Winston, our family dog, has cancer. He’s been diagnosed with canine lymphoma, which isn’t all that different from human lymphoma. The treatments are very similar, and we’ve started him on something called the Wisconsin protocol for treatment. This is a 26 week program that has shots or pills administered weekly. He got his first dosage of Asparagine a week ago Friday, and a followup dose on Monday of Vincristine. He’s been taking prednisone daily as well.

His lymphnodes shrunk down to almost nothing within 48 hours. His tonsils were lymphnodes, and swollen so much he wasn’t eating and was getting weak. It was wonderful to see that chemicals can really attack the cancer – he was back to himself in no time. We didn’t see any negative side effects, until this Friday night.

He started being lathargic and not eating. Then the vomiting started. We were told these were just side effects of the drugs, so we didn’t worry too much about it, although we were concerned. Over the next few days, he couldn’t even keep ice cubes down. Mom took him to the vet today, and they found his white blood cell count was dangerously low… a sign the chemo was doing too good a job. Mom said that she had to carry him out of the car into the vet, he was that weak. He’s on IVs and they’re working on controlling his stomach problems and white blood cell count. He was supposed to start his second week of the Wisconsin protocol today, but they’ve put that off. Apparently, his white blood count had him pretty close to death. He’s overnight at the vet tonight, and maybe tomorrow night too, if he doesn’t improve.

Winston is such a great little dog; so affectionate, so caring, so smart. It really breaks everyones hearts who knows him that he’s going through such troubles. He’s such an important part of my life, and my family’s life that it really sucks. He’s young, only six years, and has a good chance at beating lymphoma into remission if he can stay healthy. The fact his first week of chemo nearly did him in is not a good sign. I lit a candle tonight and said a little prayer. I hope that all the God fearing people reading this do the same. Tonight, the reality has sunk in with me that we’re going to lose Winston a lot earlier than I want, even if he does get out of the hospital this time.

Winston really needs us right now, and we really needs him. The candle I lit was small; almost gone, really. It’s been burning brightly since I lit it, not seeming to mind that it may extinguish soon. If that’s a metaphor for Winston, I hope that this little candle burns brightly and strongly for a long, long time. And I hope that when it does finally go out, I hope it finishes with a quick, simple plume of smoke. Peacefully, not painfully.

I don’t think I can write anymore right now. All for now.

Ever notice how weeks you take time away from your regular routine are some of the hardest weeks you face? That’s what’s been going on for me all week, being home for the Thanksgiving break. The first couple of days of the break were spent finishing the remodeling projects we had going around the house. We painted, decided not to wallpaper, painted some more, and put rooms back together. Early in the week, we hit the cleaning hard – including shampooing the carpet and washing behind things that never get moved. Some of our family arrived on Tuesday, and they helped. The rest of the family came in Wednesday night. If you can believe it, that’s when our (Mom, Aaron, my) vacation really started. But by then I was pooped. I love my family, and it’s fun having 10 of us around. The excitement of everything going on is keeping me going, but I’m sure I’ll sleep well next week.

Thanksgiving went really well, with two turkeys (one deep fat fried,) ham, stuffing, yams, green beans, multiple home baked breads, cole slaw, gravy, pies… Big time binge eating. Today, we did touristy stuff: toured the Budweiser brewery, had lunch at Lemp mansion, visited Aaron’s house, ate at Ted Drew’s Frozen Custard, went to the Science Center and watched Natural Disasters on the Omnimax — it’s fun to see TVs bigger than mine. We finished the trip by going home, eating leftovers, baking cookies, and playing games. Eating has been a big theme this weekend.

We also started a jigsaw puzzle, and haven’t made much progress with it. I’d forgotten how tough that is. And I think I made at least one TiVo sale, so that’s a good thing.

I also need to blog about Winston’s cancer, Trillian and RSS, Metroid Prime 2, and probably other things, but for now, I’m calling it a night.

http://www.usbmincepies.co.uk/

That’s just odd.

I heard this song on WPGU the other morning, and I swore I was listening to the Muppet’s Elmo singing funk. I dug it. A few minutes ago, it played on Radio.Wazee and I was able to get the band and song:

Robert Randolph and The Family Band – I Need More Love

I’m betting Tony already has that album. I’m going to have to ask to listen to it, or break down and buy it. (Although I read on Amazon that Live at the Wetlands is better, maybe I should start there.)

Speaking of buying albums, I bought my first album off iTunes this week. $9.99, 24 tracks, 3 special tracks, no waiting. Neat. Then I was in Best Buy last night and saw the same disc for $9.99, with the extra tracks. Guess iTunes only got me the instant-ondemand features, and didn’t add any value. That reminds me – I should really burn off to disc somewhere all the tunes I’ve bought via iTunes incase my computer implodes.

In other semi-related news, Metroid Prime 2: Echos is good. Except it has zombies, and those creep the crap out of me. Why, good God why, do we need to have zombies in everything? Don’t they realize the sane part of the populace don’t like the undead? I just want spin attack.

Well, it’s been over a week since the last blog entry. Those drooling over the ‘lost week’ of my life can relax. A better blogger than I said it best… everything’s been a) too personal to blog about b) Totally Top Secret And I Can’t Talk About It or c) it’s so goddamned boring, it’s not worth the effort to talk about how boring it is.

The fact I need to quote other blogs to say that means it’s basically just the third one.

We survived the first week of our incumbent presidency, and the only bad thing that happened was more reports of odd voting practices, Yassir Arafat dying, and major resignations in the cabinet. Yay America.

I was home this weekend helping my family renovate the house. We made some major purchases for the kitchen (well, mom did,) and spent the rest of the weekend painting my old bedroom. The ceiling is now a bright white, even though Aaron and I are both sore now in the process. Painting a textured ceiling isn’t worth the hassle. Then we did the walls, twice, and started ripping up carpet. The room is going to look great when it’s finished, and all that’s left is some wall papering (need to choose the paper still,) and some touch up around the window. New carpet comes in on Thursday, and we’ll have the room together by Saturday or Sunday.

Work has kept me busy, but nothing too interesting there.

Dan reminded me today that grad school applications are due fairly soon. I need to start working on mine if I want to go back to school in the fall. I need to get my letters of recommendation in a row.

Tis the season to be gaming. Everquest 2 came out, and Stuck’s been playing that non-stop since. He also bought Halo 2, which we’ve been playing over lunch at work. (Everything is more fun with dual weilding and a sword.) This week, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is being released for the GameCube. It’s a strong time for the sequels, and from what I have seen, it is good. I played some Metroid Prime tonight to get ready for MP2: Echos. I should have been studying the levels in Halo 2.

Right now, I feel like I’m poised and ready to jump. There are so many things coming soon I’m trying to be prepared for. Besides the games above, I’m also waiting on TiVoToGo to release (or be invited to the beta.) Trillian 3 is in public alpha release, and I’m really interested if it upgraded its News/RSS reader. My next cellphone, the Treo 650, is also just around the corner… although, at that cost, it’ll be a few months before I can afford it. So there’s been lots of hurry up and wait. I feel like I’m ready for some new challenges – I just wish they’d get here already.

And then there are things I wish weren’t happening. My Mom’s dog (family dog that lives with mom,) was diagnosed with lymphoma (lymphosarcoma.) He’s not doing so well, and visits a doggy oncologist on Friday to start treatment. I hope and pray his treatments help him, and he’s free from pain and suffering as long as possible. He’s a really lovable member of our family, and we’re not ready to lose him yet.