15 August 2001
Sparky’s Designated Birthday
Sparky’s not been having the best of times since the last Sparky Report, but she’s still mostly happy, perky and sparky.
She’s now on the every-other-day dosing schedule of the Alkeran and has had six of the seven scheduled radiation treatments. She’s still taking Metronidazole and we’ve added Metoclopramide for the intestinal cramping and diarrhea (from the colitis).
Monday, just before we got into the truck to go over the hill, Sparky produced a stool that was, to me, quite disturbing. It was very thin and runny (as we have come to expect), but it was also topped with a few ccs of red blood. We went over the hill anyway, but consulted with the radiotherapist about this latest development. In her opinion, Wednesday and Friday wouldn't buy us anything that Monday and Wednesday wouldn't, so we went forward with her treatment Monday.
Sparky's oncologist called yesterday afternoon and recommended that we forgo the last of the treatments in this series. Her take is that the overlap in fields is giving her problems as originally feared. I asked about whether, after a couple of weeks off and a re-evaluation, we could/should start another series using a single field targeting only the perianal tumors since they were more immediately life threatening than the inguinal tumor. She said that they had already made provisions for that (i.e., yes, that's the plan).
So, Sparky's overall state and condition is that her appetite comes and goes (mostly goes), she is having difficulties eliminating, she's losing muscle mass, she's happy and playful (more so than her mom), her inguinal (groin) tumor has started enlarging again, her perianal tumor(s) seem to be receding and softening in some areas while hardening in others, and she won't take a piece of cheese thicker than a razor blade cuz it might have a pill hidden in it. Her next visit to a vet is two weeks from this last Monday.
As noted above, today is Sparky’s Designated [7th] Birthday. We celebrated with grilled T-bone steak and coleslaw. Sparky got a share of the steak, the fat trimmings and time with the bone. (When she started breaking it into splinters it was confiscated.) She also received two mint-y tennis balls that she chased up and down the hallway. She actually devoured the coleslaw! Her mom and grandma are glad they can spend so much time with her these days.
Stephanie Fenton
A.K.A. Sparky’s Mom