Ellie had her first physical therapy appointment this past Tuesday. Oncology had a peek at her and removed her sutures. YAY!
In her PT they did TENS (Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) cervical paraspinals around her neck, as well as PEMF (Pulsed electromagnetic field) therapy. This combined with massage is a nice little spa day for Ellie which is very much appreciated as she’s building up all these new muscles. They also worked with her on some new stretches and exercises that I’ve been sent home with.
I had a really nice chat with Ellie’s oncologist on the upcoming chemotherapy and she also got the test results back on the tumor and it was confirmed osteosarcoma. This was oddly a punch in the gut. Obviously I was planning on it, and I thought I was prepared, but I guess it was the last of my diehard silver lining hopes getting obliterated that it was a lesser cancer or something completely different where even if she had to go through chemotherapy her projected lifespan would be measured in years instead of months. I try not to think about that, but it hit home again.
Since Tuesday it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster- I started tapering off the Ellie’s Gabapentin, from 300mg 3x a day to 300 mg 2x a day and then stopping. It’s not going great there- she was obviously uncomfortable the first evening that she didn’t have any so I gave her 300mg, and again later this morning she was uncomfortable with me around her incision as I was doing warm compress and actually whimpered when she was standing afterward, not sure what that was at whether it be the incision, neck pain, hip pain, leg pain? It doesn’t help that she also itched and nibbled at the lower part of her incision, no bleeding or broken skin it just looks like a new bruise at the bottom, and was obviously tender, so I went ahead and popped on the ole t-shirt again and gave her 300mg gabapentin. I’m really hoping that’s the issue.
My brain won’t let me stop at that though, as I’m struggling with the exercises/massages I was sent home to do. She’s an absolute star at her neck side bends and balancing on uneven ground. But she pretty much refuses to army crawl, and seems really really uncomfortable when I work on her back end. We are supposed to be doing hip stretches and finger rolls twice a day. Her face gets tight, and she pulls her leg back in on the stretches, and looks away or moves her body away a little while doing the finger rolls. It freaks me out, because I’m not a physical therapist, I don’t think I was stretching too far, but maybe I am going way too far? Or is it a hurt so good situation? same with the finger rolls- anyone who uses a foam roller knows how painful breaking up the myofascial can be, but man does it feel better when you are through… with that said I’m worried I went too hard there too and maybe now she’s bruised on her back from my grubby fingers. Bleh! It’s really unfair that dogs can sniff out LITERAL CANCER, but not tell us dumb dumbs if we have gone too far.
This is mostly just a vent, and to be transparent with where my head is at with all of this. I have an email to the PT to get some clarification and hoping they might be able to give me some hands on advice when Ellie goes in Tuesday for her first chemotherapy (cheers to going to a university where all the things are in one place!). Oh yeah- no wonder I’m emotionally exhausted, just when you start to get over the anxiety of the amputation (and that’s only if things have all gone right), you get to prepare yourself for the chemotherapy and have another bout of monitoring to see how she’s handling it. I know it’s usually fine, but I refuse to not be prepared for as many outcomes as possible.
Wow this is a downer of a blog post isn’t it? It hasn’t been all bad, actually very little of it is has been bad. Case in point, I had to order something on amazon and since I was there I couldn’t help myself and got Ellie a life vest. How freaking cute is she?!? She was a good swimmer before all this, so I’m really excited to take her to the lake this summer and still enjoy the water 🙂 🙂 😀
She has been getting better and better at her balance, getting up and down, and her endurance. We are still at very short walks- probably going about a block round trip, but it’s definitely progress. We’ve also started learning some new tricks to keep the brain engaged! The current one is “Touch” she got to touch my hand really quick, and we are starting to work on her ringing a bell 😀 . Lastly she has easily figured out how to get her chew on- which is good because I went a little crazy and got an assortment of collagen sticks (I guess they are a longer lasting version of a bully stick), cow tails, a pig femur, and cow hooves! That combined with her Yak bars she going to be downright spoiled, and I’m here for it!!
OH my gosh she makes my heart do a flip flop! What a CUTIE!
No this isn’t a downer post at all, don’t ever be afraid of processing outwardly here, that’s why we have the blogs. And we get it, everyone who’s been through this gets it. No shame!
When it comes to the massage, a PT once told me that you use the same kind of pressure you would on an infant. Maybe try thinking of that when you’re working on her.
Also for the Gabapentin … if you don’t have them, ask for it in 100mg capsules. It makes it much easier to taper down with 100 mg increments. See what happens when you try 300 mg in the AM, 200 mg in the afternoon and 300 mg at night. Then later, 200 mg at night and so forth. Ask your vet of course before changing it up.
I love that they gave you exercises and massage homework!
And as for her holding the chew with one paw … PAWESOME! She figured it out! That is HUUUUUUGE!
I’m sorry for the osteosarcoma diagnosis. You’re right; don’t keep focused on the prognosis, just on what’s right there in front of you. The world’s most incredible, gorgeous, adorable pup who’s getting her life back. OH YEAH! GO ELLIE!
Jerry- thank you for the advice! I only did the warm compress last night, and skipped the stretches and skin rolling, but this morning went in again thinking of her as an infant and it went much smoother- still not sure if I’m stretching enough, but I felt really good about those finger rolls.
and you’re so smart- I do have 100 mg gabapentin, but never considered breaking it down like that- I went ahead and gave her 200 mg this morning. She did pretty well with 300 mg x2, so I think I’ll do 200mg x2 and see how she does- I think getting it in her before she gets sore is really helpful as all.
First of all and as always…loooove seeing pictures of Ellie! Such a beautiful AND smart gal👍
And goodness gracious, not a “downer” or venting at all but rather bery informative. Thank you for detailing what’s going on.
Can’t recall exactly, but I know my Happy Hannah was on pain med in so e form into the three week mark before reducing. Some dogs need to have pain management, even at a lower dose, a bit longer than others. I think this is especially true with larger puppers.
FWIW, the Rehab Vet told od a dog is showing tension or signs of discomfort during the stretching, then go back to less and lighter (of that makes sense). So much is about getting the exact position for support and too much tension. Anyway, just throwing that out there. She has a lot of PT going on at once. As Jerry said, mauve lighter with the finger rolls for awhile.
Ypu are doing such a grest job….truly! And Ellie clearly is a fighter and ready to face any challenges head on.
Thanks so muc for the thorough update. Helpful to all!
Higs
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Thanks Sally, I really appreciate the feedback and reassurance. I can’t say I’m looking forward to tomorrows visit to the vet (it’s first day of chemo, but she has to be there all day for the clinical trial 8 hour serial blood draw 🙁 🙁 🙁 ), but I am looking forward to getting clarification in person!