The First Three Weeks - Recap

Today is Sparky's 3-week anniversary of his cancer diagnosis and the vet's announcement that he has 2 months left to live. We hopefully get to prove them all wrong! I thought I would recap what I have changed in his life so far, and what our treatment looks like at the moment.

CURRENT COURSE OF TREATMENT (for a 70 lb lab mix):

• 6 cups of food per day
• 50% protein, 25 % veggies, 25 % rice
• 1 capsule Colostrum twice a day (for a healthy GI)
• 1 teaspoon of Pet Dophilus a day (healthy GI)
• 3 capsules of Omega 3, 6, and 9 per day (we've currently stopped this, because of some diarrhea issues)
• 1- 1 1/2 cc Astragalus (immune booster) twice per day
• .75 cc Neoplasene twice per day (minimum dosage for a dog his size, but we're dealing with a sensitive stomach - this dosage will be increased)
• massages (by me) to stimulate and exercise his weakened hind legs
• 5 daily short walks to stimulate and exercise those hind legs
• acupuncture - starting this week on a regular basis, probably 1 or 2 times per week for a month

RECOMMENDED FOODS:

• ground beef
• chicken breasts
• salmon
• sardines (water-based is preferred)
• eggs (2 - 4 eggs, approved by holistic vet)
• brown rice
• squash or zucchini
• carrots (try mashed with some butter - big hit with my pooch)
• yogurt (stay away from the sweetened kind)
• cottage cheese
• wieners (as a treat)
• sliced deli meats (as a treat)
• cheese (use the mild stuff)
• broccoli (but don't feed too much of this, could cause some GI upset)

I think this just about covers it. I'm hoping to see more progress when the acupuncture kicks in. So far it's been a bit rocky, going back and forth quite a bit, but overall I have the impression he's getting better. Last night we had a small breakthrough. We took a little walk at around 7 pm, and out of nowhere, Sparky grabbed his toy out of my hand, and sprinted down the street like a maniac. Not only that, but when I caught up to him we played tug for a good 5 minutes. I ended up chasing him around the driveway and down the street, while he was running around, mouth wide open, looking back to me as if he was smiling. We haven't had a moment like this in weeks, maybe even months. And our morning today started off just as well. He got up and greeted me. It's been a long time since this has happened. Total bliss for both of us.

Healing Crisis

Healing Crisis. That's what it's called. Supposedly. And I've never heard of it until today. I think I called every vet in my town, including all holistic vets. I was determined to track someone down to help me. No one could. Except, one lady offered to come by my house and charge me roughly 1000 Dollars for 5 treatments.... People in my situation are desperate; so to all you out there, who are in a similar situation, please beware. Some people are perfectly willing to use your desperation against you and exploit you.

Luckily, I did track down 'his' holistic vet and she offered to come to my house and take a look at my boy. I was grateful. After chatting with her for a while about his symptoms via phone she announced that it sounded more like "Healing Crisis" then an overall decline in health. She said she does come across this symptom sometimes, and she's had pet owners like me, who were convinced that the end was near, when in effect, the ailing body was adjusting to the new treatment.

HEALING CRISIS: A healing crisis is a severe symptom, or set of symptoms, which may appear quite suddenly or unexpectedly during the course of natural healing. If patients are not educated to the normal re-balancing act the body must do to regain equilibrium, they might possibly become frightened or distrustful of the treatment they are undergoing, be it chiropractic, acupuncture, nutritional, homeopathic, etc. Holistic practitioners often assume that their patients understand the self-healing process, or are afraid to tell them that they might be feeling a whole lot worse before they begin to feel better.

Sparky's vet told me that he would most likely be better tomorrow, and that I should not lose faith. I'm also going to continue the Neoplasene. I will hang in there, just like the pup is. She told me to give him a doggy massage, ie: run my flat hands and fingers across his body, all the way down to his tail, massage his legs, squeeze his feet, and work on the stiffness that he's experiencing from the healing crisis. She's confident that he'll be better tomorrow or the day after. I guess older dogs take a little longer to recover from something like this. As for right now, after 20 minutes of massage, I have a snoring pooch on the floor. I am RELIEVED.