Max: One Year Chemo Update

Max and his beloved basketball.
(Click picture for larger view)

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." ~ Anatole France

I haven't done an update on Max for some time. He is now one year and two months on his oral chemotherapy for cutaneous lymphoma. (Same as human mycosis fungoides) One nodule has popped up, but it has not grown and feels movable and not attached to underlying muscle. It will be removed soon. Max has the cocker skin troubles with small sebaceous adenomas popping up and then resolving and it is grass season when his skin allergies are at their worst, but he eats well and still knows how to sucker people into giving him two meals. That is a lack of communication on our part that he profits from. I have been struggling with his eyes. One cleared up but the other is constantly matted and all the antibiotics in the world don't seem to help. Then this week he has suddenly developed idiopathic facial nerve paralysis on his left side... he's had this twice on the right side before. Bless his heart, his muzzle is droopy and his ear floppy and he is drooling a bit from that side. The hardest thing is that his eye won't blink... so for two weeks it will be extra tears for him. It should resolve as the other episodes did. Max amazes his vets and I am just glad that he still loves his biscuits, chewy rawhides and the ever present basketball.

Max has surpassed my expectations and continues to love life, so we take it one day at a time, one biscuit at a time, one doggy kiss at a time.

Max will be going over to visit his friends at the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings and will see if any other puppies are boarding Friday's Ark hosted by the Modulator. (end of post)