Kind of a glass half empty / glass half full situation.
Was searching the house to see if I had a cooler bag to bring cold stuff with me to Bitdevs tonight.





#dogstr
Still too early to know if the radiation treatments will yield any effect on her brain tumor. But the lack of any further bad signs so far is itself a good sign!
#dogstr #cancer

She is completely stoned OUT OF HER MIND from the final round of anesthesia plus the tranquilizers (gabapentin + trazadone). 🤣😵💫
The radiation therapy takes a few weeks to start affecting the tumor. The docs are very optimistic that it'll be effective. But still a risk that the tumor keeps growing in the meantime and we run out of time.
If we get through the next 6-8 weeks, we can start feeling more confident about her longer-term prognosis. Being a relatively young dog (7yrs) for having such a tumor, she's a rare candidate for follow-up treatment if things go well for the next 6-12 months.
#dogstr
So now I have to flush the catheters 3x a day to make sure no clots develop. It's FREAKY: I have to inject saline STRAIGHT INTO HER JUGULAR!!!! 👀🤢😫
It's a pretty safe procedure; apparently it would take 1ml+ of air to cause an embolism and I'm fussing to get rid of bubbles that are like 1/1000th that size.
But it's still stressful and gross and kind of disturbing to think about. At least Kuma doesn't seem to care and she's happy to get a treat after!
The hospital staff has been so sweet and continues to be wonderful.

Spoiler alert: It took LONGER than estimated.
Each day I have to drive about 125 miles over 7 trips, shuttling back and forth throughout the day. 3.5-4hrs in the car thanks to Chicago traffic 😭🤬. Four days straight last week. Another four days this week. Exhausting.
The first day was the worst for Kuma since she was very heavily sedated (procedure requires full anesthesia each day) and was super groggy the rest of the day. Then at 8pm she has to take tranquilizer pills to pre-load her for the next morning's procedure. So really no chance to get back on solid mental footing.
But they tweaked the sedation level and she came out much more alert the following three days. Feels much better to see her being mostly back to her usual self each afternoon.
I've also been chatting with a lot of the other random pet parents at the #cancer center. The impromptu commiseration really helps. And always wonderful to meet their #doggos!
And of course she's getting lots of treats!
Look at how clever this girls is! Holding the plastic peanut butter jar between her forelegs!
#dogstr
The tumor is pretty obvious. It's the half golf ball. The neurologist was also concerned that the meninges surrounding her brain on that whole side were also lighting up (white outline on the tumor side but not the other), either due to inflammation or possibly additional tumor spread.
This second view she's lying upside down facing us, we're moving in through her face in vertical slices. The tear drop features at the top are teeth.
The golf ball is pushing her brain back and to the side. The good news is that the prednisone calmed down the meninges so the main mass looks to be the only thing we need to worry about.
We start radiation therapy tomorrow to try to kill off most of the tumor and hopefully shrink it a bit.
#dogstr #cancer #tumor #mri
While in a brief respite from her brain tumor troubles, the prednisone is making her hungrier and thirstier than usual. And so, in a good kind of sign I guess, she's getting back to her old mischievous ways!
She thought it would be a good idea to tear into a bag of flour.
I joked that she was just cosplaying as my sister's cattle dog!

She threw up this morning and wasn't herself. Took her in to test for poisons, etc. All clear. Was fine this afternoon. Then out of nowhere she had a seizure in the evening.
I took her back to the animal hospital. They kept her overnight to watch for further incidents. But only a few hours in she had two more seizures.
The vet's best guess is it's a brain tumor.
Trying to get her in for an MRI next and neurologist consult.
Not in a doom loop yet, but realistically it doesn't sound like there's likely to be good news from the MRI.
Preparing for a gut punch.