WBC & Calcium Up...hopes down

Mon. Sept 21st - Received daily update from Vet Tech that did not have new #s since they are running his CBC around 5pm now. She said his temp was 100.1. I asked her to have Dr. Williams call with CBC later today since Dr. Stoll was on vacation. Sam only ate ½ of a frosty paw treat when Steve visited him at lunch.

Dr. Williams called at 7pm. Sadly, Sam's calcium jumped from 11.7 to 12.7 mg/dL. This is what we were afraid of. We now are back in high calcium country. Thankfully, his WBC came up to 4.97 k/uL and his platelets are 134 k/uL. We expect they will recommend keeping him at the hospital to keep him on fluids to keep his calcium down. Sound familiar? As of today, counting days since his surgery at ECVR, he as spent 59% of his nights there. That is not a % we want to continue. The chemo may be keeping him alive but he isn't living with us. We are at the point of asking, what quality of life does he have? We are only able to see him for an hour a day. He is OUR dog not some Vet Hospital's dog - we'd prefer he be at home the majority of the time. It has become even harder to know when we can say what we want for him and not what the Vets recommend. We appreciate their advice but it seems if we follow it, Sam won't be very happy. If we bring him home with high calcium then serious damage to his kidneys can occur.

We had a good visit at 9pm but he still wouldn't eat. Megan said he ate one wheat thin for her and April said she got him to eat a ½ cheeseburger. Thanks to these girls for being so patient with him! Not sure if the lack of appetite will be yet another reason we can't bring him home. We know we are fighting a losing battle but don't know how long this will go on or if we'll ever reach some middle ground between his WBC dropping from chemo and his calcium elevating from lack of chemo.