The Tripawd Times of Nova the Great Dane

Hey everypawdy, it’s Queen Nova.  I’ve been bugging Mom for weeks to get online and update everyone on what’s been going on in my life.  Actually, up until last weekend, my days were pretty much spent doing what I love to do the most… nap in various places around the house, and bark orders to my Lady-in-Waiting when I want stuff.  Lately I’ve been addicted to these delicious chicken meatball treats she bought me (don’t worry, they are not made in China).  I get very pushy until she gives me 3 treats, only then will I give her a break. I count them (I am a smart Queen). Sometimes I really have to bark loud to get her to do what I want… I think I need to send her to a “Service to the Queen” refresher course, don’t you think?

Anyway, last weekend I started to not feel very good.  I don’t know how to explain it, but things just didn’t seem right in my head.  Even though I am blind, I can usually find my way around the house and outside with no problems.  But last weekend was weird.  I felt like a zombie, and was forgetting how to do things.  Mom would try to talk to me, to help me, and my head hurt so bad I didn’t even want to listen to her.  I just wanted to sit and stare, and pant, and pace.  I was driving Mom nuts, because we both knew something was very wrong with me, but I could not explain the feeling to Mom.  But Mom knows me very well, and she could sense that something was not right.  It was like there was a different dog living inside of me.  We had a birthday party on Memorial Day, and a houseful of guests and I had no interest in saying hi to anyone.  I just lay in my bed the whole time.  Everyone was asking why I was not making the rounds giving kisses and sitting on laps.  I just didn’t feel like it.

Well on Tuesday Mom took me to the vet.  She was trying hard to assess my symptoms and her best guess was that somehow the pressure had come back in my eyes from my glaucoma.  So she called the ophthamologist for an appointment and they couldn’t get me in, so she decided to take me to the vet closer to our house, where we had just been a few days before for a routine visit.  By the time we got to the vet I felt just awful.  I didn’t want to do anything but hang my head low, pant, shake and shiver.  People in the waiting room were looking at me funny.  I just wanted to get out of there.  It was loud and there were yippy dogs yapping, cats meowing, I was going bananas.  They got me on the scale to get my weight and the humans got very confused.  They kept taking me off, and helping me back on over and over.  They didn’t believe the number on the scale, because it was 7 lbs less than it was when I was there last week to get my heartworm medication.  Mom was baffled, she told the Doctor that I had eaten every meal all weekend, except for the night before.  No one could figure out where those 7 lbs went.   Mom joked that she wished she could lose 7 lbs in a weekend.

In the exam room the Doctor did all sorts of tests on me to try to figure out what was wrong.  He quickly determined that there was nothing wrong with my eyes.  They were not red or inflamed and the pressure was fine.  My heart rate was up.  He kept saying how worried he was about my weight loss.  He told Mom that I was in pain (duh, you don’t need to go to vet school to figure that out, doofus) and that he was worried that my cancer had spread to other parts of my body.  He was also worried because many of the symptoms I had been having (like my change in personality and confusion) were also signs of a brain tumor.  When Mom was describing my symptoms, she was saying that sometimes I was acting like my human Grandma who has Alzheimer’s disease.  That’s a terrible disease, Grandma doesn’t even know who I am anymore.  The vet said that could be possible, but that the weight loss made that less likely, and more likely to be cancer of some sort.  ARGH.  Mom was way unhappy I could tell, I could feel her sadness in the air.  The Doctor offered to do some xrays of my chest and spleen, to check and see if anything had spread there, and also take some blood.  Mom said do whatever might help give us an answer.

They took me in for the xrays and I don’t know what came over me.  I got very angry with the vet techs, so I growled and lashed out to bite them.  That is so NOT me, I may be bossy, but I have never growled or bitten anything or anyone in my life.  The vet told Mom right away, telling her that he had never seen me behave that way.  I didn’t want to, like I said, I felt like a different dog and everything seemed unfamiliar.  They had to put a stupid muzzle on me.  Geesh.  It least I didn’t need something really humiliating like the Cone of Shame.  The pictures he took of my lovely, lanky body were, well, lovely of course!  My lungs were as clear as ever, nothing funky looking in my spleen, and they even pointed out my stomach tack I had way back when my stomach twisted.  There was a little bit of arthritis in my spine (I am a senior in my golden years, even a Queen can’t stay young forever), but everything, including my bloodwork looked great.  The head was the only thing left to look at, and xrays can’t look inside there.  Getting pictures of the brain is really, really expensive.  And if something was wrong in there, there would not be much they could do to fix it.  The humans talked about some pills that might help me with the pain and swelling in my brain, if that even was what it was or is.  We don’t really know for sure if there is cancer in there or not, and I am just fine with that.  I just want to get the pain to go away.

The next day I felt a lot better and showed my love to Mom the usual way, with tail wags, snuggles and kisses.  I demanded 2 dinners and treats right after.  We hung around outside taking pictures.  She was so happy to see me act more like myself and she is very hopeful that the Doctor was wrong.  She told me that she used to sometimes get migraines and that they hurt so bad that it felt like something horrible hammering in your head.  Of course, neither of us can see in there and know for sure what it is that was causing the pain.  But she promised me she would do everything she could to keep my head from hurting bad.  I know she will, she always has been there for me and done everything she can for me, even if she is a little slow on the treats sometime.  We are spending lots of snuggle time together communicating in our own special way.  She is not ready for me to leave this Earth (you humans never are), even though we both know we will be together again.  And I am not ready to leave yet either.  I have beaten cancer for 3 1/2 years and I am not going to let any stupid speed bump in my head stop me.  I am a Survivor, a Tripawd, a Warrior, a Queen! Kicking cancer’s butt is what I do best (well, aside from napping)!

I am looking forward to many, many more days here on Earth with my family and Tripawd friends.  Dog Save The Queen!

HRH Warrior Queen Nova of Tripawds

The Warrior Queen is Armed for Battle!