. That's the least of my worries right now. I was sure to see that the wet food met guidelines for pet feeding, that it had good ingredients with a high protein level, and that it also had Omega 3 & 6 fatty acids. And it worked! The can said that a 10lb dog should have a whole can of stew. He's 12lbs so I put in the can and about 1/8 cup of the kibble. It was soooo much; I think even he thought I was nuts when I put that big bowl down in front of him. He ended up eating about 3/4 of it (in two sittings about 3h apart--I didn't want him to blow up like a balloon). He can have the rest in the morning. I'm sure if I'd broken it up into two meals he would've consumed the whole thing, but we'd had that whole chicken debacle. Anyway he's also getting a couple of treats and cheese with his meds, so he's definitely getting lots of food. He also lapped up a couple swigs of kefir today. Not a whole tablespoon, but I was proud of him for giving it another go. As for the food, I plan to put in less & less stew, and more & more kibble. They had some fish kibble and it looked good so I'd really like to get him to a point where he could try that. Baby steps. The important part is we watch him tomorrow and make sure his tummy is handling everything well. So that was today. The rest was all walks, and sleeping, and Christmas movies. He even let me trim like 4 hairs on his head (he needs a haircut so bad). He's a suitor!!

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So much fun yesterday. After we each took a long early-afternoon nap, we loaded up to go look at Christmas lights. There's a nearby drive-thru display called the Enchanted Forest. We waited in line in my car for about an hour. The lights were beautiful but unfortunately by the time we got to the front my car was making a weird smell and I was convinced it would die in the middle of the drive thru (it didn't...thank god). Noah seemed to enjoy himself driving slowly and looking out the window. After that we went to the state Capitol and walked around looking at the pretty lights. Well I did. Noah mainly just walked around and peed on stuff. By the time we got home and he ate his chicken (mixed with dry food again, all of which he spit out...more on that later), he was pooped. He didn't want to be on the bed by himself while I watched a movie, so he jumped in his chair and conked out. Such a cutie.

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The ground was a little wet during our walk today. Noah has always been so smart. He knows to get on his towel and dry off when we get home. When he gets a treat and I say "get on your towel" that's exactly where he goes. Lil genius.