Rusty's Progress

[Chuck Holliman]

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 swimming ability. The only problem he encountered was in getting out of the pool; he can swim to the steps for an easy out or jump from an underwater ledge to the spa wall and walk out. He used to jump from the ledge with ease and tried valiantly to do so this time but did not have the strength with only one leg to make the jump. I will need to put a barrier on the spa wall to force him to use the steps to get out of the pool; he seems to like the challenge of jumping and it was just too hard watching him struggle when he could not make the jump.
On Thursday, June 3rd Dr. Macy gave Rusty his 5th IV Chemo treatment and everything went well; his blood work was better, A- this time, although a couple of the liver functions had slipped a little, but still within margin. Rusty did fine with this treatment, he slept most of the day which is normal and had a hearty appetite for dinner. Dr. Macy asked us to stop the daily dosage of Meloxicam (Metacam) which is a NSAID and helps with the pain from surgery. He seems to be doing okay without the Metacam; however he has hunched up and seemed to favor the surgery area a few times when he was walking. His appetite continues to improve along with his energy levels, although he still tires very quickly when playing or walking. Jan gives his twice daily diarrhea medication, along with Fibercon in “meatballs” made from EVO canned food, which he really enjoys. He still has occasional bouts of severe diarrhea even with the medication.
On Friday morning after Chemo, we packed up and were on the road to see Rusty’s Grandmother (my mother), who will be 89 in August. It is a 6 ½ hour drive to her home on the Central California coast; Rusty seemed a little uncomfortable the last couple of hours of the trip and we stopped a couple of times for a potty break without success. When we got to Grandma’s Rusty made a beeline for her back yard and had a large diarrhea potty; I guess that he was uncomfortable but did not want to go potty in a strange area (he is very fussy about having a clean potty area.
A neighbor was celebrating his 80th birthday at his son’s in Templeton, CA, which is about 25 miles from my Mother’s. We had asked her if she would keep Rusty while we were at the party, and she was so excited to be able to care for him and she had all of her neighbors and friends come by for a visit. The temperatures on the coast were in the high 50’s most of the time; Rusty and Jan enjoyed the much cooler weather, but I was very chilly. My mother really enjoyed our visit, especially Rusty and it really perked her up! We returned home on Tuesday and Rusty slept for the entire trip other than our lunch stop at In & Out Burger where he had his meat patty.
This was Rusty’s first major trip since surgery and he handled it very well; we were very pleased and proud of him. He remembered his Grandmother’s house & yard and we stayed at the same motel as before, which hopefully reduced his stress. All of us were happy to return home and get back into our daily routine. A neighbor looked after Oliver while we were away; Rusty and Oliver spent almost an hour chasing and playing with each other on Wednesday morning. He will receive his 6th and final IV Chemo treatment from Dr. Macy on July 2nd.

[Kathie and the gang]

Glad to hear that Rusty is progressing so well.

[Rose]

I'm very happy to hear Rusty is doing so well!

[Leslie J]

It sounds like Rusty is handling all of this very well- he sounds like strong little guy! It sounds like you all had a nice well-deserved vacation.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Thank you for the update. I am so glad that Rusty is tolerating the treatments so well.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm so glad Rusty is doing well and you all enjoyed his first post-op vacation!

[Camilla and Darwin]

Wow,I am so glad Rusty is doing so well. Thanks for the update, and I hope all goes well in the future.

[Joy Williams]

Thanks for the update. So glad to hear that Rusty is doing so well

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

It sounds like Rusty is doing very well - thank you for the update. We will continue to keep our fingers and paws crossed for all of you!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Rusty is truly an inspiration...and you are too! The progress sounds so promising. I'm so happy to hear this news!

[F, Calla & Luca]

I am so glad to hear that Rusty is doing so well and tolerating the chemo.