Chuck Holliman's Blog (28)

Rusty celebrated his 2nd birthday yesterday! Twelve of his dog park friend’s parents celebrated his birthday with him; he was very appreciative to see them, as he misses them as much as their dogs. Rusty was the perfect host and they all marveled over how well he is doing. He even gave them a demonstration of his surfin’ ability, although with some hesitation as he has never surfed in front of a live audience before. Rusty’s actual birthday was… Continue

Dr. Macy gave Rusty the okay to start swimming and

we are back in the pool! Rusty was very nervous the first few days so

we just let him take it easy and get comfortable. Today he jumped on

the float and never looked back! He jumps on the float from the sides

of the pool, the spa wall and from in the water! Really remarkable that

he can do everything with three legs that he did last year on four. I plan on

making another video of him… Continue

Rusty has had a very busy couple of weeks since the last update and overall has done very well! A dear friend from Portland arrived on Thursday the 27th for a long Memorial Day weekend and left the following Tuesday; having company in the house kept Rusty occupied as to what was happening and checking on Sally’s room. Rusty went for his first “official” swim while Sally was here; he did fairly well, obviously tiring much sooner than before. The missing leg did not seem to have any effect on his… Continue

I did not realize that it has been a couple of months since I have updated Rusty's cancer. Here are my chronicle posts for the past couple of months.



Thursday, March 25th

Our lives have returned to some normalcy over the past few weeks; we are adjusting to Rusty’s treatment schedule and needs while catching up on all of the things that we pushed off the first four weeks of Rusty’s ordeal. Rusty continues to improve daily and amazes everyone how well he gets along on three legs.… Continue

Rusty is recovering so well that it does not seem possible that it was only eight weeks ago Monday that his leg was amputated. I have not posted for several weeks as we have been getting our lives back in order. Rusty is handling the Chemo Therapy fairly well, some nausea and loss of appetite for a couple of days after his twice monthly treatments; he has four more months of Chemo left.



He has adjusted so quickly to three legs that many of our friends can't believe how normal he is… Continue

Rusty saw Dr. Huber yesterday and had his sutures removed, for which he was very appreciative; Dr. Huber said that his recovery was doing very well and he did not see anything for us to worry about from the

surgery. We then met Dr. Macy, the oncologist, who is very nice; he came

in and said my name is Dennis and sat down on the floor with Rusty. Dr.

Macy discussed the various Chemotherapy options that are available for treating

Rusty (they are all the…

Continue

Rusty went to the Dr. Monday afternoon for his 2nd follow-up. The Dr. said that everything is healing as expected and he removed the drain tube, which should make Rusty a little more comfortable as he doesn’t have to wear the surgical sweater & vacuum bottle. Rusty’s next appointment is Sunday afternoon when Dr. Huber will remove his sutures; this week is going to be a challenge for us as the sutures are beginning to heal & pull and Rusty wants to get to them, which is a big NO NO. The… Continue

Rusty developed a small growth on the inner thigh of his left leg around Thanksgiving; we took him to our Vet in mid December and she did a biopsy and Ultrasound and said she thought that it was a hernia or muscle tear and to check it again in 30 days. The growth began to expand rapidly over the next 30 days and she did another biopsy last week. It came back 50-50 that it was malignant; she referred us to an Oncologist Surgeon who did a more extensive biopsy Monday. The results came back on… Continue