C-ATCH Sayre Break the Ice !!!
We got our ribbon, we got our victory run, we got our jump bar AND we got our cake :)!!! Details to follow – it was a long weekend, I barely slept last night and am pretty fried!
Meanwhile, Bryce has just one thing to say …
As of January 14th, a little more than a year after starting treatment, Bryce is clinically in remission!
With this disease, it doesn’t mean it’s gone and it doesn’t mean forever. It just means we swept it under the rug for a while.
But for however long or short that may be, it feels good to be able to finally say that we kicked some cancer ass!
A few months ago I spent some of my Amazon mad-money on a video input adapter, with the intention of copying all my old videos off tape and onto DVD’s,. Unfortunately, I was too busy to do anything with it when it arrived, so I decided why not save it for Christmas. I finally got around to messing with it today!
Still not familiar with the software and having problems getting my REALLY old VHS tapes to copy, but I got it working with my 8mm tapes.
The first tape I’ve copied is from 1996-1997 – before Bryce was so much as a glimmer in his father’s eye! It features my “second generation” – Tiffy, Sally, Jasmine and Kacey. Of the 4 girls, only Kacey is still alive. Watching it, at first I didn’t know whether to smile or cry – smiling won out :). There are some classic clips on it, a few of which will be going on youtube, but meanwhile here are a few still frame captures from way back when:
Tiffy at 8-9 years old. When she was 5, Tiffy was badly injured in a household accident so she was a little lopsided the remainder of her 15.5 years. Hard to tell from this angle and the grainy image, but she was a very pretty girl. She was only about 13.5″ tall – Raven’s height. Doesn’t look that small, does she? She was built like a tank!
Sally at 6 – just a sweet young thing! In this clip, she wanted me to get out of bed and FEED her! Instead, I laughed at her and grabbed the camera. (She was a little annoyed – can you tell?)
Jasmine, the 3rd of my 3 little “redheads”, shown here at about 3 1/2 years old. (Jasmine never did like having her picture taken.)
Kacey … as a kitten! (7 months or so)
Proof that I once had a dog with a start line stay …
… but really crappy contacts!
(Not that my handling was anything to write home about either …)
More on the way :)!
Happy 2010!
Here’s the obligatory New Years dog photo (the cats never cooperate)…
(Yes, it looks like Raven may have either had some personal hygeine issues or was passing gas since the others refused to sit that close to her… but at least they’re all looking nicely at the camera and it only took me 4 tries 
! )
2009 had it’s good points and it’s bad points. On the good side, Bryce is still with us and doing pretty well. On the minus side, Jasmine is gone. Wasn’t a bad agility year.
It was however a very EXPENSIVE year right up to the end :(! The week before Christmas, Kacey suddenly got sick – frequent vomiting, not eating, acting miserable. Now since Kacey’s tongue is always in places where a cat’s tongue shouldn’t be, she gets a nasty GI upset or two every year (though it’s usually the other end that’s affected) so I went with my usual strategy – took her to my vet for fluids and some shots to help her stop vomiting.
Eight hours later, she was still vomiting every 1.5-2 hours, so on the recommendation of my vet, off she went to the $$$ 24 hr hospital. $$$ Got there just in time to catch the $$$ ultrasound technician $$$ on her way out the door. The good news was that there were no blockages, however she had a mildly inflamed pancreas and a VERY badly inflamed stomach. $$$ Spent the night there $$$ on IV’s.
Of course, she didn’t vomit once after she was checked in! The next morning found her biting the techs – not something you usually want to hear and I’ll probably burn in hell for giggling about it when they told me, but it was the best sign possible that Kacey was feeling well enough to act like herself. She wouldn’t eat for them, so I went over and managed to coax her to eat a few licks of baby food. After a few hours to make sure that stayed down she came home – indignant, freaked-out, and sporting what can only be described as a semi poodle-clip (apparently they needed to shave THREE legs to find a vein?) but as happy to be home as I was to have her back!
So far so good – what a relief but what a scare! Kacey’s my oldest (2 yrs older than Bryce) – she’s kind of a badass, but I really love her and am not ready to see her leave us any time soon!
Coming right on the heels of Bryce’s “episodes” this was really rough on the already-hurting checkbook as you can well imagine! If you’re ever in a similar situation, I highly recommend checking out CareCredit, which lets you make payments interest-free as long as you make monthly payments and pay off your balance in full within a certain time period (in this case, 90 days).
So here’s to a slightly less-crazy 2010!
So I finally got around to doing one of my 2009 New Years Resolutions and set up a fundraising page at the National Canine Cancer Foundation (WeAreTheCure.org) with Bryce’s story.
Many people set up these “friends” pages in memory of dogs they have lost – since Bryce is all about living life to it’s fullest, I felt it more appropriate to set set one up now in his honor. Silently, my page is also dedicated to those other dogs I know who are fighting the fight or who have left us recently – there are far, far to many of them 
!
The NCCF is a non-profit 503c that funds grants for scientific research into improved treatments and diagnostics for various canine cancers. They fully funded several research grants in 2009 and will be funding more in 2010.
January marks one year of Bryce being on treatment for his Myeloma. As of his last bloodwork, his numbers were very good but appear to be hitting a plateau now. I don’t think his numbers are quite good enough to qualify as full remission, but his globulins are down to well below where they were when we started and just a skooch above normal range, which I think makes it a good “partial response”.This is the point where I hold my breath and hope they stay there for a long time, dreading the day they turn and begin to climb again.
Every now and then I scan the news for the latest in multiple myeloma research - which is encouraging but frustrating at the same time. There have been SO many promising advances in the treatment of Multiple Myeloma in humans, but virtually NO mention anything new in veterinary medicine! No studies, no clinical trials – nothing. Nothing but the standard protocol, previously used for decades to treat humans … with mediocre results.
Probably the case for many other canine cancers as well. This is why we NEED to fund the kind of research that can lead to similar breakthroughs and more quality time with our beloved companions!
Visit Bryce’s Page at WeAreTheCure.org »
I guess I’m fortunate in that our town has leash laws and people obey them … or do they? Does it count when they walk their dog on a 20′ flexi and DON’T USE THE F****** BRAKE? The whole point of having your dog on leash is so that they’re under control and NOT running loose all over people’s yards.
There’s this guy somewhere in my neighborhood with a big sib/mal type dog. Walks the dog on a flexi – dog’s over the place, which includes making a stop in every yard they pass.
Caught him doing it again this morning – I was out with Jayda, damn dog comes RUNNING into my yard towards us.
So as nicely as I could muster, I yelled “PLEASE get your dog OUT OF my YARD!” I hear the guy’s thumb brakeing the flexi (mind you, the dog was near the full extension) and walks a short way away …
Then he LAUGHS!!! And stands there. Hellooo are you F**** Brain Dead??? I just yelled at you for letting your dog run on MY property (that I pay a s***load in taxes to have) and you don’t think maybe you should make it a priority to keep walking? Meanwhile, here’s his dog, standing on it’s hind legs looking over my hedge at Jayda like she’s a SNACK. (To the dog’s credit, didn’t seem like overt dog or human aggressive, but definitely saw prey drive.) Jackass owner continues to STAND THERE!!!
I grabbed Jayda and carried her into the house. Wasn’t all THAT worried for Jayda, but the guy’s dog could have easily hurt one of the outdoor cats that hang out here, so in addition to the principle of the thing I REALLY don’t want him making a habit of this.
Unfortunately, this is the second time it’s happened. Next time I catch this a****** I’m gonna get it on video and post it online “How NOT to walk your dog on a flexi”!!!
You want your dog to run, go to the freakin’ dog park! Yeesh!!!