When we woke up to get ready to go to Cary we noticed Sam had leaked a bit overnight which he hasn't done since before the surgery. He also seemed to be extra clingy so we took his temp. It was 103.7 so we rushed to ECVR to see if they could check him out and if they thought it was ok for us to drive to Cary for our 11am apt. Andy at ECVR checked with Dr. Williams who said he thought it was ok so we left for Cary.
We arrived at 10:30am at VSH. We first met with an Katie, an oncology nurse, then we met with Dr. Dave Ruslander. Wow! He is a force of nature! He blew into the room and never slowed down. Luckily, we were able to record our conversations with him. He took Sam's temp and it was in a normal range at Noon. He seemed surprised that Dr. Thompson had not commented on the high calcium back in May but was focused on our future steps to help Sam. He mostly discussed radiation and surgery options with us. The two types of radiation he explained were:Definitive therapy (16-17 treatments over 3-4 weeks)
Palliative therapy (5 treatments over 5 days).
Either way Sam would have to stay in Cary for these time periods.
They took Sam to run a CBC and do another ultrasound. When he saw that Sam's WBC count was low he started him on a stronger dose of antibiotics and subcutaneous fluids. When the ultrasound results showed his spleen to be enlarged they took fine needle aspirates of his spleen but found no evidence of metastasis.
We left VSH at 5pm and drove back to Wilmington. Sam slept on the way which we attributed to his long day but once we got home we noticed he was extremely lethargic and felt hot. When we took his temp this time it was 105.7! We panicked! We took it again with a different thermometer and got the same results. We rushed to ECVR! They took his temp on arrival & got 105.9! They were equally worried and immediately put him on IV antibiotics and fluids. The Vet Tech told us she was surprised he could even walk with a temp that high and that he could have a heart attack. I'm sure she should not have told us this and it did add to our worry. We called Ruslander to discuss this change in his condition. He assured us the antibiotics would kick in and Sam should be ok. He asked to receive updates through the weekend. We waited for an hour to see if the fluids helped & to speak with Dr. Love. The Tech said Dr. Love had gone into surgery on another case but that Sam's temp was coming down - now at 105.5. We came home and called back at 11pm for a temp update. 11pm temp = 103.9.
What a day! We feel so stupid for worrying so much about his calcium when we should have known to focus on his WBC and temperature more. Poor Sam Dog had such a high fever because we took him off antibiotics too soon. Each day we learn more and more about what we should push for from the Doctors and how the chemo cycle works.
We are so sorry Sam Dog - we love you and only want you to be comfortable & happy!
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