The last few months of 2019, this became a place for me to process Luna’s journey with you, and when she passed, I needed time to heal In Real Life.
So much has happened. For you too I know.
I really missed you. I really missed writing. Thanks for circling back with me <3
Dougie on Vacation in Omaha
Joy the Puppy with her Teddy
Lucky at Lauritzen Gardens
photo and dandelion wreath by Abby
For his birthday, Russ started a foundation to help other dogs and their families with expensive medical treatment in Luna’s name called “Luna’s Legacy.”
“I was stuck. My grief didn’t reach a turning point until starting this,” Russ said. We are all still recovering from losing Luna, and having Joy sure helps. We are hoping Luna’s Legacy will also be helpful for us all…and save all the dogs! Or at least help a lot : )
Thank you all so much for your help with this. That has been healing and encouraging to us also. And we have such a great base to start helping all (a lot) of the dogs!
Luna passed away this morning. We are all grieving. I wouldn’t trade anything for the time we had with her, not even to not have to go through this.
Thank you for being with us through it all. Your support made the journey sweeter. It makes the sting less painful now.
You fought well small friend. Now rest, and we will see you again. Love you so much.
For the past two days, Luna has been mostly lateral with a temperature between 102.8 and 104.2. She is dehydrated and icteric (yellow tinged) and vomited quite a bit yesterday.
Luna on a more playful day…
She has not eaten anything. She is not drinking.
Today I talked with Dr. Clemans who had me do blood work and a urinalysis.
Luna returned home and went back to sleep.
I arrived home at 8:00 pm tonight, and Russ had brought us Indian food <3
Luna looked up for the first time in a while, so of course I gave her some cheese naan. And she ate it you guys! After not eating dog food or hamburger or rice or egg, and after we bought Ensure as a last ditch effort to get her to ingest SOMETHING, she gobbled up the naan and drank for a long time.
Everything points to this being the beginning of the end, and I thought it was until just a few minutes ago when Luna ate naan.
A beautiful painting by Abby
Dr. Backlund asked, “Who wants to help serve the homeless and near homeless and their pets in Omaha?”
“Well…I do,” I said.
So we did.
Blue smiling, knowing we are going to give him more peanut butter
Today was my second day helping at the Omaha Street Dog Coalition, a branch of the national Street Dog Coalition at Sienna Francis House in downtown Omaha.
I showed up fifteen minutes early as I always (mean to) do. I was surrounded by about fifty men milling about, many of whom helped bring in supplies and asked how they could help me set up and get started. I asked a guy passing by how he was, and he said, “wonderful! I am so blessed!” Maybe Dr. Taplett is right. Maybe life does begin outside your comfort zone. Sometimes.
I saw a few dogs the first time and ten dogs today (including four puppies!) Dr. Dobson saved my life by seeing the one cat who came in with his person today.
Man-man was a champ for his exam and vaccines!
It was so much fun. I can’t wait until the next time.
Luna had her first dose of Tanovea today.
She is WIPED OUT.
Next dose is in three weeks, five doses total if she does well.
Good night Luna. Sweet dreams sweet girl.
Luna had a follow up ultrasound and spleen and liver biopsy with Dr. Clemans last week. The cancer is back. The lymphoma is in her spleen and now her liver too. The chemotherapy was not working.
We had a decision to make, and it took us almost a full week to make it.
Do we keep going?
We looked at our goofy, happy, playful, sassy dog and decided YES, we will keep going.
Are we crazy? YES.
Are we right? I DUNNO.
But we are comfortable with our decision.
Next - five IV injections of a fairly new cancer fighting medication called Tanovea. One injection every three weeks. If it does not work or Luna feels like crap, we will be done. Done done. This is it. But this could give us several more months with Luna. And for us, that is the best news we could hope for.
In the words of the great Dr. Sue, Cancer Vet, ”Already a statistics buster. Kick butt Luna!”
And so she shall.
It is difficult to write about Luna right now because lately we have all been a little bit apprehensive.
But you have been with us through it all, and I don’t want you to miss this chapter just because it is a scary one.
Luna is still the dorky, goofy, fun dog she has always been. Right now she is demanding canned food from Russ. (Update: He caved.)
In December, Dr. Krapfl did an abdominal ultrasound on Luna and found irregularities in her spleen. He did a recheck ultrasound in January, and her spleen was even more abnormal. We did blood work, including a clotting profile (tests to make sure Luna is able to stop bleeding in a normal amount of time), to assure the next procedure would be as safe as possible.
Dr. Clemans did an aspirate (small sampling of cells) of her spleen.
The cancer is back.
Luna doesn’t know. Please don’t tell her!
We restarted chemotherapy last Wednesday. Her next dose is tomorrow.
Luna is also on Lasix.
“Why Lasix?” I asked Julie at VCA MidWest Vet. “I don’t know,” she said. “I will find out.”
The purpose of the Lasix is to prevent hemorrhagic cystitis - bleeding into the urinary bladder. It is new since we did chemotherapy last time, and Dr. Clemans has added it to her protocol.
I hung up with Julie and yelled at Russ, “Dr. Clemans is practicing cutting edge medicine! CUTTING EDGE!” After a few minutes, he said, “so…cutting edge, huh?” and went back to reading. He was, I am sure, quietly impressed.
Between Dr. Krapfl and Kelly and everyone at Gentle Doctor and Dr. Clemans and her team at VCA MidWest Vet, and all of you praying and cheering her on…this little dog has a great team surrounding her. Beautiful things are bound to continue happening.
Merry Christmas!
Amanda: I thought some of your pictures would have people in them.
me: They do!
Visions of chewy bones…
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night <3
Joy are you having fun at Aunt Kristi’s?
Hi Luna!
Hi Lucy!
Should we have taught them “Open your gift”? Too late now!
O Joy!
And to all a good night…
We made Peanut Baby Jesus in preschool Sunday school again! The kids did a great job.
Peanut Baby Jesus <3
How to…
Cut a styrofoam cup in half. Discard the top half.
Fill the cup with hay.
Draw a smile on Peanut Baby Jesus with a Sharpie. (We did this for the kids.)
Place a tiny felt blanket on Peanut Baby Jesus.
Sydney Farley invited me to speak to her middle school class about being a veterinarian. Russ, Joy and I went today. It was very fun! Very nice teachers and a great class with great questions.
From the Way Back…”Have you ever done surgery on a grape?”
Me…”No, but I’ve done surgery on a banana.”
Joy, did you love those kids so much?
Thank you for having us! We had a very fun morning with you!
Luna is three months out from the end of her chemotherapy and one year out from diagnosis of lymphoma and is doing great!
Luna in her beautiful new coat from her friend Missy
“Do these things,” Dr. Clemans said.
“Okay,” I said, and I did. Every time Dr. Clemans tells me to do things and I do, my dog lives longer. So I try to always do what she says.
The things Dr. Clemans said to do were…an exam, lab work, chest x-rays, an abdominal ultrasound and a heart ultrasound.
Kelly and I did her exam, her lab work and her chest x-rays. Dr. Krapfl did her ultrasounds.
THANK YOU DR. KRAPFL!!
“Lookit!” Dr. Krapfl said. “Luna’s bladder looks like a snow globe!” And that is how we learned that Luna probably has a urinary tract infection. We will confirm with her lab work. Just as importantly, Dr. Krapfl and I found NO enlarged lymph nodes in Luna’s whole little self! And THAT is the best news of the whole ordeal.
Even though it was Joy who had anesthesia yesterday, Luna was more wiped out than Joy. Apparently, having all the tests, and needing to be a Good Girl during both ultrasounds, was exhausting. Luna slept for most of the rest of the day.
She will have similar six month and nine month check ups. Then I dunno what…we hadn’t looked that far ahead. But now…maybe…we will.
Joy had surgery today to remove a benign (not cancerous) mass. All went well!
I tried not to include any gross pictures, but Amanda says this first picture is gross. So skip it if you are squeamish!
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It is disconcerting to see your own pet under anesthesia! Kelly was her anesthetist and kept her safe the entire time! As nervous as I was today having Joy undergo this procedure, I knew I did not need to worry a bit with her in such good hands <3
All’s well that ends well…
Abby and Amanda had their friends over, and we celebrated Joy’s 10th birthday.
Happy birthday Joy!
Joy opened all her gifts herself…
Sometimes little sisters get gifts too.
Joy, did you have a fun birthday?
Abby made us two new ornaments! I love them so much.
Notice our unflocked tree. Abby got to choose the color this year. I don’t remember the last time we had a green tree! It is pretty.
Here are pictures from Thanksgiving. Mom and Dad had Thanksgiving at their home again. Karen and Phill came. All my brothers with all their families were there <3
Felix and Oscar with Bill
Amanda, Abby and Aunt Cara doing origami
Henry and Charlie at the park - I love this one!
Bill and Dave…and Olive walking Arthur
The more things change…
Abby helping Arthur on the ropes
Robert climbing the ropes
Abby climbing up to meet the uncles
Success!
Bill, Charlie and Henry
Henry and Olive
Good night!
This is the longest I’ve gone between postings since the Riley and James website when I sometimes wrote every three months! I have tried to make this a daily blog, but obviously I haven’t written since Halloween, so…
Luna is still doing great. No return of cancer signs - woo! She will get to wear her Christmas collar! In fact, I will put it on her now and include a picture for you.
Me: Look up! Luna, look up!
Joy: I will do anything to make you happy!
Luna: (unprintable)
Luna has her three month check up with Dr. Krapfl and me this month - an exam, blood work, chest x-rays and abdominal ultrasound to check for signs of cancer - mainly enlarged lymph nodes - and a heart ultrasound to make sure the chemotherapy has not hurt her heart.
Joy is doing well too. She just turned ten years old. Abby and I checked 14 (14!) bumps on her - all benign - woo!
We got a little blue Neon car for Amanda and Abby. I love it so much. They do too! Amanda is driving all over the place. Abby is still hesitant - her first time out she crashed a parked car. They are both very good drivers though. Hopefully Abby will get her confidence back soon!
My brother Bill and his family were in town from Ohio for Thanksgiving. Hey! I will post that next. Will that be too confusing out of order? I have GOT to get my writing act together. It was a very fun holiday.
Depression has made me more tired than sad lately. I am figuring out how to ration my energy though, and that is improving. Dr. Bashara allowing me to go part time has been a life saver.
And finally, here is a picture of super tiny doll house furniture that Amanda is working on…The balls of yarn are smaller than marbles! I love it so much!
I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season! More posts coming more often… :)
Joy the Puppy was a shark
Mermaids!
Good night Luna <3
My veterinary school reunion was 2 weekends ago. It was so much fun!
Russ, Amanda, Abby and I went to Ames and met up with classmates for drinks Friday night and lunches Saturday and Sunday and a tour of the school Sunday. It was good to catch up.
I don’t know why I didn’t get pictures of classmates, but here are some of my family from the weekend!
Friends, it was so good to see you again!
Great Plains Sauce and Dough Company was Russ’ and my favorite pizza place in Ames.
Ledges State Park is as beautiful as ever.
Abby and Amanda with the Gentle Doctor statue.
