We had such good times the last seven months of Mack's recovery. He had a recent check up and all was well and everyone was thrilled by his progress, which given his remarkable recovery from maxillary osteosarcoma and the removal of his jaw and cheekbone, it was pretty rosy. But as life would have it a big wave of uncertainty hit us, we watched as we began to see some odd behavior never seen before and wondered, what are we seeing now?
He started to drink his water, but as he approached the bowl that he's been drinking out of for probably 10 years, he stopped and jumped back as if it had attacked him. The process continued until we noticed he just would not drink water. We tried every tactic there was to encourage him to get water from his familiar bowl, but it was to no avail...
We tried different bowls and different colors, shapes, types and depths, but he would still come to the water, wanting it so much, but unable to get it anywhere near his mouth. Finally I resorted to putting it in a spoon and letting him lap that until that became a traumatic experience. We tried water in a syringe, only he would have NONE of that and eventually we were considering putting water in all of his food in order to make sure that he was getting adequate fluids. Of course this meant taking him back to the vet. we had just taken him to for his regular check up and asking her what all this could mean. We also noticed one other strange and disturbing thing and that was when we gave him one of his all time favorite biscuits, he tried to chew it and then promptly spit it out...that was not a good sign.
So we took him to the vet. that has known him since we first got him and she did a thorough examination once again, taking his temperature, trying to look into his mouth, checking is eyes, his back, his neck, the whole enchilada and she didn't find anything unusual. She asked us how his overall appetite was and that has not diminished, thank God, but the fact that he was acting like a jack rabbit when it came to drinking water, well that was disturbing. But what was more disturbing was her observation that she thought the eye that was on the side of his surgery appeared to be enlarged, bulging a bit more and definitely not looking as good as she last saw it...
Unfortunately that is the side where the osteosarcoma was found and removed, right below the eye in question and now the weird and disturbing drinking and eating behavior just serves to heighten our anxiety about the cancer and whether this is a sign of something happening. We are beside ourselves as it is, because recently our other dog, his sister Oreo (another blog to come) has been diagnosed with lymphoma of the intestines. She has since survived septicemia by emergency surgery and is now scheduled to begin chemo for several months with a 50-50 chance of remission. Talk about stress, and now this.
We watched tonight as he didn't want his soft food. At first I thought I would hand feed him again, but decided to walk away from the dish and let him decide if he was hungry enough and brave enough to eat it. Turns out that was the right decision because he did eat out of the dish, but while watching him he would lift one leg up and teeter on three legs, move forward and do it on the opposite side and then back up and try again, then teeter some more and try to reposition himself to the side so he could attack the food again, instead of the usual vacuum cleaner eating he's always done. It was a much longer and harder process and his sister beat him by finishing in record time when she's never been one to be the first to finish. Concerning beyond words is all we can say...
So tomorrow will be a day of extreme anxiety and watchfulness. We will wait as patiently for both dogs to finish their vet. appointments, one for the chemo she will have for the next six months every week to two weeks, the other for the results of the two x-rays and dental exam and skull exam to see if there is anything going on. We are not putting our heads in the sand now and we know there may be some rough seas ahead, but we can't help but pray for deliverance from the rocky shores ahead. It is a far distant shore we face, the tossing and turning of our little boat that holds our precious family is at risk. We can only bow our heads and pray for the merciful God we believe in to answer our many prayers for deliverance from pain and suffering for our little ones.
So onward we sail with our little Mack at the helm, and we can only shout out to him, You go Mack, you beat the odds, let's see if you can't do it again, sail on buddy, sail on!
