Liza's A New Girl Now

Well, little miss Liza Jane has a heart of gold and a will to keep her butt just a wigglin! When we began our journey early in 2017, we weren’t quite sure if our Liza would be with us to celebrate the New Year. Her diagnosis wasn’t very positive (a combined front leg osteosarcoma and dilated cardiomyopathy), but we were determined to provide her all the support and love that we could muster. As the ball dropped on TV, she was sleeping peacefully and warm, and our hearts were happy. She continues to show her personality and, despite the occasional faceplants, continues to amaze with her strength, grace, and overabundance of love for just about everything – especially freeze dried liver treats. We are looking forward to tackling the challenges that will come in 2018, and are blessed to have such a tremendous spirit to share our life with.

Never doubt for a minute the resiliency of a tripawd, their unconditional love, and their ability to teach us more about ourselves than we care to admit.

To the moon and back, Liza.

 

I just thought I would post a few update pictures. We have enjoyed EVERY moment of our journey, and since her last chemo treatment – her energy, wigglyness, and slobber production hasn’t slowed a bit. Still enjoying her daily truck rides with her brother, Liza has provided an immeasurable amount of joy to many a passer-by – with her large, slobbery noggin flapping in the wind. And of course – the deck is her most favorite place outside, and her position on the sofa is reserved.

Continuing our adventures, and loving every moment.

 

 

What an exciting day! After a slight delay (only a few days) for her neutrophils to get high enough, we made our last treatment visit down to the wonderful staff at the Ohio State Veterinary Hospital – and especially the Oncology students and Doctors!

It’s hard to believe that we started this journey just a few months ago with such trepidation and anxiety – unsure of the path that our little girl was going to travel on. How will she respond to treatment, how will she thrive on just 3 legs, how will the chemo affect her, will she make it through all the treatments, and how would we all adjust to her new life?

Well, her wonderful personality continues to put smiles (and slobber) on everyone she encounters. The joy of seeing that butt wiggle 18 hours a day (hey – a girl needs to sleep, too!) has provided us such reassurance that we chose the correct path when we were first diagnosed with this terrible disease.

We are excited to see what the future holds, but for now we are extremely happy that our girl has made it through this part of her journey with very little speed bumps. Sure, she’s got three legs, turns heads as we drive (her half hanging out the window and enjoying the breeze), and sometime loses her balance and face plants while bounding up the steps – but we love every part of her! She continues to amaze us every day with her inability to let her predicament deter her happiness!

Thank you all so very much for the love and support – our Liza continues to thrive, and we couldn’t feel more blessed to have her as a part of our family. On to the next challenge – but for now, we’ll just chill out in our favorite spot – the sofa!

I’ve started a Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/491221027880409/) for any tripawds that are in Ohio if you’re interested in getting together.

 

  

So this visit was a little bit shorter, and was aided by an assist by Liza’s grandpa!!!

She really enjoyed her trip in the mini-van, and had a nice comfortable bed to pant / slobber / rest on during her 4 hour trip. Liza was a bit unhappy that the windows didn’t go all the way down, but she enjoyed having a bit more room than in her dads crew cab truck.

All went smoothly with the Oncologist team, although she had to be sedated a bit because she wouldn’t stop panting and refused to provide a good IV access in her leg. The Oncologist said that on the 5th visit it’s pretty typical for that to happen – Liza’s a pretty smart cookie and wanted nothing to do with that needle!

But it all went well, and we’re getting near the end of our scheduled therapy – so everyone is getting excited. Three more weeks to go, and then we see what happens next!

 

So yesterday was Liza’s 4th of 6 Carboplatin treatments – and boy was it a long day!!! Up at 5:30 am to get to OSU for an 8:30 appt. She was up already for her early morning pre-breakfast potty, but daddy was not happy to be up early. Oh well, away went – slobbering for two straight hours, and panting to the beat of the music did not tucker her out at all. She was great upon arrival, and her usual I’d rather run down that hallway than go slow Ms. Fenger – so I’m glad you were wearing sneakers!

After her chemo, she was also under scheduled for a cardiology consult. And little miss princess could sit still for her scans, so she had to get a little sedation to make that possible. So our regular departure of about 1pm was delayed by about… well…. 4 hours. But it was worth it. The results were good, with no deterioration in left ventricle function, and actually a slight decrease in the margins, which means her medication is working!

So a very long day resulted in us not getting home until about 8pm. Poor Cooper was very excited to see his daddy and sister and with the help of a wonderful friend stopping by to let him out – no messes in the house! Unfortunately, I thought that she would be more tuckered out than ever – buuuuuuutttt no. Poor baby must’ve been hurting, or had some gi discomfort because she had a case of the whimpers. Until 3 am. Which means daddy didn’t sleep. There was no amount of petting, soothing, or massaging that alleviated her crying, and that was the most frustrating part – that I couldn’t help.

She had no interest in food when we got home, ate a little bit this morning, but then was back to her “hunger strike” for tonights dinner.

Overall we’re still very excited about her progress, and her in general. Her spirit, wiggely butt, slobber, and love of EVERYONE despite her predicament really does bring and endless amount of smiles.

But now I must go to bed, as I can barely keep my eyes open. But she is still the apple of daddy’s eyes.

Thank you for the continued thoughts and prayers!