Welcome to The Adventures of My Dog Max. This blog chronicles his his journey through inoperable brain tumor diagnosis,Cyber Knife radiation,conventional & alternative treatments, HBOT and Life Beyond. Max is my 18 year old, high-energy super-dog, who was diagnosed with 2 inoperable brain tumors 4/11. Cyberknife = non-invasive robot driven hi accuracy radiation treatment. HBOT = hyberbaric oxygen therapy.
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Thanks to our AMAZING Pet Sitter, I got to take a 5 day vacation over the holiday. She kept up Max's workout schedule and a few days ago I got a text that Max was sitting up like a normal dog!!! When I got home last night, the whole gang came to greet me and Max was hanging out on the couch with Amanda. I wasn't sure if he was going to recognize me or not, but he started kicking and pushing himself up when I came over and pet him!!!
His eye is looking much better too. She has him eating 4 meals a day and he was getting plenty of fluids as well. I think I need to adjust his cart so he's a little higher now. He did develop a blister in his inner thigh from wheeling around and kicking in his cart so much but it looks like he's ready to do some more work on sitting up on his own!!! So the next plan is working on sitting up, staying up and then moving into a standing position... it'll be a while but he's starting to regain more and more control of his body! His eyes are also starting to track more and more and Amanda said he's enjoying sitting in the window and watching the other dogs play outside.. This morning when I was feeding him and Rex and #2 came in and started making noises he actually turned his head to look at them!
I wish I had a video of this for you... Max was known as the "Fun Police" prior to last year. Anytime he'd see dogs wrestling, or barking at each other, or chasing something, he'd try and herd it.. he is part sheltie after all. Being a herding dog is in his genes!
Well.. tonight on our walk a great big turkey buzzard swooped it's way down to the ground in front of us. It took the dogs a few minutes to realize what it was and then #2 wanted to go after it! (I was attached to them by leash - which they apparently forgot about.. or thought that if they pulled hard enough I'd come along and join in the chase) Anyway - #2 took off full force for the Turkey Buzzard, and then Max took off after #2 full force and jumped on his hind quarters and nipped at his ankles and rear end... Classic Max!
Christmas was a really tough one this year. We lost both our cat Tulsa and our beagle Buster within 6 days of each other. We actually postponed christmas to new years. Max at least helped cheer everyone up. He apparently has some new neuron connection in his head that makes him think EVERY present under the tree belongs to him and he must open it. Fortunately he is primarily fascinated by the wrapping paper, where #2 who also thinks every present under the tree is for him, is more concerned with figuring out how to take the presents from who ever currently has it and bring them back into his cave.. formerly our dining room.
The video below has a lot of meaning to us. If anyone out there watching this video believes in spirits, or is questioning if there is an after life for our pets, this video pretty much confirmed it for me. As I mentioned before, we had recently lost both our cat Tulsa and our beagle Buster over Christmas. I know this sounds odd, but no matter who you are and what your belief systems are, I think that at some point, someone has sensed the presence of someone who they loved a lot near them after they passed. Well, while I was shooting this video, I felt like Buster was watching us. I felt like he was zipping around the room watching everything we were doing. I even mentioned it during the video when I saw our rottie mix Buttercup start looking in the directions that I was feeling Buster was in. When we went back to watch this video after we uploaded it, we saw some very interesting stuff - Again - you can be the judge, but we checked everything and there was nothing reflecting any light that would create this kind of a movement and we live out in the woods nowhere near a road so we're certain these weren't car lights. Aside from watching Max tear open his (and everyone else's) Christmas gifts, if you pay attention at the following times during the video you'll see a white (or some had described it as a blue) light zip through the screen. The second counts are between 55 - 58 seconds (it zips up and down in front of the screen really fast. at 1min 53 seconds - it zips by once and again exactly at 4min. I didn't notice the 2nd and 3rd time until I had watched the video about 10 times. Again we have no idea what to make of this - but I felt like Buster was there when I saw these live and on the film. And at least one of our dogs did too!
Max after his 1st lap around the field 1.25mi 12/21/11
It is still so amazing to me to think of where we were 3 months ago. Max had his 3 month check up yesterday with Dr. Young and he's doing great. We're just increasing his antitiotic eye ointment to try and get that eye to heal better, and keeping an eye on the rest of Max. Dr. Young suspects that the twitching in Max's face is more muscle spasming than neurological, and even though Max has some coughing and gagging - it's not happening consistently and not happening while he's eating so he's not terribly concerned about it. All in all - Max is doing amazingly well for a 19 year old who had 2 brain tumors!
Max snuggled in in the car
I took Max with my up to the hospital before Christmas for Buster's Surgery. He didn't have much time to nap while we were there but it seemed to be good for him. The first day we were up there we went to the field and Max was insistent upon trying to walk the whole entire mile and 1/4 around the field. He was pretty slow.. definitely not how he used to be at the field where he was the fastest and always the first to make it around.. often doing an extra lap or running into the middle to try and chase mice or listen to the radio coming fro the wires under the ramps.. The next day it was raining, but we went out anyway
Max shopping at ProFeed w/ his friend
again Max was insistent on making it all the way around, despite both of us being soaking wet and cold.. When I tried to cut through the middle of the field he kept going on the path. The third day we were there we ran into some old friends from our old neighborhood and their dogs and ended up in the middle of the field playing with the young guys! It took a few minutes but Max jumped right into the scrum and was his usual self, the "Fun Police" As he was labeled long ago! Anytime someone was having any sort of fun, Max jumps in to referee and this
Looking for more treats!
time was going to be no different! There were 5 or 6 youngsters wrestling - a boxer, a weimeraner, a lab or two, a couple of mixed breeds and a couple of sammie mixes and Max.. all going at it! He was barking and nipping at their legs to break it up! Gotta love him! (Of course I was worried he'd get body slammed like I normally do! But he held his own!)
One of the days we also went to Profeed to kill some time and Max actually spent a few hours there shopping and playing with everyone who worked there! They let him behind the counter where he
Max is fascinated by moving water
proved his sharp brain was back and as strong as ever! He started opening canisters of food with his teeth. He took them down off shelves, and he even opened up a couple of drawers where they keep samples of dog food and helped himself! My favorite was they had spent about 5 minutes putting together one of the Nina Ottossen dog puzzles for Max, and they put it down in front of him. The goal is to move pieces of the puzzle to get the treat to fall out.. Well Max had been watching them put the puzzle together and decided that it would be much simpler to just take the lid off and stick his head in and get the piece that way! True to Max form!
Watching stuff float by 12/23/11
We also took another long walk in the woods at Cabin John Park. We had spent so much time here. Both Buster and Daisy LOVED going for walks here and swimming in the creek! Max loved to run and chase deer until we decided he took to long to come back so he had to stay leashed. (Nothing like waiting over an hour in the same spot with 4 other dogs in 20 degree weather when it was rain/sleeting.. for Max to make it back to where he last saw me!)
Max really missing Tulsa - in Tulsa's cat bed (note the empty dog bed next to him)
All in all , Max is doing fantastic. His energy level is high, he's been chasing deer and squirrel at home, he's been going for 1-2 mile walks every day again, he's building up his endurance. Definitely not as fast as he used to be but he's holding his own.. and he's 19! What more could one ask?!? His eye sight seems to be better better although he still has some scaring on that eye he fell on the day before his CK, so we're upping the drops to 3 times /day vs. 1x / day. Plus it's dry in the house, and he's been out in the wind much more now that he's walking and exercising.
Trying to make the cat bed work
The other day he was playing with his friend Josh, the Corgi. Josh and Max met a few months before Max's tumors decided to give him head aches and make him not want to play and then dizzy so they hadn't played in a long time. Lately Max has wanted to walk over to Josh's house and lately when he sees Josh his tail starts to wag again - he hasn't done that in almost a year! A good indicator that he's REALLY feeling better! He and Josh started running in Josh's front yard the other day and did a little wrestling and Max barked, jumped at Josh and flipped him and rolled him over in play! I haven't seen him do that in ages and it was so good to see!
Max thinks he has it working now
Not sure Josh felt the same way - I think he was taken back a little bit, but they're friends! And I'm sure Josh will get his chance to roll Max if he wants!
Max has had a bit of a rough time with the recent losses of Tulsa our kitty and Buster our beagle. He was really close with both of them. He was right there when both crossed over too and I think that's been a little hard for him but he's hanging in there and trying to make the most out of it.
Going for a walk New Years day with his brothers & sister
He's been bonding with #2 our shepherd mix, and Buttercup our rottie/ chessie mix.
Max has also been spotted counter surfing (Mom is not so pleased with that action!) I also caught him taking bags of groceries off the counter - again - not so pleased, and the ironic thing is that Max is down to 10mg of prednisone once ever 4-5 days... he wasn't doing it when he was on high doses of prednisone..
He has been going outside to sit in the sun, and has been barking so I'm guessing the head aches are gone.
Off leash in the meadow
I've caught him running up flights of stairs, even though he's not supposed to be doing that.. and down them which scares me even more. We have one big flight of stairs at the house and have tried to keep him from it but he somehow finds a way to get to it periodically. Currently he's outside with the other dogs barking at the deer running through the woods. He's just a normal dog! Acting just like a normal 7 year old!!! But he's really 19! He's truly amazing! And we've been lucky to have some amazing vet care for Mr. Max! We are very grateful for that!
Guess who went for a walk today! You guessed it! MAX! We went up to the woods and he walked a whole 1/2 a mile on the short trail! It was a slow walk at first. He wanted to take in all the kids at the playground and the people playing volley ball. Actually I think that was extremely overwhelming for him. He kept taking 2 steps and then stopped and tried to take it all in - kids laughing, squeeling, swinging on swings, sliding down slides, making sand castles, baby crying, bicyclists, people playing basket ball, and volley ball, and a goth wedding... (yup... all sorts of people dressed in black and red for the wedding coming by and saying hi to him on their way out). Once we got past the playground, he was a pup on a mission... or gravity took over.. or a little of both and he was pulling me down the hill. He LOVES to go all the way to the bottom of the hill and walk on the fishing dock and bark at the fish and things floating by.. but not today. He pooped, then got to the picnic shelter and decided it was time for a nap. We hung out there for about 20 minutes and then started through the woods back to the car. Not as many people, but lots of smells (his nose is working again), he spotted some birds and squirrels but opted not to go after them, smelled some plants too. I was trying to walk really slow so he would go slow, but Max would have none of that, however he'd stop every 20 ft or so. He was a bit wobbly - like he was drunk. Maybe a little light-headed? But once we got going in the woods, he wanted to keep going and didn't want to take the short cut to the parking lot. In fact when we got to the end of the trail he made a left and wanted to do it again. At that point we ran into Sarah - a yellow Lab who came over to say hi so he had some time to rest while the people chatted.
Just 2 weeks since we got home from NY and 2 weeks and 1 day after Max's final cyberknife treatment, he ran right out the front door, across the front yard and barked at the strange people coming out of the woods with the rest of our dogs... as you can see he's pretty much back to his normal self! I'd say his vision is a little bit off from falling in the gravel and injuring his eye when his balance was really bad 3 weeks ago - he was a little surprised to see me at the front door, but aside from that - he's completely normal, barking, hearing, interacting, playing and protecting the house! (Max is the little yellow dot in the distance.. in the sun... in the middle of the video in the beginning)
