Skippy has passed; 12 y/o Yorkie with likely pituitary tumor (Trilostane)

Great news, Carole!

Skippy graduated from radiation today complete with a Purdue Radiation Scarf and a certificate that included his photo. He is fine and the same. Still on Clavamox, BP meds, Pred and Denamarin. He goes back for Neurological exam in ten days to create a baseline. They expect no change in functioning for a month or more. Purdue radiology was very, very good in spite of all my reservations. He was radiated with 8Gy X 3 on three different days in a one week. He has had no side effects so far.

I have no idea if this will help him but time will tell. I'm very grateful this part is over for him and for me. Thanks again everyone and I will post on the next chapters. :)

Congratulations to both you and Skippy, Carole! I think you are both very brave :o :o, and I'll be so anxious to hear about every single step further down the road.

Sending healing wishes to Skippy and a big hug to you, ;) :)
Marianne

Woo hoo! That's awesome. Lots of healing energy for Skippy and love for the both of you.

Oh my gosh that is wonderful to hear Carole. We look forward to the next chapter on yours and skippys journeys and remain hopefully optimistic. :)

yay for purdue.

Oh I am so glad this is behind you and Skippy, Carole! I am also glad this was a much better experience than you had feared...and me too. ;)

I choose to believe that you will start to see things improving soon...small, teeny things at first that make you wonder if you are seeing things or maybe losing your mind hoping so hard. But soon you realize those things were real and were the foundation of a new life for Skippy!

Hugs,
Leslie and the gang

Hi everyone and thanks yet again for your support. Leslie, I am watching Skippy with a magnifier, butthe radiologist was nearly emphatic that the earliest that I might see any change is a month. She thinks any improvements I'm seeing now are prednisone related. He is more alert, more ravenous if that's possible, but refused to walk last night in the heat and fireworks melee. (Although he's not reactive to loud noise.) He looks more alive and is a bit more responsive to commands, more willing to be petted, brushed or messed with. But truly, no one but me would see a speck of difference and I may be imagining it. I am trying very hard to have no expectations of the radiation but of course that is hard. I waant to get him up and take to the streets. But truly I know that it just may not work. I now am not so convinced that it matters whether the radiation is Cyberknife, Tomotherapy or plain old SRT that he just had. His tumor was relatively large but his symptoms were not extreme relative to other dogs described here. The total cost of this phase of the boy's treatment was $4,200. I do not regret for a second spending the money and am glad that I was able to do it regardless of the outcome. I know nothing about his Cushing's except that his liver is enlarged, belly is enlarged and he drinks and pees a lot so I presume he remains full blown on the Cushing's front. They have poked the lymph node on his rear leg four times total now and they suspect that he has an old dog growth on top of that node as it consistently produces blood. They feel highly confident that it's not lymphoma. He's still on Clavamox for the pneumonia and they will x ray him again next week to see if it has cleared. Unattended is the adenoma on his butt that remains stable.

Reading all of this I realize what a sick little guy Skippy is or at least was. If he comes out on the better end he truly is a miracle of modern medicine and his positive attitude that there is nothing wrong with me that my mom can't fix! I wish it were so.

Carole

Carole,
I am so happy to hear of this progress - Skippy is seriously a warrior.

With all that is ailing him, he still fights and he now has an even better chance at improved quality of life because of you.

It is all we can do to give them the best care we can and make decisions based on the information we have. I am so glad that you and Skippy continue to have time together to love and cherish each other.

I do hope that you see improvements from the radiation - had I known in the beginning of Mojo's journey (before trilostane and all of that drama) what I know now, I would have tried radiation. Lessons learned ...

Keep us posted and know you are in all of our thoughts as you and Skippy fight the good fight :)

Carole,
Happy to hear your little trooper is fighting onward with his awesome Mom beside him. I can't beleive all you two have been through, together. Sending hugs to both of you!
Annie

Liltara and Annie,

My thanks to you for continuing to follow Skippy's progress and for your kind words and thoughts. It's hard for me to believe that the radiation is behind us by a week now. It was all so scary especially after the pneumonia. While Skippy has not been transformed into Super Dog, he has no visible short term effects from the radiation. He still moves rather slowly but he is moving and clearly is gaining more strength. Two days ago, he jumped out of the front seat of the car when I ran back in to get something. Yesterday, he jumped out of the bath tub when I went to get an extra towel. He will now walk, albeit slowly. His bark is stronger and he seems a little more interested in life around him. He is starting to become very suspicious of all the meds and yesterday turned down one wrapped in ham! So, I am hopeful that the radiation is working but maybe it is just the prednisone. As Leslie said, looking for teeny tiny changes. Wednesday is the neurological evaluation and x ray of his chest and I want a BP check. I read that Doc, the dog radiated at U of FL had a subsequent MRI or maybe a CT two or three months after radiation. At this point I am not inclined to do that. Either this works and it works for how ever long or it doesn't. Maybe I will feel differently in the future as I never thought four months ago that I would permit him to receive radiation.

On the Cushing's front, Skippy's ravenous hunger has diminished but not the drinking and peeing, although the frequency of peeing has lessened. His coat and belly seem about the same to me. Of course I won't know about his liver until after the x rays. More to come...and again, thanks everyone for your support even when you likely questioned my sanity. There have been times in the last months when I have questioned it myself! :p