The Tripawd Times of Nova the Great Dane

On Wednesday, the weather was a little nicer, but the Parkway was still not open around Aunt Margaret’s house. Mom decided that we would go to Grandfather Mountain, since it was easy to get to on roads other than the Parkway. We drove all the way there and the man at the gate said that Grandfather Mountain was closed, but that it would be opening within an hour. They were just waiting for some of the icy roads to melt. So Mom decided to drive down the road to see if perhaps the Parkway was open near Grandfather Mountain. It was open in one direction! Yay! We jumped out of the car to take a picture by the Parkway sign.

Mom wanted to take me on a hike beneath the Linn Cove Viaduct. This is a section of the Parkway that is built at the side of Grandfather Mountain, but is not cut into the mountain. She says that it is a “marvel of engineering” (whatever that means). It was the last section of the Parkway to ever be completed. This is what it looks like driving over it:

Mom had read in a book that there was a short trail beneath the viaduct that could be accessed from the Linn Cove Visitor’s Center. She had never been there before, but thought it would be fun to see. The Visitor’s Center was closed, but we could see it from the Parkway. So Mom pulled over and parked the car at the side of the Parkway, and we started to hike down to the Visitor’s Center. I had never hopped this far as a Tripawd before, so Mom was a little worried, but I thought I could do it. The hike was all downhill so I got hopping pretty fast. There was also some ice and snow on the trail but (being from Michigan) I was an expert at hopping on the ice and snow. We made it down below the Viaduct in no time at all:

This was so cool! I was having a great time:

Mom was so proud that I had made it all the way down there without stopping. She said that I could take as much time as I wanted hopping back up to the Parkway:

I had to stop to rest a time or two, but still had a lot of fun:

It was a little hard to hop on the snow and ice going uphill, but I did it all without slipping:

I had to stop to take another breather in the Visitor’s Center parking lot, then we finished the hike back to the car:

Alex gave me a big bowl of ice cubes in the car. They tasted great after that long workout!

Next, we went to Grandfather Mountain. It was now open! Mom drove us all the way to the top, but we stopped to take this picture on our way up:

Mom’s plan was to take some pictures in the parking lot of the Mile High Swinging Bridge above us and then leave it at that. The only way to get to the bridge was by going up about 4 flights of stairs. Mom didn’t think I could do it, plus it was very windy, so she was worried about me. The bridge was way up there, but I wanted to try….

Mom agreed that I could try to go up there. She got out the harness that she had bought way back when I first became a Tripawd. I have always done so great on 3 legs that I never needed the harness. She even had to cut the tag off in the car! She tried to put it on me, but it wouldn’t fit. She had bought the biggest size, and it might have fit if she had spent a lot of time adjusting it. But she figured that I wouldn’t be able to make it up the stairs, so didn’t want to spend a bunch of time trying to make it fit. I saw a lot of people going up there, so I wanted to try too. So Mom walked me up there on my leash. I went straight up the stairs like I had been doing it all my life. Once again people were surprised and amazed, stopping to point at ME, the AMAZING 3-legged dog that can hop up 4 flights of stairs:

I was dog tired after climbing those stairs, and it was really, really windy, so Mom decided that we would not cross the swinging bridge. There were a lot of people around, and some were trying to make the bridge move while other people were on it. Mom didn’t want me to lose my footing and fall, either from the bridge moving, or from the wind. So I just looked at it for a few minutes:

Mom and Alex were talking about ways to get me down the stairs in case I had a hard time hopping down. I couldn’t believe they were thinking that I might not be able to do it. Can you believe that? Geesh! That just made me MORE determined to prove that I COULD. I was very determined, and I hopped right down, even with the wind blowing very hard. All the way down Mom and Alex kept telling me what an amazing girl I was, and all the people walking up the stairs were stepping aside making way for me and cheering me on too. It was a great feeling to be able to show them that Tripawds can do ANYTHING on 3 legs! Isn’t this a beautiful view? I felt like I was on top of the world!

On the way down the mountain we saw the Forrest Gump curve, so Alex got out and asked Mom to take a picture of him running up the curve. Mom thought about running up the curve with me, but there were a lot of cars on the road, so she decided it wasn’t a good idea. That’s ok, I didn’t know who Forrest Gump was anyway!

We stopped at this giant rock that had split in two to take more pictures:

What an awesome day! I did a bunch of things that I never had a chance to do in boring old Michigan!

That night we spent some more time at Aunt Margaret’s. I was still trying to get Lizzy to notice me. I think that Lizzy was scared of my hopping. I guess it probably would be scary to have a giant 120-lb. Tripawd hopping toward you if you were only a few pounds! I tried to sit and see if she would come up and sniff me, but that didn’t work either. Oh well, maybe someday!

When we had arrived at Aunt Margaret’s Monday night, she told us that the weather from Michigan had followed us there, and that they expected high winds and snow overnight. This made Mom and Alex pretty sad because they wanted to do a lot of running when we were there. Even the Blue Ridge Parkway was closed when we got there, and ended up being closed 3 of the 4 days we were there:

Since it was going to be hard to get to some of the attractions on the Parkway that Mom had wanted to take us to, Mom decided to drive down the mountain and take us to Asheville the first day. I was surprised to find snow outside, just like at home. I got up and down the stairs to the cabin just fine, even though it was icy and snowy. I had practiced all Winter, so this was no big deal:

This was such a nice place to stay, and I felt right at home, right away:

Whatever Mom had planned for us, I knew it would be fun. I was HOPPY to go anywhere!

When we got to Asheville, Mom took us to go see the biggest house in the United States, the Biltmore Estate. It was the Festival of Flowers there, and Mom wanted to take some pictures of me and Emmy among the beautiful gardens there. The only trouble was that they would not let us in just to walk the grounds. Mom and Alex had to pay the full admission price to see inside the house ($75). They decided not to buy tickets, since they didn’t want to leave us is the car while they toured the house. Plus, Mom said $75 was way too much to pay just to take pictures of flowers. She promised there would be plenty of nice places to take pictures that would be free, and just as beautiful.

I did take a few minutes to sniff around the place where they sold Biltmore admission tickets. Geesh… this place sure was fancy! I bet if Mr. Vanderbilt had dogs, they had some pretty nice beds to sleep on!

Once again, lots of people stared at me, like it was strange that I was hopping around on 3 legs. I don’t understand what the big deal was. I can get around just fine. Life is great!

There were lots of pretty flowers, but it was still cold like Michigan.

When we got back to the cabin, Mom and Alex went out to dinner with Aunt Margaret, and Mom’s Aunt Judy and Uncle Bill. I passed the time making myself even MORE comfortable by jumping into Mom’s bed and curling up on her pillow.

I spent a little more time that night trying to get Lizzy to not be scared of me. She still wanted to run and hide. Sure, my PAW is half the size of her entire body, but I just wanted to be friends!

Just this past week, Mom and my (human) brother Alex took me and my sister Emmy on a road trip to visit Mom’s Aunt Margaret in the mountains of North Carolina. I had a total blast! I had never been on a road trip any longer than 4 hours in my whole life (yes, I know, I’m a homebody!). I am always so excited on a car ride, and this was all the more exciting because we didn’t end up at the VET!

Mom loaded us up in the car REALLY early on Monday morning. She had put our beds and some of our favorite stuffies in there:

Alex decided that my bed looked more comfortable than riding in the front seat, so he jumped in the back to nap for awhile. He made a GREAT chinrest!

Another exciting thing was that I got to go on a 5-state PEE SPREE. Yep, that’s right. In one single DAY, I peed in FIVE states. That may not seem to impressive to humans, but to dogs, it is! It was the first time I have ever had the opportunity to perform such a feat.

Peeing in Ohio was pretty boring, but Mom and Alex prepared me for the fact that the rest stops in Ohio are nothing special:

Here I am enjoying the Kentucky Artisan Center, in Berea, KY, after a nice pee. Mom said that there were lots of cool things inside, made by people from Kentucky. I couldn’t go in, they said only Service Dogs were allowed. Darn. Oh well, I probably would have knocked over some of the nice crafts in there with my crazy, out-of-control tail wagging.

Let’s see, the TENNESSEE PEE was at the Jellico Motel and Restaurant, just off I-75 in Jellico Mountain, TN. There were a lot of people in the parking lot pointing, and looking at me. Guess they’d never seen a Tripawd before!

I was so excited to top off my 5-state PEE SPREE, that I asked Mom to stop at the North Carolina Welcome Center off I-40, just inside the state line. It was still cold there, but I got to sniff some FLOWERS, which I haven’t got to see since I became a Tripawd in November:

As always, Mom was my best buddy on the long drive. Sometimes I like to stand up and just rest my chin on her shoulder when she’s driving. She doesn’t mind!

It was a long, long time to be in the car. But Emmy and I kept it interesting by changing nap spots every hour or so. We also got Mom to figure out our signal for wanting to stop at a Rest Stop. Emmy and I would start farting, and Mom recognized that as the signal that we were ready to go outside. She and Alex were not too happy about it, and kept rolling down the windows and making fun of us:

When we got to Aunt Margaret’s house, I was so excited! It was nice to not be moving anymore, especially after a curvy, swervy ride up the scary mountain roads. I was feeling a little icky, but forgot all about it when walked into Aunt Margaret’s house. I even got to meet her dog Lizzy, the Shih Tzu. I couldn’t understand why Lizzy was afraid of me, she kept hiding behind the chair:

Most of the people who live on Aunt Margaret’s street have separate cabins (called “Guesthouses”) out back behind their homes. That’s where we got to stay. It was awesome, and felt just like home. As you can see, Emmy and I didn’t waste time, we made ourselves comfortable right away. Hey, Aunt Margaret said to make ourselves at home, so that’s exactly what we did!

Ahhhhh…… just like home!

This was on the wall of the Cabin…. “Welcome, Sit, Stay”. That’s exactly what we did!

Whew! I am SO glad to have this Doctor’s visit over with. The bottom line is that Dr. Obradovich did another round of chest x-rays on my big goofy girl and they were pristine CLEAR. Yaaaaayyyyy!! Whooooo Hoooooo!! YeeeeeeeeHaw!! I was REALLY stressing going in there. I know that any of these visits can easily bring bad news of lung mets which means moving on to the next stage in the journey. But today was not that visit, thankfully, and I am breathing a big sigh of relief. Next week on the 11th Nova will celebrate her 4-month “ampuversary.”

“I’m livin’ in the moment and looking ahead to a healthy, hoppy Spring!”

Since we were not buried in snow today (like at pretty much every other visit) I was able to make it to the oncologist’s office in under an hour. Nova always finds out some creative way to stretch out in my dork-mobile (minivan) and make me want to turn around and take her picture:

“Now Chrysler was REALLY thinkin’ when they put these Great Dane chin rests here on these seats”

The tech came out and we examined Nova together to see if she had developed any more lumps or sebaceous cysts anywhere on her body. They are keeping a little map of her, identifying all her lumps and bumps. Nothing new, so that was one less thing to worry about. We took her back to get her on the scale and discoved she had GAINED another 3 lbs (up from 113 to 116). This was really cool, since Nova has always been so skinny, and was extra skeletal after the amputation. Now the trick is to keep her from gaining too much weight, since she has a lot to support on her tripod leg. She’s been eating great, eats twice a day, grain-free Evo kibble for the most part. I have cut back on some of the Evo canned food, serving it only every day or two, just to save a few bucks.

The tech took Nova back for the x-rays and of course I sat there and prayed the whole time they were gone. I prayed for good news of course, but I also prayed for the strength to be able to handle bad news if that was what came of it. The tech came back out about 20 minutes later, with no expression on her face. All she said was, “I need to put you two into a room.” Oh boy, hearing that made my heart sink, because getting put into a room usually means bad news there. She took us to a room, and I looked at her expectantly, and for some reason she didn’t make eye contact with me (you can tell I really like to over-analyze situations), just said that Dr. Obradovich would be in shortly and left. Argh. Tears started to well up in my eyes, since this was the same tech that burst into the waiting room all bubbly and smiley with the good news the last time we had x-rays done.

“Am I okay, Mom? Whaddid the Doctor say?? Any bad stuff in those big pictures they took?”

I passed the time reading all the letters and pictures on a bulletin board in the room. The walls of Dr. Obradovich’s treatment rooms are covered with framed pictures of patients, thank you letters from pawrents, and such. As I started reading them, I started getting even more emotional. Most of the letters were written after their pet’s eventual passing, rather than during their treatment. But they said things like “Thanks for giving me more time to say goodbye” and “Thank you for giving Fifi another 6 years” and such. When you think about it, when people are going through something like this with a pet or family member, they don’t always think to say thank you to all of the people who help them along the way during their battle, they tend to wait until the battle is over. It made me take note to remember to give thanks to people NOW, while we are still on this journey. I think that’s especially true with Doctors, because in some way we want to wait and see if they can prove themselves, and work miracles first, and then we thank them later. And if their recommendations don’t work, I think people tend to blame the Doctor. Anyway, as I read the stories I silently vowed to say thank you to the Doctor, the techs, and to some of the friends I’ve made on Tripawds who’ve helped me get through this with Nova.

Dr. O finally came in with a big smile on her face and said, “It’s so wonderful that the chest is all clear, everything looks pristine.” She assumed that the tech had already told me. Emotion flooded over me, I had just spent the last 15 minutes preparing myself for the worst, and now to hear that everything was still perfect, I STILL got all emotional. This journey is such a roller coaster! Dr. O was all geared up and ready to start talking about next steps. A few weeks ago I had sent her an email on a few treatments I had read about on Tripawds.com, so she was ready to discuss. I had my big yellow legal pad and pen, ready to go.

She was gung-ho on metronomic chemotherapy, which is a pill (or in this case combination of two pills) which is a low-dose of chemo, given on a daily basis. Her recommendation was Cytoxan and Feldene (also called Piroxicam), which she said she preferred to the Metacam that I had read about on Tripawds. She said that it might be expensive to purchase the drugs within her office, but recommended I get the prescriptions filled at Costco. (On my way home I stopped at Costco to drop off the prescriptions and was thrilled to find out that the Cytoxan was only $28.31 per month (it was $93.75 at the vet’s office). And the Feldene was only $5.59. What a relief!) I was thrilled to find out that oral chemo was so affordable. This was one situation where Nova’s weight worked in her favor. Usually, things cost more for giant breed dogs because everything is based on size and weight (x-rays are a nightmare because they have to get several views to get her whole giant body covered). But because she weighs the same as a human, she was able to get human dosages, which are less expensive. Cool.

Dr. O did not strongly recommend Artemisinin, which is a chinese herb I had asked about. I had seen some information on Tripawds that showed that it might be effective, and she didn’t argue with me on that, but just said that she had a lot of concerns about purity when it came to herbal treatments, especially coming from China, where there has been some bad press about ingredients in tainted dog food (I’m assuming she was talking about all the melamine stuff). She is not against alternative treatments, just doesn’t recommend them unless she can trace the source of each ingredient, and feel comfortable that it is safe and pure. It was nice to hear her say that if I decided to try it anyway, she would not object, just that it wasn’t something she would do if it were her own dog. Okay, I can respect that. I still don’t know how I feel about some of the herbal treatments, personally I am quick to try different herbs for myself personally, without really researching the source of the herbs, purity issues, etc. Guess I never really thought much about it.

She did mention something about turmeric (the spice), had been proven somewhere to increase cancer cell death, and if she or her dog had cancer, she might be inclined to try it. I’ll have to ask some of the people on Tripawds about that. She recommended I start Nova on Omega-3 Fish Oil capsules, which I got at Costco. And she also recommended something called CAS Option, which is some kind of multivitamin for cancer patients. I still have to look into an affordable source of that, obviously buying anything in her office was going to cost too much.

The oral chemo will require monthly CBCs at first, which I can have done much more affordably at my regular vet. Costco won’t have the prescription ready til Monday, so I will have the bloodwork done on Monday, have them fax the results to Dr. O, and provided everything looks good, will start her on the medication.

I left the office feeling REALLY good, and very hopeful about Nova’s future. I so much want her to live through another summer of summer runs and a fall cross-country season, where much of her social life is. Two years would be even better! Dr. O reminded me that the best results she had seen had come with amputation plus 4 doses of carboplatin, which averages 351 days survival time, but if the dog makes it a full year then they have an 85% chance of making it a second year. This is really good news considering we are talking about 1/4-1/3 of her entire life! Really exciting. Dr. O has seen complete cures about 20% of the time (rare with osteosarcoma) and in some cases where there wasn’t a cure, dogs made it 2-3 years. Awesome! I hope to be keeping this blog for many months to come (maybe years!)

It was particularly wonderful to find a nice sunny sky when I left the office, and 63 degrees. Nova danced out to the car with her silly hop, and I felt like dancing right behind her. We got in the car and my satellite radio was blaring that song from “Rocky”. YEAH! It sounds corny, but it was inspiring. WE ARE KICKING CANCER’S @$$!!! I decided to break up the ride home and stop at Kensington Metropark to take Nova on a short walk to sniff the Spring air. We followed the “Handicapped” path, which is the quickest, flattest way to the lake from the parking lot. She ambled out onto one of the fishing docks to sniff around.

“Big fun! We get to go for a W-A-L-K at the park!”

The park was quiet and deserted, definitely a perfect setting to just enjoy the beautiful day with my big girl. We had a good time, this was the first time that we had gone outside and spent a lot of time together. Usually she’s such a house cat, and with all the cold weather, she hasn’t had much interest in staying out long. But today was different and it was great to get her out and about.

She did great on the paved path, but was a little nervous walking out onto the dock, I think it must feel a little unstable when you hop on it.

“Spring makes me feel very, very hoppy!”

“Sometimes it’s nice to just stop and sniff the air and let the wind blow your ears back. Ahhhhhhh!”

“Mom and I have very high hopes for 2009 and will continue to kick cancer’s @$$ together!”

Nova got creative with a variation of the chinrest pose on the ride home. I can’t believe she is actually comfortable sitting like this! That’s my goofy girl!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted since there hasn’t been much different in Nova’s life. The weather has been warming up here and there, so I am getting her out more. Here she is outside today, searching for signs of Spring:

We haven’t been doing any additional treatments for the cancer, since the oncologist recommended not starting anything until a month after her last treatment, which happens to be tomorrow. I haven’t been as nervous as I’d thought I’d be for the appointment, but now that it’s the evening before I am stressing a little. I emailed Dr. Obradovich last week with some questions about different treatments that might keep the cancer at bay. She said that we will be discussing “what’s next” tomorrow at our appointment, I’m sure after the chest x-rays are done.

Please keep your paws crossed for no lung mets!!!

I will check in after the appointment tomorrow with more details.

Look who’s knocking at the front door! Awww… I love that face, if she was selling Girl Scout cookies I would have bought 20 boxes!

Today marks my 100th day as a Tripawd! I know, just a few days ago Mom was bragging about my 3-month ampuversary, so you’re probably thinking “Geeze, does every day have to be some kind of freaking holiday??” Well as a matter of fact, YES, when you are a Tripawd EVERY day is precious and you learn to treat every day like a holiday.

No one knows how to enjoy a holiday better than me, the couch potato queen! I am one of those girls who loves “relaxing” holidays. Mom, on the other hand, is more into the “go, go, go, see, see, see, do, do, do” type of holiday.

Soooooo… on that note, Mom told me this morning that she decided that she and I (plus Emmy and my big brother Alex) are going to go on a road trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains in early April. Our “Jerry Road Trip”, she called it. I think she has been inspired by Jerry’s stories (you know, my Tripawd “spirit” friend whose pawrents sold their home and business to travel all over the United States with Jerry.) I saw her eyes get all wet and sparkly when she was watching Jerry’s story on that PBS special Sunday night, so I knew she was up to something.

My longest road trip so far in my life was a 4-hour car ride to Mackinac Island (plus a ferry boat ride). Yes, I know, I am a housecat! So this is going to be the biggest adventure of my lifetime. Mom wants to show me some cool stuff that she loves in the mountains and we are going to go stay at her dog-loving Aunt Margaret’s guesthouse. It’s right off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Mom says it’s so beautiful there and there will be lots of opportunities to dish out sloppy Dane kisses and Dane leans to all the people I will meet there and along the way. I can’t wait!

So stay tuned in early April. I am sure Mom will take lots of pictures and have lots of stories to tell.

Hey, if you haven’t already, you really need to check out Jerry, Jim and Rene on the PBS “Why We Love Cats and Dogs” show last weekend, here’s the link: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/why-we-love-cats-and-dogs/interview-rene-agredano-tells-jerrys-full-story/4654/ And Mom says it definitely requires a box of Kleenex, so you might want to grab one first!

Geesh, Mom just showed these pictures to me. I’m so embarrassed! She has “Obamiconed” me! She should have asked me first.

And she has also made me the star of an inspirational poster:

Hmmmmm…. I think I like this Tripawd “Hope” thing.

Just wanted to let you all know that today I am celebrating my 3 MONTH ampuversary. My life is great these days and I am so happy being a Tripawd that I forgot all about my old leg. It’s so wonderful to have that achin’ thing gone, now my life is pain-free.



As you can see, I am spending a lot of “lounge lizard” time on the couch these days. Danes are the biggest couch potatoes, so I must live up to my reputation! I find plenty of reasons each day to wag my tail, in fact Mom says I wag it as much or MORE than I did before. It’s nice to be done with most of the Doctor visits. Just a quick CBC tomorrow, some chest x-rays in a few weeks, then Mom might start me on some special supplements to keep me healthy and to keep that ugly cancer monster from growing.



We’ve had some warm weather this week so it has been nice to get outside and breathe the warm air. I’ve had a fun time watching Mom clean up all my poop that was buried under all the snow! (Ha ha) I can’t wait to be back in the business of licking the sweaty boys on my brother’s Cross Country team! In the meantime I will have to make the best of hanging around inside. As you can see I have a nice snuggly friend, my lion blanket from Santa, who can keep me company when I need a friend to snuggle with.

Mom is sad today because she found out that some of the nice people she’s met on Tripawds.com are coming to the end of their journey with their Tripawd and have to say goodbye soon, or have already said goodbye. She gets really upset every time she reads about another Tripawd reaching to end of his journey. Titan… Jack…. and now Buster. It’s been a rough year so far. She’s so sad because she knows how hard these guys’ pawrents fought their cancer. It’s hard to help humans “get it”. I wish they didn’t get so sad about it all. It takes a very special person to be a Tripawd parent, and we are all so blessed to have them. We know our pawrents have done everything they can for us and love us to bits. But when we tell them it’s time, they just have to trust us and be at peace with it. And then when we go they need to help other Tripawd pawrents with their journey, just like our friend Jerry’s pawrents. Trust us. We WILL be there waiting for you when you come to join us someday, and I guarantee it will be like we have never been apart.

Nova’s blood work was great this week, so she was able to go have her last dose of the Carboplatin this morning. It was kind of a relief to finish up that phase. The next thing is to come back for chest x-rays in a month. So things should be quiet for awhile. Around that time I may start some additional immunity-boosting supplements, but I am going to spend a little time doing some research and getting advice. Dr. O doesn’t want me to start Nova on anything that might conflict with the carbo, so I will wait for about 30 days. For now I am just going to focus on her diet, which is still EVO canned and dry foods, high protein with no grains. And the occasional can of one of the Merrick foods she loves so much.

It’s my turn to write the post today, since Mom has been so busy with her marathon training (she thinks she’s busy NOW, just wait until APRIL!) First, the most important thing about today is it is MY 5TH BIRTHDAY! I can’t believe I was just a newborn pup 5 years ago.

The fancy-schmancy stone floors were not exactly Tripawd-friendly, I wish there were more rugs, because I had to be real careful about slipping with all the muddy boots coming in:

The lobby had a TV playing Seinfeld reruns. Huh? Who wants to watch SEINFELD reruns? They would have done better with Animal Planet, but I guess they are trying to make people laugh since once they leave they will be crying when they see the bill.

Lots of people were staring and smiling at me in the waiting room. Yes, I AM a showstopper, aren’t I?

Dontcha just love my new coat? Of course when I got on the scale there was a little head-scratching going on. Hmmmmm…. “how did Nova lose all this weight?” the Tech said. Duh, lady, it wasn’t SlimFast, okay? Since we hadn’t seen them since October, they had no idea I had an amputation.

Dr. Morreale and a vet in training came in to examine me, and test the pressure in my eyes. I forgot how much I hate having them stick all those things in my eyes! First they put these little strips under my eyelids that have to stay there for a minute, to measure my tear production. Yuck. Then they numb my eyeballs and poke some tool all over each eyeball, to test the pressure in there. I have very strong eyelids, so they practically had to take a crowbar to open them. Even Mom had to help.

The pressure was great in both eyes, for the first time in a long time. 8 in the right eye, and 9 in the left eye (my blind eye, the one with glaucoma). That was an amazing drop from almost 40 in the left eye back in October. So the Dr. said he was really happy with the way the medication was working.

We finally were able to go and start driving back home. Mom didn’t cry when she saw the bill, but she wasn’t laughing either. She just made a comment to the lady that I should have got a bunch of spa treatments at that price, then laughed that I was the “Million Dollar Dog”. It was so nice of her to say that, don’t you think? I AM the Million Dollar Dog… because I feel like (and look like) a Million Bucks!

We headed home for my “Birthday Nap”. I believe that EVERYONE deserves a good nap on their birthday! I alos hear that there is something special for me for my Birthday dinner tonight too! Can’t wait!