Last Week of Radiation!! Week 5!

It's Max's last day of radiation therapy!!!!!! Wahoo!!!! Max went through 5 rounds of radiation therapy (1 round per week for 5 straight weeks) and he did really well with his treatment.

We did not notice many side effects from radiation except that his tummy and boy area pigment changed colors and went from pink to black'ish.

Other side effects of radiation therapy are hair color change. Hair will change to a salt & peppery color BUT Max is already that color so we didn't notice any color change there.

He tolerated radiation really well and didn't have any issues with the anesthesia (except for that time we gave him trazadone on the same day). Sigh.

Most days radiation therapy only took 1.5-2 hours tops and the average cost was around $350 per treatment (except for the first treatment which was higher for set up costs, testing, etc).

On Max's last day he wore a party hat to celebrate and his oncology team came out with a bag full of treats, a special dog cancer ribbon, and a certificate of treatment completion where all of his team signed and wrote special notes to him. It was so sweet! Here he is with his head oncologist and tech.

When we got home Sammy Lammington wanted to check him all out giving sniff sniff sniffs to make sure his brother was ok. We were very pleased with this form of treatment and how easy it was with very little side effects that bothered him. We were told a week after his final treatment there could be some straining to urinate or defecate but that is yet to be seen.

Max had 2 chemo treatments during the course of radiation (1 chemo the first week of radiation and 1 chemo the 4th week of radiation). Those were double treatment weeks, which he tolerated well. He has some side affects with chemo but I will make a new blog post about those.

Max has tests that will be ran on 9/17/19 that will give us a good look into his progress and it will let us know whether all of these treatments (immunotherapy, radiation, chemotherapy) are working. Max's rad oncologist did tell us that his prostate is smaller to the touch, which is great news! But, this mama is guarding her heart bc this journey has been a roller coaster ride so I don't want to get too excited until we have his x-rays on 9/17 and know for sure.

Until then, we are trying to add some weight back on Maxie bc he lost 7lbs (most likely due to his diet change). We met with a Vet Nutritionist this week (conference call) just to make sure we feel confident in how we are feeding him and to ensure he is getting the proper nutrition.

Max is feeling great, his quality of life is pretty much the same as before his cancer except for chemo weeks when he feels a little sluggish and queasy. He is active, he is happy, he is eating like a champ and he is still here and breathing.... which we are so so thankful for.

Every day we embrace. Whether it's the good, the bad, the nausea, the upset tummy, the happy zoomies, the bouncing around, the barking that use to annoy me now sounds like a sweet symphony, and the 4am potty runs just gives us an opportunity to see the stars.

Embracing. Thankful. Grateful.

Thank you for following along on this journey with us and for all of your support and prayers. We love you all!

Last Week of Radiation:

Day 1 (Tuesday): Max did great with his last radiation treatment. Tonight our oncologist called us and Max's white blood cell count was too low which would open him up for infection easily, so she wanted us to put him on an antibiotic for 1 week to help guard against infection. It usually takes 5 days for white blood cells to recooperate and build back up so she wanted to make sure he was guarded during this time. He was put on Clavamox 375mg - 1 pill twice a day 12 hours apart. This antibiotic can upset their tummies so it's important they take it with food.

Day 2: Max did fine today. Acted normal. Pee'd and pooped just fine. Poop looks great.

Day 3: Same as day 2. We were told to look for straining with poop/pee during this week bc some dogs experience that but we aren't noticing that much. He is pooping fantastic. Not straining to poop. His poop looks like healthy pre-cancer poop. He is peeing great but then marking around the yard more but nothing too out of the ordinary.

Day 4 (Friday): Today Max did not want to eat anything. He stayed in bed while I fixed his breakfast and I had to go and get him to eat. He walked into the kitchen and wanted NOTHING to do with his breakfast. It was his favorites too! After trying everything stinky I could think of, I tried his grain free kibble and he ate that out of my hand. The rest of the day, the only thing he would eat was his kibble. He ate it for all 4 meals but wanted nothing to do with any soft foods.

Day 5: Today he was hungry and ready for his regular meal! He gobbled up his breakfast of Paradigm, chicken, broccoli, and some stinky sardines. I topped it all off with bone broth and he loved it. 20 minutes later after his meds were given, he threw it all back up. We came to the conclusion that the Clavamox he has been getting is upsetting his stomach. I made an appt with our local vet to have a blood panel ran to check his wbc count to see if it was high enough to take him off the antibiotic. His blood panel came back just great. His wbc was 7.22 (needs to be above 5.8). He's on the lower end of good but he's still in the good range. His other results from his blood panel were all really good. His vet said she was shocked to see how great Max looked. She said she was thinking she would see a sick looking dog but he looked the exact opposite. She also said that she was surprised to see how great his blood panel looked for a dog that is undergoing radiation and chemo. Such great news! I talked with his oncologist and she said since his wbc count had recovered we could take him off the Clavamox. Since not being on that medication any longer, he has been eating great and his tummy has not been upset.

Day 6: Max had a rough night last night. We were up all night and didn't get any real sleep until 5am. He did not seem sick. No nausea. No diarrhea. No vomiting. He had eaten well all day Saturday and we had taken him off his Clavamox. We do however, have rabbits. That's right. Rabbits in our backyard. Both dogs have been on the hunt (Sammy more than Max) trying to catch these little jerks leaving milk duds all over our yard. The 2 rabbits were out there during Max's last potty break around 11pm and close to every hour after that, Max wanted to go out. With him having prostate cancer, we don't mess around if he says he needs to go outside. We take him no matter if he just went out or not and no matter the weather or what time it is. So, every hour we were going outside. 12am. 1am. 2:45am. 4am. 5am. I could tell he was feeling ok bc if he had an upset tummy he would be trying to eat grass, and that was not happening at all. What was happening was a 10 year old dog with metastisized cancer chasing rabbits FULL SPEED through our backyard every time we went outside. Finally at 5am he couldn't take it any more and crashed. I was able to hold them off till 8am to eat breakfast but right after that, they went back to sleep and I started my day. :) Max did eat and drink fantastic today!

Side note: Max moved REALLY slow today. His back legs are killing him! It is like a great workout leg day after you have done 100 squats and lunges and can barely sit on the toilet or walk up steps. His legs are super sore from all that rabbit chasing. We now have 2 more live traps set with more goodies to try and catch these bastards.... errrr... lovely God's creatures. Hoping to catch some waskowy wabbits tonight.

Side note 2: When we took Max to the vet on Saturday he weighed in at 51.8lbs. Only around 4-5lbs more to get him back to his normal weight! Super happy!

Cost of Treatment:
$313.05


xoxoxo,
Brenda, Colin, Max, and yes... the poop eater Sammy Lammington, too