I can't think of a better way to wake up in the morning!!!
We ALL slept from 11pm - 6:15am this morning. It is the most sleep straight that Max and all of us have had in months! I asked him if he had good dreams and he kissed me again. 
Max's swelling has decreased probably by half in the past 24 hours! His abdomen swelling is down by probably more than half and his leg swelling is down by probably half.
We headed to MSU to meet with the head of the Oncology Dept (he is who we initially met with when we first went to MSU for a 2nd opinion on Max's diagnosis). It was a long day to say the least. Max did NOT gain his angel wings just yet. He is alert today like yesterday and the swelling is 50% down from the weekend. He has gone over 12 hours now without diarrhea so we are thinking and hoping his body is righting itself.
Dr. Paulo said there are not clear answers as to why Max is experiencing the issues he is having. Typically, with dogs with cancer, the reason for the edema (swelling) is the disease is spreading. 😞 Even though Max's tumor and lymph nodes are stable, cancer can be a tricky jerk and find other ways to spread through other vehicles like blood and tissue. When this happens, they will experience swelling and it does not typically right itself and things go down hill from there. He believes this is the case for Max.
However, there has been a shift in his swelling over the past 24 hours, including him going from knocking on heaven's gates on Saturday to being bright and alert on Sunday and then again today (Monday 10/21). The doctor was very surprised by this bc he said it doesn't normally happen this way. This leads me to believe the swelling and diarrhea and GI upset is from his new chemo med that he is just not doing well with. The doctor said there is honestly no way of knowing.
Where we go from here is we go day by day. We see if Max continues to rebound and get better and we see if the fluid goes away more, if the diarrhea goes away, and if he starts eating well again (still super picky).
We are not going to let him suffer. We were ready to put him down today. Our prayer since last week and this weekend was for God to make our path straight and to let us know if it was time, and honestly, if he hadn't had that turn around in the past 24 hours, he would have been with God today.
We will see what the next few days and week holds. We thank you for your continued prayers for us all. I personally believe that the only reason he has some what rebounded is bc God heard ALL of our prayers and your prayers and moved on our behalf. It's either that or God doesn't have enough pillows up there so he needs to stock up first.
Either way, we are trusting God's plan, focusing on Him and enjoying our time with Max. God isn't ready for him yet so until then, we will just keep praying, hoping, and loving our sweet boy.
Cost of treatment:
$201.25
Cost of treatment:
$201.25
❤️
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