Baxter Update

Today, we had Baxter's one month follow up with his vet after learning about his lymphoma.  We weren't really sure what to expect and had been pretty nervous about this visit.  As we mentioned earlier, we put him on a very high dosage of prednisone in order to try and help shrink the tumor.  We had x-rays taken and it looks like our wish came true-the tumor did shrink!!  Our vet said that if she hadn't seen his x-rays from before she would not even be sure of what she was looking at now!  This is great news in the sense that it will hopefully allow him to breathe better as well as being more comfortable.  Unfortunately we know that this is not going to be the cure for his cancer but it will make things a little better for him.  Baxter has shown significant weight loss since last month, he weighed in 10 pounds less than just 4 weeks ago...and trust us when I say we haven't eased up at all on any of his food.  The vet says that the loss is most likely just the cancer and that we can increase his food a bit.  His current weight is actually not too bad for him, he looks good, it is just a lot to lose in a short period of time.  We are now able to reduce the prednisone down a little bit and will reduce it one more time and that will be our final dose amount to carry out with him.  So all in all, we need to keep our eyes on him and just make sure he is living the best and most comfortable life he can.  While nothing is ever promised or guaranteed, our vet said she wouldn't be surprised if we have another 6 months with him (and living comfortably).  So we will be taking it a day at a time, but we felt that our decision in handling his cancer was confirmed that it was the proper route to go.  We do love him dearly and want to make sure he has the best quality of life while we have him.  

So that is the update!  Thanks to everyone who has been asking about him and thinking about us.  Baxter is a beast and the cancer definitely doesn't know who they are dealing with :-)  

Hope you all enjoy your weekend!!  I suppose we will try and get some more painting done (or finish some of what we started I should say).

Love, Ben and Gabrielle