This time around, Lucie’s decided to throw us a curve ball…
The symptoms just came on like gangbusters. In the span of 12 hours, Lucie had gone from that happy, healthy dog to a sick, depressed and lethargic dog. After two-and-a-half days, we decided to bring her to the emergency hospital. After a couple hours, Lucie was initially diagnosed with liver failure due to either an infection or an ingested toxin. After spending the weekend under the watchful care of the emergency hospital staff, Lucie seemed to be getting better. However, as soon as we brought her home, we knew she wasn’t well. She just wasn’t herself, so The Husband brought Lucie back to the emergency hospital, so at least she could get hooked up to an IV and get hydrated.
The following Monday, we headed to the vet, who decided to keep Lucie and get a sampling of her liver cells. Still not herself when we brought her home, back to the emergency hospital she went.
By Tuesday morning, it seemed that Lucie had turned the corner. She was holding her head up again, wagging her tail, and just seemed so much happier. But, to be careful, she spent the day at the vet, just to make sure she was on the mend, and to get a sampling of liver cells, just to find out what caused her liver to fail.
Then I get the call. The good news was, the vet was able to get an adequate sampling. The bad news was, the sampling contained cancer cells.
CANCER?
As my heart was dropping into my stomach, the vet started to rattle off words…biopsy…lymphoma…carcinoma…prognosis…chemo.
At that point I felt that I had stepped into this alternate universe. Surely, the vet had the wrong info, Lucie is only 7 – she’s much too young to have cancer.
To be continued…
The PreK application process is finally over! (That is reason enough to celebrate!) We’ve made our decision and have sent in the enrollment papers and checks (grr…)! Peanut will be starting big girl school this Fall!
I keep asking myself how did the past 4 years go by so quickly?! When I ask Peanut how she got so big, she smartly replies, “It’s because I eat all my food and vegetables and drink my milk and take my vitamins.”
(I also can’t believe Ringo is going to be 1 this year. Yeah, yeah, a December birthday, but still…one! Time is flying by too quickly for this mama.)
Peanut is also realizing that she is growing up, too.
Lately, she’s been starting almost every sentence with, “When I was a baby…”, even if it was something she did just yesterday, last week or a couple months ago or something she still does. “When I was a baby, I used the baby potty…When I was a baby, I chupa my dedo (she’s fluent in Spanglish)…When I was a baby, I watched Nemo.”
the demise of nemo
The most “drastic” change to date been the demise of Nemo. Poor, poor Nemo.
For those of you who know Peanut well, Nemo was the end all, be all for a long, looooong time. Nemo treats, Nemo movie, Nemo books, Nemo hats, Nemo swim diapers, Nemo beach towel, Nemo jibbitz.For a time, I got real good at drawing clown fish. Peanut has 3 Nemo plush dolls – 2 “regular” size and 1 mini size. They’ve traveled the world with her: Minneapolis, Chicago, Maui and France – and they typically sleep on Peanut’s bed. One recent afternoon, I walked into Peanut’s room to put something away, and discovered Daddy, Mommy and Baby Nemo on the floor. I asked Peanut what they were doing there and she told me that Nemo is for babies. I have yet to put the Nemo family away and maybe I am quick to say it’s the demise of Nemo – Peanut still asks for Nemo beach towel for “picnics”.