Kole's battle with cancer!

So I am going to dedicate this blog to my wonderful companion Kole. Kole is a 8 year old black male/neutered Laborador/ German Shepherd mix. He's a wonderfully obedient dog that has been everywhere with me in the past 8 years. He's very special to me. Quite possibly the best dog that I've ever had and will have, and I've had quite a few dogs in my lifetime.

On January 8th, 2012 after running 6miles with me, I noticed that Kole was limping. As a veterinarian, I quickly examined his limping leg(which was his right hindleg) and did not notice any swelling or pain anywhere. So I gave him a pain pill that night. That next Wednesday, I came home at lunch to let the dogs out and Kole trotted off in front of me and I noticed that his right hindleg (tibia) just above the tarsus (ankle) was swollen. So I took him

back to the clinic with me to take some x-rays.

The x-rays looked horrible. Basically the distal end of the tibia just above the tarsal joint looked like it was being eaten from the center of the bone out. I knew right away that I was looking at osteosarcoma. There was still a small percentage that it could be bacterial or fungal, but bone cancer was the greatest percentage. I decided that I would have a bone biopsy done to confirm. I owed it to Kole, to know 100% that it was osteosarcoma, before I amputated my dedicated running partner and hiker's leg. I immediately took x-rays of the thorax, because the first place that osteosarc likes to metastasis is thorax.

Thoracic rads were clean. Thank you God!!!

I took him to Heart of Texas Veterinary Specialty Hospital in Round Rock for the biopsy that next Monday. My clinic sends referrals to HOTVSH all the time and whenever I have had a question about a case, I feel very confident calling them to ask for suggestions on diagnosis. I am very blessed to be a veterinarian and be surrounded and part of the veterinary profession. Every vet that I have talked to since this has all happened has been overly compassionate about the situation. HOTVSH has a surgeon on site that was my previous orthopedic surgeon professor at LSU so I knew Kole would be in good hands. They performed abdominal ultrasound and found an incidental adrenal mass. That pushed back the biopsy surgery date a day to run some other

diagnostics. Blood pressure was normal so we all decided to proceed with the biospy surgery until pre-operatively on ECG they noticed an abnormality called a VPC (Ventricular premature contraction).

So the next day they did a echocardiogram (unltraound of the heart) to check out his heart. The echo came back clean. Thank you again God!!They think that the VPC's could be from pain or perhaps the adrenal mass. Regardless, we decided to go through with the biopsy. Surgery went well. They wrapped Kole's leg in a splint to minimize possible fracture. Three days later it was confirmed osteosarcoma.

One week later, one of the doctors at my practice amputated Kole's leg. Recovery has been hard on him. I am optimistic that he will continue to get stronger on his one back leg. He got around okay immediately. It sounds weird, but I miss his leg!

He gets tired quickly now, when before he could go, go, go forever.

Two weeks after getting his leg amputated, brings us to today Feburary 14th. (Valentine's Day)

Today we started chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is a huge unknown to me. I have never had a client do chemo after a diagnosis because of the costs involved and I did not take any special advanced classes or rotations in school to learn about chemotherapy. So it is all new to me. I decided to take Kole to another referral hospital in South Austin called Central Texas Veterinary Specialty Hospital because of the location and the experience that the internal medicine doctor has there. They were wonderful today! I was very nervous about it! They made everything so easy and Kole did great. So today, Kole was started on 250 mg of Carboplatin IV. He is scheduled for 6 treatments every 3 weeks. He's done well after the treatment. The major concern with Carboplatin is decreased WBC count, vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea. So far (knock on wood), Kole has suffered none of the above.

I will keep you updated on his progress though. The good and the bad. My hope is that someday this blog might help one of my patients and clients deal with the prognosis and diagnosis of cancer in their companion animal.

Just yesterday, I diagnosed a 8 year old female Golden Retriever with an abdominal mass that has metastasis to the thorax. The dog has a huge mass in its cranial abdomen (must have been the size of a cantelope) But the dog has acted normal until this past week when she became more lethargic. The x-ray was horrific as the thoracic cavity was filled with nodules. My best guess was adenocarcinoma of the abdomen that has spread to the lungs. This dog is going to die and will die very soon. There is no hope for this dog. It's never a diagnosis/prognosis that I want to give an owner and it never will get easier.

Catch up to 2012

So it's been a long time since I have posted anything on this blog. I guess after my Grenadian adventures were over, life got much more ordinary, and less interesting to post blogs. Life has definitely not slowed down or got un-interesting but just changed.

I still work at Bastrop Veterinary Hospital as an associate veterinarian and I still treat every species. Since the last blog, I quoted that I saw everything except chickens and snakes... well guess what I see them as well :)

In September of 2011, Bastrop suffered a major wildfire, which burned over 2,000 homes. Life

during that time period was hard. We were fortunate in that we did not lose our home, but many did. As a veterinarian durning that time, our clinic saw many injured/burned patients. Actually, more than we could keep up with. We worked many hours upon hours changing bandages on dogs and cats and treating major wounds. You can imagine when an owner returns to their burned down house, they know that they have lost everything,

but there cat amazingly is standing in their driveway...meowing....or 1 horse out of 6 is standing in the smoldering now cleared pasture.... it still breaks my heart thinking of these stories. These animals became a sign of hope for the fire victims.

Since that time things have calmed down. People are relocating, or rebuilding, and some are still

homeless. Even Extreme Makeover Home Edition came to Bastrop and built a home for a volunteer firefighter that lost her home in the wildfire. Unfortunately or fortunately, the wildfires were big national news so many now know and have heard of Bastrop, TX.

As a positive it has brought the community together.

Where to start??!!!! Mid 2009!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this blog has to begin with what has happened to me in the last year and a half. Man......that is a feat that I will attempt without boring anyone too much!

So I finished my third year of veterinary school in Grenada, West Indies in December of 2007. I returned to US to complete my final year. I attended Louisianna State University for my last(4th) year of veterinary school or clinical year. Moving back to America and living in Baton Rouge, LA was quite a change, but a good one! Missing all my friends and classmates from SGU was hard but the students at LSU were very nice and friendly.

I still continued to attend Hashes, but now they were americanized. Much more drinking, less running, fits with the American way!! (hehe..yikes!) The first Hash I went to I met the love of my life, Jeff Henderson. We've been dating now since Feb of 2008! I know, I know sappy!!

My clinical year was a lot of work, but I learned a ton!!

I graduated in January 2009! Stayed in Baton Rouge 6 more months to study for boards the second time around and worked at the Small Animal Intensive Center there at LSU. It was a good experience, maybe not in my timing what I would have chosen for myself, but God works in mysterious ways!

Went to graduation in New York in June, attended Lisa Kolb's wedding, visited my best friend, Kim, and long time running partner, Holly. So I made a really nice trip out of it! Got to see all my good ole Grenada buddies!! Love yall and miss you too!!!

Came back South and started my new job at Bastrop Veterinary Hospital in Bastrop, TX. Bastrop is a cute little town just 30 minutes East of Austin, Tx on hwy 71. Jeff and I ended up moving into a cute house north of Bastrop, called Elgin, which happens to be 23 miles from Austin and closer to Jeff's future work. I am loving the job here. I get to work on every species, litterally...from mice to horses(the only thing that I don't see are chickens and snakes!) :) Two days ago I was treating a ferret with a prolapsed rectum in our ICU, running bloodwork on a geratric cat with what turned out to be renal failure, and in a room with a kid (baby goat) with severe GI parasites (barbarpole worm). It was great! What I always invisioned and hoped for.
Some days are not so good though! Like today is really really really slow. With school starting, business has slowed down significantly!!! Actually scarily would be a better way to put it!

I'll include some pictures soon of the practice and some really great Jame's Harriot stories to come!!

I'm done!!

Finals are OVER! Yippee!! Don't know any of my grades yet, but finals are over yeah! I am exausted, frustrated, tired, scared of the unknown, excited, emotional, sad, anxious all wrapped up into one big question........am I going to Louisanna for my fourth year? Grades are always an issue and always there is that fear that everything that I have had planned is going to blow up in my face!!! I am going to just reside on the unknown today and check all grades tomorrow. I need the day to relax, say goodbye to people and have some fun. Tomorrow is another day....and today is enough trouble of its own....HAHA!! My whole life has lead up to this point. As someone said today after our test. Think what an investment you have put into yourself. Yes, MYSELF. How scarey is that. The time, money, everything I've ever had or have has been poured into me, yes me, no one else following my dream. So the big question is now.......have I made it to the next step??? Life is that way though isent it! Next year this time...what... 3 weeks from today, I'll be asking myself that very same question. So until tomorrow.....my faith resides in Him. Maker of heaven and earth. Give me this day to enjoy and to cherish!!! May you be with myself as well as all my other classmates that are awaiting grades also that will be determining their future. Love all of you so very much!!!! Hopefully I will see you all very soon as a resident of the United States of America again!!!

First of the goodbyes!

Hi again!!
So I am not dead, however, I have been dead to the blog world. With myspace and facebook occupying my time (oh yea along with vet school...can't forget that little time occupier) I have regretfully neglected to update my blog at all this semester and I am sorry for that!!
So today I said my first goodbye. That goodbye was to one of my dearest best friends here on the island, Jack! With the heat of finals upon us we all made time last night to celebrate Leah's birthday, say farewell to Jack, and eat some good foods. Good times!! Makes me really look back on why God has placed me on this island and to look around at the people He has placed in my life in the past three years. It is overwhelming and I am so incredibly BLESSED!!! The people I've met here are AMAZING!!!!! I would not change any of my time here for anything!!! I know that I will get to see Jack again.....my little island frisbee brother!!!! So the goodbye is only temporary, but somehow it is still hard! Change is good but I suck at it. Miss ya already Jack!!
If anyone actually reads this in the next couple days...I could definately use a couple prayers. I started Finals on Friday and I've got one monday, wednesday and Friday. Yikes!!! I better get back to studying!!!!!! Love all of you and can't wait to see everyone soon!!

Gift of sight and endless other things!!!

So the semester is drawing to a near. This semester has been so fun. I am really going to have a hard time saying goodbye to Grenada and all the amazing people that I have met here. My family away from home really!! :) But that is not a goodbye until next semester when I am finally six term and that is my last semester here in Grenada.
I was blessed at Easter to have my little bro and sister in law (Bekki) come to Grenada for a visit. Man we had the time of our lives. At least I did. I did not want to see them go. They also took a little bit of my heart (Kole) with them and they are taking good care of him in Houston until I return to Texas towards the end of May. Since then I've been to two cricket matches, taken lots of tests, sailing, studying, studying, studying, riding, running, swimming, playing frisbee(pix at bottom), goofing off, dreaming, making plans for New York and the rest of the summer, praying, being excited about my friend Lotta in Ecuador that just got a new job, losing one contact...(finding out that my doctor in Midland will not send me another and that the entire island of Grenada can not or will not order hard contacts), then breaking my glasses(opps), then being really blind, then receiving the gift of sight by borrowing a soft contact from my dear friend Lois (that we found out has just about the same eye site), praise and thanking God for sight, being ecstatic about my bestest bud Sarah that just got engaged to Alex( congrats again guys), and studying again!!
So .....it is kinda hard for me to focus!! Can you tell???!!!!

So finals officially start on Thursday. I need all the prayer power each on of you have to move on to the next semester. Despite the struggles with school that I always seem to have....this semester no matter what happens (by the grace of God) was wonderful!!!!
Thanks to all of you for your continual support in me. Can't hardly wait to see each of you!

~CRICKET FEVER~

So several awesome Cricket games later, several hours of sunshine later, several face paintings later, several hot boys later, plenty of laughs and adventures, bus rides, near death experiences, big 6's, 4's, and overs later.....the island of Grenada will never be the same.
The past few weeks have been so awesome living in Grenada and especially being female and single. Imagine an island full of veterinary students.... 75 % women.... hosting a cricket tournament filled with Australian, New Zealand, and South African guys with GREAT accents!! Not only was it cricket fever it was Christmas! HaHa!! It is a good thing that cricket it over now so I can refocus!! Here are just some highlights of some of the fun that we had.

April 2007 already!!!

So it is already April. That is so incredible. I am barely even used to it being 2007 in fact just today I was writing the date down on my notes in class and I wrote the year 04. Now that is a little pathetic and crazy but I had to laugh and then do a quick reality check and make sure that I was still breathing. HeHe!

So this semester has been good so far. I am learning a ton. I have successfully performed my first two canine surgeries on my very own. One castration and one Ovarian hysterectomy. I have to say... I love it. Surgery is so fun!! I can hardly wait to do it again!!! I do one more surgery this semester on a sheep which is a terminal surgery :( meaning that we kill the sheep afterwards.... but before everyone gets sad.... it will make me a better dogtor right??!!!!! It is a really cool surgery though.... I get to do an FHO (femoral head osteotomy). Which for those that dont know... I get to saw the head of the femur (top of the thigh bone) off the sheep and reconnect it to the hip. Cool huh!! I am so pumped. I've also gotten to palpate a bunch of cows and even got to palpate one horse. Pretty exciting stuff! And it is always fun hanging out with the baby goats! But you know the best thing that will happen this semester is? In two days... my little brother (Trey) and his wife (Becki) will be sitting right here next to me in Grenada. Yes, they are coming to visit me and I am so stoked!! We are going to have a blast!!!!!!!!!!!! So I'll be updating with some more pictures... but I thought that I would include a couple on this entry for your viewing pleasure.

Hope that everyone is feeling as blessed as I am with the gift of friends and family and life that God has granted me. Happy Easter to everyone and I hope that this holiday is filled with a renewed sense of who Jesus Christ is and no matter what we have done, how quilty we may feel, and what we may do in the future, God has already forgiven us. He loves us so much that he sacrificed his only son so that we may someday have the opportunity to join him in heaven. What an incredible act and I am continually amazed by that unconditional loving sacrifice. Love and miss all of you.