False Alarms and other stuff

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The every-other-day dose of Prednisone turned out to be a bust.  Tony immediately became constipated (probably from the combination of his low-residue diet and drinking less water), which is a problem he's had off and on for years, so I gave him a stool softener.  I didn't worry much about that, but it seemed to me that the swellings on his face were coming back up.  I called Dr. Kroll and asked if we could go back to a daily dose.  As she pointed out, normally extending that drug would be a bad idea because of the side effects of long-term use.  However, in Tony's case, long term is not an issue.  She agreed that he should go back to one a day for a couple of weeks, and then we'll switch to half a pill every day rather than skipping every other day.

An aside:  I am getting the most hilarious photos from my Zemanta feed, all apparently based on my use of the words "constipation" and "stool," including one that is of the "Bristol Stool Chart."  It is a series of photos of . . . you guessed it, with comments.  The description reads "Kyle Thompson, self made.  Stool images and text made into document in OpenOffice."  It's the "self made" that cracked me up.  No, I am not going to include the picture here.  Ick.

 So, on Thursday, he had his Prednisone and other pills, which he took eagerly (crushed and mixed into peanut butter), but he didn't want his breakfast.  I took him outside in case he just wanted to "empty his tanks" before he ate, and when he came back in I noticed there was a leaf caught in his tail.  I lifted the tail to pick off the leaf, and -- I am not exaggerating here -- I leapt back in horror.  There was an enormous (about the size of a medium-grade chicken egg; on an 8 pound dog, that's enormous) swelling just to the right of his rectum.

Well, you can imagine what I thought.  This was the end:  the swelling/mass was big enough to cause serious problems for him when he needed to empty that particular tank (it's funny that I considered using 5 other words before settling on that euphemism).  It was tender, too:  he wouldn't let me touch it, not even to clean him up.  As far as I could tell, it looked like his quality of life was about to be destroyed.  Or so it seemed to me.  I called the vet; she was scrubbing for surgery, so I made an appointment for 2PM.  I had conferences with students scheduled from 11AM to 12:15, and I decided not to cancel.  As it turned out, that was a good idea.  I had some trouble concentrating on their issues with syntax and punctuation, but it mostly kept my mind off of the possible outcome --the only one I could imagine, probably because it was the worst.  However, when we went into the examining room, she suggested that it might be a problem with his anal gland.  Apparently infections there can erupt in a hurry, which would explain how he could have such a huge swelling appear overnight.  She took him off into the mysterious depths of the clinic, for which I was grateful.  I had been steeling myself for being with him at the end, but this particular "end" was not something I needed to see.  I used the time to try to adjust to this unexpected turn of events. 

After a few minutes, I heard Tony shriek; less than 30 seconds later, Dr. Kroll appeared.  She was even more certain that it was the anal gland, but Tony was in pain and so upset that they would need to sedate him a bit before they could treat him.  I went off and left them to it.  As I was driving around, my emotions in the spin cycle, I realized that this kind of thing will probably be happening from now on.  In all my efforts to boost his immune system, I was fighting not only his cancer but also his medication:  Prednisone has a negative effect on the immune system, as do antibiotics, and Tony was now going on Clavamox again.  His system has to handle all of that plus the raging infection in his butt.  And that may not be all -- the swelling was so bad that even after it ruptured, which gave Tony a bit of relief, she couldn't tell if there was a mass that might be the lymphoma spreading.  There are nodes right there, too. 

So we have a temporary reprieve, and I'll just be thankful for however long it lasts as I apply warm compresses to his rear end 3 times a day. I am surprised daily by what I am willing to do for him.