After our return from “the cabin,” our loved ones were truly amazed at Sadie’s improvement. I’ll never forget her walking on her own into my in-laws’ home and them laughing for joy. We were all so happy.
On Tues. April 8, even her vet noticed the improvement. Now, I’m not saying Sadie was bounding up and down stairs and running around the house. But what I am saying is that we had come a long way in the last 2 weeks! She was barking again. She was paying attention to life again. It was obvious that she felt better. And I was glad! We had her blood drawn to see if her infection had subsided. At lunchtime, I left her with my in-laws while we celebrated my father’s birthday. It was a very good day. Later that night, I had to leave for 2 hours and when I got home, she wasn’t doing as well, and she seemed very tired. I blamed myself for leaving her, although it wasn’t really my fault. What was wrong? I thought things were getting better. Oh, the merry-go-round continued…..
For whatever reason, I did not hear back from Sadie’s vet the next day, even though the results were sent to the clinic. This did not sit well with me. When I did hear back on Thursday, I learned that Sadie’s WBC had not gone down, but rather sky-high, up to 53! Other abnormalities: Hemoglobin 5.6 (low), Hematocrit 19.6 (low), RBC 2.74 (low), MCHC 28.6 (low), Platelets 480 (high), Neutrophils 47,170 (high), Lymphocytes 4770 (high), Monocytes 1060 (high), slight Polychromasia, slight Anisocytosis, HRBC 1, Toxic Neutrophils +1, Reticulocytes 4.7 (high), Absolute Reticulocytes 128,780 (high), and Corrected Reticulocytes 1.9. The vet was now leaning to the notion that either Sadie had an abscess, or her lymphoma was leukemic. The vet did say that it was a very good thing that Sadie was making new Red Blood Cells, and she was encouraged by that. She asked another pathologist to look at her blood work. While we waited, I was to bring Sadie in the next morning for an ultrasound to check for an abscess. Thankfully, her organs looked great. There were not the usual organ enlargements typically seen with lymphoma. But then again, nothing was ever typical when it came to Sadie. The vet was going to wait on the pathologist before we changed any meds, but for now we were coming to terms with the leukemic form of t-cell lymphoma.
We noticed a trend: in those times where Sadie seemed to drastically improve, we would get bad test results! Go figure. The silver lining was that Sadie didn’t know about those bad reports, and that was a comfort.
It was a long weekend as we awaited news. I received a call on Monday, though the report stated that it had come in shortly before the clinic had closed on Saturday. What a difference the weekend would have made! These issues point to my first inhibitions about switching clinics. I was not seeing that Sadie was a priority. Although knowledgeable, did they think Sadie was too far gone and put her needs on the backburner? We felt increasingly alone. The pathologist’s report stated, “Poorly progressive regenerative anemia and inflammatory leukocytosis along with chronic hypoalbuminia suggest exudation or intestinal loss because of intestinal abscess.” Abscess? Is this not what I had suggested way back when she first got sick only 3 weeks after dental surgery & inguinal biopsy? Did something go wrong during surgery? Were the pre-surgery antibiotics effective? Did she get enough antibiotics? Did I make dosage mistakes? Does cancer have anything to do with what we’ve been going through at all? Would all those drugs in her stomach have adversely affected her? A plethora of thoughts now filled my mind. The irony of it all is that’s also the reason my husband had been hospitalized back in November.
At this point, we were working with the notion that Sadie’s resistance to antibiotics was because they weren’t reaching the abscess. What could we do? My RN sister-in-law had previously suggested IV antibiotics, so I again suggested that to the vet. It really was the only option we had. I would bring Sadie in the next morning, and for the next 10 days she would receive antibiotics via IV approximately every 24 hours. How I wish this had been done at the first sign of infection (note: her WBC had been high prior to chemo, though the count could have been affected by prednisolone; it had dropped to a dangerously low 2.39 four days after her 1st chemo, then was normal 3 days later. After that, it was always high). I didn’t realize how difficult this would be, although I had always known it would not be easy, hence my previous hesitance. They would have to keep the catheter in her leg, which made my heart sink. We were just getting her to walk normally again, we knew this would be a major setback. But we had to do something.
On Tues. April 8, even her vet noticed the improvement. Now, I’m not saying Sadie was bounding up and down stairs and running around the house. But what I am saying is that we had come a long way in the last 2 weeks! She was barking again. She was paying attention to life again. It was obvious that she felt better. And I was glad! We had her blood drawn to see if her infection had subsided. At lunchtime, I left her with my in-laws while we celebrated my father’s birthday. It was a very good day. Later that night, I had to leave for 2 hours and when I got home, she wasn’t doing as well, and she seemed very tired. I blamed myself for leaving her, although it wasn’t really my fault. What was wrong? I thought things were getting better. Oh, the merry-go-round continued…..
For whatever reason, I did not hear back from Sadie’s vet the next day, even though the results were sent to the clinic. This did not sit well with me. When I did hear back on Thursday, I learned that Sadie’s WBC had not gone down, but rather sky-high, up to 53! Other abnormalities: Hemoglobin 5.6 (low), Hematocrit 19.6 (low), RBC 2.74 (low), MCHC 28.6 (low), Platelets 480 (high), Neutrophils 47,170 (high), Lymphocytes 4770 (high), Monocytes 1060 (high), slight Polychromasia, slight Anisocytosis, HRBC 1, Toxic Neutrophils +1, Reticulocytes 4.7 (high), Absolute Reticulocytes 128,780 (high), and Corrected Reticulocytes 1.9. The vet was now leaning to the notion that either Sadie had an abscess, or her lymphoma was leukemic. The vet did say that it was a very good thing that Sadie was making new Red Blood Cells, and she was encouraged by that. She asked another pathologist to look at her blood work. While we waited, I was to bring Sadie in the next morning for an ultrasound to check for an abscess. Thankfully, her organs looked great. There were not the usual organ enlargements typically seen with lymphoma. But then again, nothing was ever typical when it came to Sadie. The vet was going to wait on the pathologist before we changed any meds, but for now we were coming to terms with the leukemic form of t-cell lymphoma.
We noticed a trend: in those times where Sadie seemed to drastically improve, we would get bad test results! Go figure. The silver lining was that Sadie didn’t know about those bad reports, and that was a comfort.
It was a long weekend as we awaited news. I received a call on Monday, though the report stated that it had come in shortly before the clinic had closed on Saturday. What a difference the weekend would have made! These issues point to my first inhibitions about switching clinics. I was not seeing that Sadie was a priority. Although knowledgeable, did they think Sadie was too far gone and put her needs on the backburner? We felt increasingly alone. The pathologist’s report stated, “Poorly progressive regenerative anemia and inflammatory leukocytosis along with chronic hypoalbuminia suggest exudation or intestinal loss because of intestinal abscess.” Abscess? Is this not what I had suggested way back when she first got sick only 3 weeks after dental surgery & inguinal biopsy? Did something go wrong during surgery? Were the pre-surgery antibiotics effective? Did she get enough antibiotics? Did I make dosage mistakes? Does cancer have anything to do with what we’ve been going through at all? Would all those drugs in her stomach have adversely affected her? A plethora of thoughts now filled my mind. The irony of it all is that’s also the reason my husband had been hospitalized back in November.
At this point, we were working with the notion that Sadie’s resistance to antibiotics was because they weren’t reaching the abscess. What could we do? My RN sister-in-law had previously suggested IV antibiotics, so I again suggested that to the vet. It really was the only option we had. I would bring Sadie in the next morning, and for the next 10 days she would receive antibiotics via IV approximately every 24 hours. How I wish this had been done at the first sign of infection (note: her WBC had been high prior to chemo, though the count could have been affected by prednisolone; it had dropped to a dangerously low 2.39 four days after her 1st chemo, then was normal 3 days later. After that, it was always high). I didn’t realize how difficult this would be, although I had always known it would not be easy, hence my previous hesitance. They would have to keep the catheter in her leg, which made my heart sink. We were just getting her to walk normally again, we knew this would be a major setback. But we had to do something.
