Miracle Patch

   

Just wanted to update everyone on Patch.  For those of you that don’t know about Patch~he is my 11 year old dalmatian.  Patch got sick about seven weeks ago.  He was diagnosed with lymphoma on January 3, 2008. You can catch up on the history behind this story by clicking those links to his previous stories.

Sickness: So~after Patch’s diagnosis I became an emotional wreck.  Last week Patch has been improving tremendously! When he sneezes there isn’t ANY blood! His sores are healing up quite nicely.  He doesn’t lick his sores or the incision anymore.  His incision has completely healed up~just waiting for the hair to grow back.  He jumps on his bed and sleeps.  He has been jumping on our bed~when Jedd is there.  He still doesn’t sleep on our bed during the day like he used to.

Car Rides:  In the last six weeks, Patch has been to the Doc five times.  This is the only time he has been in the car for car rides.  His car and his daily/sometimes two or three times daily car rides are his favorite thing to do. He seems to have a hard time getting in the car.  We are also worried that he is now associating the car with the Doc~not a good thing. Yesterday, he got in the car without any help (treats). Hopefully he will get in the car this morning to do his normal Sunday morning routine: Go with Jedd to open up the store.

Bath Place: After Patch got into the car I took him to Bath (he wasn’t in need of a bath) because I thought that Miss Bath Lady might want to see him and I thought Patch might want to see his buddies.  When we got there, Patch hesitated about going in…he was trying to decide is this a good place or the Doc’s place?  He decided on the first and went in.  Miss Bath Lady met us and I explained everything that Patch has been going through. Then she took Patch to the back~well for some reason he wouldn’t go to the back so I went with them and when we got behind the door he seemed fine.  It was amazing to see him with cats coming up to him.  He didn’t bother them at all~they were all buddies…whew!  Anywho, I told Miss Bath Lady to call me if things didn’t work out.  Jedd went to pick Patch up after he got off of work and brought him home.  Patch didn’t get a bath~Miss Bath Lady said she couldn’t get him in the tub and she was afraid she was hurting him-he had yelped some.  I felt horrible for putting him through that but after much love and attention Patch forgave me.  I still think it was a good thing because he went for a ride and the ride didn’t end up at Doc’s.

Babies: Patch loves his babies~dog toys.  He isn’t into the plastic/rubber ones but the fleece stuffed animal type.  He hasn’t acknowledged his babies for the last seven weeks.  We assumed that it was because he hasn’t felt good and it might be harder for him to breath with something in his mouth.  Last night I got a baby and squeaked it and Patch took it from me.  He began squeaking it and slinging it around.  This brought joyous tears to my eyes.  He also began running around with his baby and I blocked any furniture for fear of him hitting his head…he is still wobbly/dizzy probably from his medications.

I have more pictures but they are huge and I have to figure out how to downsize them. I want to thank everyone that has been with us through this ordeal. Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, kind words, and well wishes.  Please continue to pray for Patch as we journey through this ordeal.  Lymphoma is not a curable disease…we have just been blessed with the medications/prayers/miracles to prolong his life.

Renal Cell Carcinoma (Part I)

I have been wanting to post about my cousin, Matt, for some time.  It is such a long story and I didn’t know where to begin. First things first: This is a story about my cousin Matt.  His two brothers are Dillon and Marshall-too cute huh?  They are the Gunsmoke Gang!This story will be told in parts since it covers a five year span.

Matt loves to play soccer.  He and his younger brother, Dillon, have played all of their lives.  When Matt was 14 years old (five years ago) he was playing indoor soccer.  He got slammed into a wall during the game.  He went to the restroom and was throwing up.  Some parents that were at the game that are also EMT’s told my aunt (Matt’s mother) she should take him to the hospital-something was wrong.  They live in Signal Mountain, TN which is near Chattanooga, TN.  They went to Erlanger in Chattanooga.

It was discovered that Matt had a tumor on his kidney.  The doctors removed one of Matt’s kidneys.  We-the family-thought this accident was a blessing in disguise: found out there was a tumor on his kidney and removed the kidney.  Of course the tumor ruptured-but the family never thought about that part at the time. His diagnosis was renal cell carcinoma~kidney cancer. This cancer is mostly common in males over age 40.  What is going on here? A 14 year old child?  So confusing!

I immediately began researching renal cell carcinoma, and at the time didn’t realize how serious this cancer was~since he had the kidney removed and for some reason I blocked out the part of the tumor bursting.  Anywho-Matt is a trooper and he is so strong!

To be continued…