Treatment #1
Yesterday was my dog’s first radiation treatment to address the tumor in his neck.
A friend graciously offered to lend me his car as it was about 10 degrees out (we had to check in at Angell between 7 and 8), but at least it wasn’t windy like the day before. I went over to get the car, but it was broken. The “check engine” and “check gearbox” lights were on and it wouldn’t go into drive. So I got back on the bike, came home and took the subway. We made it in plenty of time, cold though it was.
We checked in and I came home via Jackson Square (Orange) because the nurse said it would be easier than Heath Street (Green). It’s wee a bit farther from the hospital, but it goes to Back Bay Station (Orange) which is right around the corner from my house and Prudential (Green) is still about a ½ mile walk from here.
The doctor called at about 2:30 saying he was on the table and doing well and asked permission to do a ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration of the mass just to be certain that it is thyroid cancer, so I said yes. Not knowing what shape he’d be in, I borrowed the friend’s car to go pick him up after he explained what the problem was (it does that when it’s extremely cold) and gave me the secret mantra to chant to make it work.
He seemed fine, if tired. He’s got a black X on his neck over the tumor to aid in siting the radiation. The instructions say that it might fade, but not to wash it off as they will use it for the next treatment and will help reduce the amount of time he’s under anesthetic. When we got home, he ate dinner but was then having some trouble breathing. I think the intubation irritated his throat. I gave him another predisone and that seemed to help. He slept most of the evening and I went to return the car.
He’s always done this sort of chase thing in his sleep where his muscles twitch like he’s running and he sort of whimper-barks. Sort of a little “boof boof”. He did that last evening, but I’ve noticed now that he can’t bark any more. He tried to bark at a squirrel during our evening walk but all that came out was a little hoarse raspy sound. His coughing is getting more strained as well. The cancer is starting to cut off his windpipe.
But late last night, about 4:30 AM, he again woke unable to breathe. His throat was nearly closed. This episode lasted longer than the previous ones. I gave him another prednisone and tried to keep him calm. The pill seemed to kick in about ½ hour later and the rest of the night was relatively uneventful. I couldn’t get back to sleep. I’ve started keeping my little eeepc by the bed with a browser open to the zipcar homepage. Not that it would make much difference, I think. He’d have suffocated long before I could get him back to Angell. I just feel so helpless and powerless.
But I’m convinced the prednisone is doing some good, in spite of the oncologist’s doubts, so I will be keeping that up. I know it’s a somewhat dangerous drug, but I don’t see any alternative choice. I’ll give him one a couple of hours after dinner, say, 9 or 10 and see if that gets him through the night. He has less trouble in the daytime, and the one from 4:30 still seems to be in effect. So I’m hoping. As an aside, I’ve noticed the hemangiopericytoma on his foot has shrunk dramatically. Whether it’s the prednisone (the description says it can “treat symptoms of certain types of cancer”) or something else, I don’t know. That’s the thing that started this all off, and it’s now looking fairly normal, or at least much, much smaller than it was.
This is all very distressing. He’s been my nearly constant companion for the last 13 years. I work at home so we’re together almost all day every day. The only times we’re apart of any length of time is during the NEC bike ride when I’m gone for a week. Otherwise, it’s never more than overnight and that’s only a few times a year.
At this point, I’m starting to have serious doubts about whether he can even make it to the end of the treatment regimen. I have this terrible fear he’ll suffocate in the middle of the night and there won’t be anything I can do.
