Jill's Journey

And who better to celebrate it with than Jilly!?  Every day for Jill is hug a human day!  So, for this special day, I thought I’d bring you a special hugging montage of all her best hugs.

We’re just about 6 months away from Jill’s one year ampuversary!  Which means we have just 6 months to go to get all our postcards in to complete Jill’s get well project!  To remind you about the project and where to send your postcards, please go to http://jillsjourney.tripawds.com/2013/02/05/a-get-well-project-for-jill-help-us-reach-our-goal/

We are still in need of postcards from 28 states!!!!  If you live in or know anyone in the following states, please send Jill a get well postcard!  We can do it!  We are still missing the following:

Connecticut (Katy, I’m lookin’ at you), Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York (again, it doesn’t count if I send one to myself!), North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina (wink wink, Lisa!), Vermont, Virginia (SALT!), Washington (ahem, Chris, ILean), West Virginia & Wisconsin.

Hi Everypawdy!  Jill here!  For those of you who don’t know Tripawd TJ, you SHOULD!  He is an almost three-year OSA survivor and a HERO.  Please click on this link to read more about him and VOTE for him!  He is my PAL!

http://www.herodogawards.org/contestants?nominee=95365448

I almost titled this post “Rough week”, but really, when I think about it, way worse things could have happened and many people are dealing with worse than Jill and I went through this week.  Yes, I had some panicky moments, but all in all, she is still doing great, it was just rough on her little body.

Last Thursday, I woke up to find Jill asleep in a pool of her own urine.  I’m talking tons of it.  She was soaking wet.  This was extremely odd.  She has never had an accident outside of her little box and I thought maybe she was angry that I had my sister’s cat over and she was being spiteful, but I really didn’t think she would do that and, if she would, she really wouldn’t sleep in it all night.  So I emailed the oncologist, who suggested I take her to the regular vet for a urinalysis and culture as animals who are on chemo are prone to infections such as UTI’s.  I really didn’t even think of this as she’s already 6 weeks off the chemo, but her oncologist explained to me that the chemo can still cause side effects for months.

I’m going to make this long story as short as possible…..urinalysis came back positive for bacteria and white blood cells, so we put Jill on an antibiotic (clavamox) and wait for the culture to come back.  On Saturday night, I’m laying in bed when she starts to smack her lips, next thing I know, theres vomit everywhere!  Poor thing.  Knowing it must be from the clavamox, I don’t panic though, just wait to call the vet in the morning.  Vet calls me back, tells me the culture so far is coming back negative, but lets wait for the final results and for now keep her off the meds.  Final results came back yesterday (Tuesday), culture is negative.  Yes there is some blood in her urine, but the way her urine was obtained, a needle inserted in her bladder (a Cystocentesis), can cause some blood to get into the sample.  Anyway long story short, shes off the antibiotic for now and if she starts to show any signs of a UTI again, I’m to bring her in.

So.  That’s where we are now.  She goes tonight for  a blood test to see if her WBC’s are good enough to start metronomics, although now I’m a little hesitant about that.  Obviously her body reacts strongly to chemo and now she has a “maybe UTI”.  As of last night though she was feeling back to her normal self, running around like a lunatic.

The only bad news is………….THE LAST PRE-CHEMO WHISKER HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh well, I see this as a sign of a fresh, brand new start 🙂

Jill here.  First, my mom forgot to write me a blog post to celebrate my five month ampuversary.  Next. My brudder’s lack of decency and pride just keeps going down the gutter.

Oh the shame and horror of it all……I’m going back to bed.

Jilly had her one month post chemo check-up today.  She is doing so well, better than I could ever have hoped for.  I even love her little face without those whiskers – gives her a little character 😉

We walked into the vet and were met by multitudes of vet techs wanting hugs and comments of “oh jill’s here!”.  It just makes me so happy and proud.  She is such a good little patient.  Her exam included a physical, CBC, Chemistry and Chest X-Ray.  During the physical exam, her vet was poking around underneath her throat and she gave a loud HACK, her vet looked up and saw the panicked look on my face and told me it was totally her doing.  Seriously??? We’re like 5 minutes away from the lung x-ray.  Don’t give me a heart attack.

Physical exam = she looks purrfect!  She’s lost a few ounces, but we just need to keep an eye on her weight.  It’s fluctuated throughout this entire journey, so it’s not too much to worry about.  The CBC and Chemistry will come back tomorrow.  And the chest X-Ray, ALL CLEAR! YIPPY SKIPPY!

So now we will wait for the bloodwork to come in and then discuss the cytoxan dose she will get and what that will entail.  She is now sleeping soundly after being fed a ton of treats tonight and snuggled a LOT.  She deserves to be spoiled afterall.

The prettiest lungs I ever seen (anyone else think it looks like there’s a pig face in her stomach):

Looks like a frog to me: 

So, we are VERY happy tonight and she should be starting metronomic cytoxan in the next week or so and then have a check up in a month.  But for now, we can sleep soundly……………………….

Whisker that is!

Since Jill began chemo, her whiskers have been falling out and I’ve been finding them all over my apartment.  Since about 2 weeks after round 2, she’s had TWO very strong whiskers holding tight.  All the rest were gone,  but those last two were really hanging in there!  Some are now growing back in as wispy little things (as you’ll be able to see in the pictures).  Now we are one month done with chemo and those last two were still hanging on!…….and tonight when I got home from work, I looked at that sweet little face and THERE’S JUST ONE LEFT!  That last little whisker.  It’s all that remains!  You can do it whisker!  Hang in there!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Before:

After:

Well we are almost 3 months into our Get Well Postcard project!  Jill has received 34 postcards so far!!!!  HOWEVER, there are multiples from many states (which is still AWESOME!).  So, we have 15 out of the 50 states so far!  Keep ’em coming people!!!!!  Below is a list of the states we STILL NEED!!!!!!!!!!  Don’t forget, if we get ALL 50 states, Jill’s Grandmaw and Grandpaw and Auntie will make a donation to TRIPAWDS (here is the original post which tells you where to send them! http://jillsjourney.tripawds.com/2013/02/05/a-get-well-project-for-jill-help-us-reach-our-goal/)

Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York (I am not sending one to myself!), North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming!

Jill here.  Mommy and I had a fun staring contest this morning.  It’s my favorite game to play!  She is getting pretty good at it though, so I had to come up with a new strategy this time.  Mom says I must be feeling not so tired from that chemo I had because I’m being very funny today and not resting so much.  She almost forgot about my ampuversary on Friday, but I told her it’s ok, we’ve had a busy week!

Here are some pictures from our fun game and how I won!

HA HA! I GOTCHA!

It’s been four months since Jill’s amputation!  Crazy!  She is doing simply amazing on three legs and I never thought I’d utter those words!

She also completed her chemotherapy treatments this week!  WAHOO!  To recap: Jill had 2 rounds of Carboplatin, 2 rounds of Doxorubicin (alternating those every three weeks).  We had to postpone the chemo twice after the Carbo doses because of low white blood cells and neutrophils, but other than that shes had no side effects besides losing almost all of her whiskers, see here:

“Don’t I look cute with just 5 whiskies left???”

So now the plan is, we will see the regular vet in one month for a CBC, chemistry and maybe an x-ray (that’s up to me).  If everything looks good, we will start metronomic cytoxan.  In two months, it’s back to the oncologist for another CBC, chemistry and x-ray.

I am a little hesitant about the cytoxan.  Jill’s case, as many of you know, is somewhat rare.  In most kitties with osteosarcoma, amputation alone is recommended.  However, since Jilly had a met develop 6 months after her toe with the primary tumor was amputated, IV chemo was recommended after leg amputation.  So, after hearing about metronomics on tripawds, I brought it up with her onco and we’ve decided to give it a try.  However, there is NO research on metronomic cytoxan in kitties.  I know I can always stop if she doesn’t handle it well, I would just like to have SOME information about it.  Oh well….I guess Jill is a pioneer 😉

So, Jill’s Journey Part 1 and 2 is complete!  It’s onto Part 3 we go!!!!  Here are some pics from Month 4!

Checking out the sites of the city in the cab ride home from Chemo

Sleepy sleepy girl after chemo

More sleepies

Just leaning on Mom’s elbow….my sweet girl