Bevd

I forgot to say earlier... When Marc came to collect me from the red cross, he brought Duffy with him. Often, Darcy comes but today of course she was at the vets so Duffy came instead. There's a market on every Thursday outside the shop but today, we didn't half confuse people.... A few people did a double take (and a leg count) and one man asked how 'she' was doing, whilst gawping at 4 legs and looking perturbed (Yes, he thought Darcy had magically developed a new leg or had a strap-on one attached or something)

Well, her platelet levels were back in the decent range and although her WBC had gone down slightly, it was still good enough for Darcy to have her 2nd chemo today So today, she's had the Doxorubicin and she has to go back on 10th Dec for bloods. Piccies later

I *think* I may have to eat my words One of my sent packages has developed a green tick If that's right, it took less than a week to get to the USA

Good boy Carrier

Something like that

Tomorrow is the day Darcy goes back for her blood tests again and if all is OK with her WBC and platelets etc, she'll have her 2nd dose of chemo. If her counts are too low, the chemo will be postponed. I'll let you know what happens. Meanwhile, last night, when Marc & I got in from shopping, Darcy was so excited to see us that she had a game with Duffy, which involved leaping on and off the settee It's the first time she's engaged with another dog properly since her surgery but irritatingly, I couldn't get to the camera LOL.

Arrghhghhhh - arrrrrrrrrrrrghh - don't say itttttttttttt That's probably the only one good bit of service we'll see from them till March 08 now that you've said thattttttt

He seems to be doing really really well! His leg is positioned so central in the pics (unlike Darcy who's a bit slowwwwww in the learning to position the leg correctly thing ) and his .... scar/wound/op site looks to be healing fabulously

Checking in on lovely Carrier....

I think all SS people know that whatever is sent in a SS package is likely to be shared when there is more than one dog in the recipients house so I'd not worry yourself at all

And me It's sooooo excitinggggggggg when you get to press the button to say your have sent your package

I love that T shirt on her

I'm very sorry Sleep tight Holly.

We're back. Hmmm. The vet doesn't think it's anything too concerning at the moment but he was able to make Darcy squeak by pressing quite firmly in certain places towards the back of her jaw area. I asked if it would be unusual for there to be 'anything' there (as a secondary) and he said that yes, it would be unusual. So, for the time being - and because Darcy's temperature was up - she's starting a 5 day course of antibiotics. Her bloods were then done and her white blood count is fine (yay) but her platelets are virtually off the scale. They started out in the low end if the low range but now they are lowwwwwww, low. (Figures listed below for anyone who may be interested). The plan therefore is to do her bloods again as planned next Thursday morning and if the platelets have come back up (and if the white blood count is still good) she will have her second chemo. If the platelets are still scary and/or the white blood count has dropped, the second chemo will be held over for another week. The figures then... White bloods last week - 6.4, and this week 6.8 (so they are climbing) Platelets last week 190, and this week 35 (normal range is apparently 175 - 500) If Darcy still seems to have any sort of issue with her jaw/neck area next week, she'll have an x-ray. Anywayyyyyyyyyyyy, it was all going along a bit tooo smoothly so I'm sure it's only normal to have a bit of a hiccup along the way. Andddddd breeeathe.

We were scheduled to see the nurse (rather than the vet) this afternoon for Darcy to have her white bloods checked but this morning, Marc said that Darcy had squealed/squeaked twice when he was stroking/pressing somewhere near her jaw. So I've changed the appointment to a vet appointment because I need him to examine her so that my heart can go back to a normal beat

Ah yes, I hear you! We too did the picking up after carboplatin thing (in rain and wind) for a few days after Darcy had her first treatment two weeks ago (no side effects for her so yayyyy) and if all goes to plan, we'll be picking up after Doxorubicin next weekend!

Carrier - you are looking wonderful!

I know. Who ever would have thought that Duffy had enough common sense to stand still when it mattered?!

Sorry for the delay in updating Thankfully, there's not been anything very important to report (and you'll be delighted to hear that I am past the stage of reporting each time she has a wee or a drink) Darcy had her blood test on Friday as planned and we were chatting with the vet whilst we waited for the results and just before the results were due, an emergency arrived so we shuffled back to the waiting room to finish our wait. The upshot of it all though, was that the results came via a nurse and I didn't quite understand them because the report was that her white count was 6.3 (it started off at 6) and I'm sure it was going to go down...not up after the chemo But, the message via the nurse was that everything was OK and we would retest again this coming Friday. So because the general message was that it was OK, I didn't hang around to wait for the vet to finish with the emergency and I've not phoned but will ask for more info when we go again this Friday afternoon. Darcy herself has remained fine. She's eating well, not had any tummy upsets or anything and has had some good walks. She's had a couple of small episodes of yelping a bit and I really don't know why - maybe she's having a small amount of phantom pain or maybe she's just pulled a muscle from her new way of having to walk. In general though, she's remained well and we're happy with her. Here are a few pics from her walk on 18th Nov The obligatory sitting whist on a walk pics first And she was having a very windy hair day And here, she was very excited to see Mouse & Max's Mummy and she went rushing over to say hello, with Duffy And here - prepare yourselves. When she was tired, she leaned against Duffy, who stood there, patiently until she was ready to move again *clutches chest*

Thinking of you

Click HERE for The Big Video (it's comparatively long but there's no sound. Do imagine Mokka going "woo wooo wooo wooo" though as she explains that she'd like to go out on her walk now please)

I don't know many dogs like Darcy. I hope I'm not tempting fate here but two days into her chemo treatment she's the bounciest, funniest and liveliest we've seen her in weeks. I've taken a long video clip of her performance a few minutes ago and Marc has now taken her out with Mokka for a walk (with the camera) so if you're following this, please check back later for some truly amaxing (to me) footage

Keep having fun Mr Snowman

Eva, about 5 days after Darcy's amp, we also had an incident with wild licking and racing heart and panting etc and I'd *not* applied anything to Darcy. She was just very very irritated by the hair starting to come back through and she had a little bit of a 'shaving rash' from where they'd clipped her and we too had to put a call into the vets (we actually went to the vet as it's close by and her temp was up a little and she got an antibiotic jab) but basically what I'm saying is that even if you'd not put that tiny bit of creme on Carrier, he too may have been licking and panting and irritated the same way Darcy was at around the same(ish) time. I'm glad he's feeling much more back to normal now though PS Where are our pictures please woman?!

Yesterday Darcy went to Pets At Home to help me pick Secret Santa pressies ( ). The anti sickness jab of the day before wore off during late afternoon but she went on to eat a good dinner (and licked the bowl, repeatedly) and so far, she doesn't seem to feel unwell. She's only had three quarters of her breakfast again today but we'll see if she eats well tonight. Maybe she's just going back to prefering to eat more in the evening than in the morning (this was the way before she became poorly). The other thing she did yesterday was jumping at Marc again when he came in.... Up and ready for greeting Hi Daaaaaaaaaaadddddddd