Indy's Home!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR COMMENTS AND PRAYERS! It's wonderful to know that we're not alone in such a difficult situation.

So here's the update. Indy was officially diagnosed with pancreatitis (that's a new word I learned to spell this week) and it had nothing to do with his cancer. Poor dog can't catch a break.

He spent 4 nights in the ER at UPENN, but he made a full recovery!!! He's been off his cancer drug for over a week now, which is concerning, but he starts back up today. He's also been off his home cooked diet, so we have to slowly start introducing that back as well.

The good news - the new doctor there was concerned that his HS was somehow responsible for his troubles so she did a FULL body scan for the cancer. This included another abdominal ultrasound and a chest x-ray and they both came back CLEAN!!  No evidence of cancer at all, so we're obviously happy about that!!

The concerning thing is that they couldn't tell us why he got pancreatitis. It's not a known side effect with Neoplasene and he's not on a high fat or calcium diet. They ran every blood workup they could think of and they found nothing that should have caused this. They told us that older dogs sometimes just get it for no really understood reason, but now that he's had it he's prone to getting it again. Poor puppy.

In the middle of things, Brian was trying to make me feel better by reminding me that we're not supposed to still have him. He wasn't supposed to make it past Thanksgiving, far less into the new year. I understand this and I am very grateful, but if we lose this dog to ANYTHING other than old age or the HS I will be extremely upset.

You don't fight against a terminal cancer to then lose your dog to something like pancreatitis. That's just cruel and unusual punishment. I dont' think I would have handled that very well.

BUT we didn't lose him, so I'm focusing on the positive. Brian was amazing. I was out of town, as usual, when Indy started showing symptoms and throwing up. Normally when your dog gets sick, you wait a day or two to see if he gets better. However, after the last 7 months, we don't take anything lightly and Brian took him straight to the ER. Turns out pancreatitis can be fatal if you don't catch it ASAP, so it was another life saving decision on my husband's part.

I'd say that Indy is a lucky dog, but I don't believe that anymore. It's obvious to us that God loves our dog as much as we do and we don't doubt for one minute that these near misses are divinely constructed. We also believe strongly in the power of prayer. We ironically watched an Andy Stanley sermon this weekend that was talking about prayer and how if you're persistent (basically bug Him like a 5 year old), God will sometimes reward you by giving you exactly what you want. It was one of the funnier sermons we've watched, but the point was to stay focused.

SO THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND KEEP THEM COMING! I won't be mad at God if we lose our puppy. He's been a blessing since the day we got him, but I'll never stop asking to keep him either!  :)

Indy has another V-C treatment scheduled this morning. He always feels great afterward. Brian and I are considering getting them for ourselves. So I'm looking forward to a happy and very energetic puppy this afternoon!

Thanks again for the support!