Post Chemo Health Scares

Hi Everybody!

I have been missing in action these past few days because my pawrents and I have been attending to my health. As I mentioned last time, the first day after chemo was rough for me. I wasn’t feeling good, and didn’t want to eat or do anything. But, I ended up turning around for the weekend, and was back to my, relatively, normal self. Well, Monday came, and things took a bit of a dip…

I woke up on Monday morning to Mommy being thrilled to see me up lounging on the couch (I hadn’t slept on the couch overnight since before my surgery). When she was waking me up, I had a sudden sensation down below and started liking up some wet dribbles. My mommy was then surprised to see that the other bed I had been sleeping on most of the night had a big wet mark on it. I had peed to bed in the night for the first time since I was a pup. I was a little embarrassed that I couldn’t hold it through the night. I don’t even know what happened.

Thats not all, I didn’t want to eat anything that morning. My Mommy, knowing my appetite had been a bit funny since after my chemo, picked up some meats, yogurt, pumpkin, and other goodies to get me through, as I definitely was not interested in having my kibbies. But, come Monday morning, I didn’t want to eat any of those things. My pawrents ended up putting on quite the fuss of making the food look good, and made it sound interesting enough (definitely not Broadway convincing performances) that I ended up having a few bites of this and that. They even managed to get an anti-nauseant pill into me (they thought I didn’t notice).

After my morning pee and having little nibbles of food, my pawrents were off to work, and my Eddy got me back in one of my t-shirts, and I was in my crate like normal. Mommy was the first home from work later that afternoon, so she came to let me out. When I got up we both realized that my shirt was absolutely soaked in cold pee, and so was my mat in my crate. My Mommy cleaned me up before my Eddy came home.

We then all went down for what I thought was our normal walk, but turned into a car ride to the Dr. Mommy says that I already had an appointment booked this afternoon because she found one staple still left in my incision. But, when the Dr. came in, Mommy also told him about my lack of appetite, and my wetting of the bed (much to my embarrassment). To test out my appetite, my Dr. asked one of the technicians to bring in the “super tasty treats” to take my attention away from getting my staple out. She brought back kangaroo jerky, one of my old favourite treats. But instead of making me drool, like normal, it made me feel yucky, and I turned my nose away at it. My Dr. then knew something more must be happening. So, after I got my last staple out (which was a walk in the park. Didn’t even feel it!), he got my pawrents and I to go out for a pee and bring some back for him to see why I might be wetting the bed. He then sent us home with some canned foods to try and boost my appetite, and told my Mommy he would call her when the results from my pee test came back.

We had only just parked the car when she got a call. I am not sure what all they talked about (because it seemed like forever), but I heard something about my pee having sugar and protein in it. Last I smelt, my pee was just pee, not sugary. Apparently sugar and protein aren’t supposed to be there, so that meant my kidneys weren’t doing there job, and the doctor thinks that may be connected to me not eating and not being able to hold my pee.

That night, I felt terrible… I didn’t want to eat anything. With some convincing my Mommy got me to eat some salmon, but that was all I wanted. I just didn’t feel very good. I kept being unable to hold my pee. I was exhausted. I didn’t want to play. And my pawrents seemed really sad. It was a rough night.

That night I peed in all my beds. I couldn’t hold it together at all. When morning came, I immediately wanted to go outside again. I just couldn’t stop peeing. When I came back inside, I refused everything they tried to make me eat. Not even salmon did the trick.

I then saw my Mommy pack up the food I was refusing in a bag. And, to my surprise, my pawrents, although they were dressed for work, took me with them to the car. I quickly found out that we were headed back to the Dr. When I stepped on the scale, I heard someone say that I had lost 2kg in the past few weeks (thats 1/10th of my body weight!).

So, this time, it wasn’t a short visit to the Dr. I was being dropped off to stay there during the day. I know all of the people who work there, so it wasn’t so bad hanging out with them. They ended up hooking an IV up in me and filling me with some clear liquid.

As the day went on, they walked me, took some blood, took another pee sample, tried to make me eat food, and generally snuggled with me. By the afternoon, they had convinced me to have several nibbles of my food, and I was feeling loads better. I was especially energetic when I heard my pawrents come in. They got to see where I was hanging out all day. One of the super nice ladies that had been snuggling with me that day showed them how to operate the machine (Eddy says its called a pump) that the clear liquid they were putting in me comes out of. They ended up taking that home with us…

…or at least I thought we were going home. Little did I know, they had packed up the car while I was at the Dr., and we were now headed to the country, where my Blair lives, to stay for the week. My Blairs girlfriend let us stay at her house this week, just the three of us. I was so happy to have a yard to play in, and not to have all the stares of strangers in the city stop and talk to my pawrents about me. Especially now that I was hooked up to this IV machine.

The rest of my week has been a combination of being at our new, temporary, country home in the night (playing, getting visits from my Blair, staring at the kitty neighbours, and being hooked up to my IV at night) and going to the Dr.’s office during the day (to stay on the IV, get more tests done, and hang out with the girls who feed and snuggle me), while my pawrents are at work.

Apparently, my tests must have been getting better, because this afternoon I got unhooked from the IV, and don’t have to be on it tonight! Also, as of yesterday afternoon, I am back to eating my kibble! I am so happy to be back to being my normal puppy self, eating and not being hooked up to a machine.

My pawrents say I do have to go back to the Dr. on Saturday for more tests (10 day post chemo CBC, as well as to see how my kidneys are doing). But, for now, I am going to really enjoy my one day of freedom from the Dr.

Until next time!

Love, Hudson.

P.S. Mommy and Eddy got me a Ruffwear harness, and I love it! Helps so much with getting down steps and out of the car easily! Also, I think I look pretty darn handsome.