Hi Tripawds friends! Sorry I've been bad about updates lately. And just a PSA for anyone happens to reading this who is within 30 days post op and wondering when their dog will start feeling more like himself/herself... I highly recommend upping people visits and dog visits and getting your dog out of the house to new places. I think it's helped Lexie a lot.

Back to the update. It's been a wild ride since my last post about starting and having to stop Palladia. Unfortunately Lexie's last chest scan showed more lung mets, so vet suggested Leukeran (similar to Cytoxan in some ways) since I didn't want to do traditional chemo given her needle issues.

I also made a long overdue appointment for physical therapy, which I wish I had done earlier...will write a separate post on that later.

At 13+ Lexie isn't a spring chicken, but still thought she was -- until recently. It was hard to see her so energetic on walks and then having breakthrough pain later in the day and especially in the evening. The PT vet was terrific, and helped me understand the pain and muscle spasms she was having post-amp and how she was compensating as a front leg amp who wants to keep up with her younger brother (plus we have two quadpawd/monkeybutt visitors we're taking care of as family members are dealing with some medical issues and had to travel out of town). 

The PT vet was really impressed that Lexie had started doing stairs on her own so quickly and was otherwise getting around so well. She said massage is really important so we've been doing more of that, which seems to be helping. I took off work yesterday and we did a water treadmill session. She loved it! After that they did some laser and massage. At our next vet visit we'll talk about possibly adding some muscle relaxants to her meds mix.

Speaking of swimming, Lexie is the proud owner of a new Ruffwear Float Coat . She was between sizes so I decided to take her to our local REI. REI doesn't allow dogs in the store but I figured they'd have a hard time kicking out a cute Tripawd in a cute red Ruffwear harness . They were really nice about it, and we ended up getting Lexie a small (she has a medium in the regular harness -- she now weighs closer to 27 lbs post-amp).  

Sunday we'll be heading to PA to my mom's farm which has a little pond that Lexie loves, and we're hoping to find some places near where we live to take her on weekends to swim.

Hindsight 20/20 I'm still so glad we did the amputation, even with lung mets -- just wish we had amputated sooner so the cancer had less time to grow. We're going to make the most of the time she has left -- and hopefully we'll have a chance to hang out with the wonderful Sally/Happy Hannah and Elizabeth/Jake and Tanner in June in Richmond!