Better Late Than Never…
Forgive me I am a bit late for this post. Cody got his third vaccine on Thursday and I have been simply swamped all weekend and the computer has been acting up enough for me to just ignore it instead of getting sucked in. This laptop has seen much better days.
Some days are great and he is the Cody i know and love dearly!
Anyway on Thursday Steven Hazell from VOC in Tampa actually drove in and was at Clint Moore to see us this week for Cody’s treatment. We kind of got stuck in a room together for almost an hour waiting for Doc to get to us and to my benefit we had a great conversation. He was looking Cody over and I told him about all the little things that are going on with Cody now like the glands, the penis growth, the what looks like a hemorrhoid and the difficulty Cody seems to be having going #2, as well as a very painful and stinky ear infection. Steven had a great perspective however, saying that these are just minor things and bumps in the road, and if I could have this stuff for the next few years I would take it, right? ABSOLUTELY!!! He also reminded me that all sicknesses and treatments have peaks and valleys and to stay strong through those valleys. We of course do not want to see Cody suffer but we also don’t want to give up hope at the first sign of adversity. Especially with this vaccine… it needs time to work.
We talked about the vaccine a lot. We have one more shot this week on Thursday afternoon and then we test Cody’s blood to see if the antibodies are working and established and his immune system has kicked in to fight mode. Steven said the vaccine has been very successful in trials of many animals and they have been doing a lot of work getting the word out. They have tried it in cats, dogs obviously, pigs and especially horses which apparently have immune systems VERY similar to humans. Which has allowed them to have such great success that they are about to do some human trials now in the Dominican Republic! VERY exciting as we both agreed that this is the way science should be progressing… your own immune system should be “trained” to attack these weird cells on it’s own. It makes perfect sense.
The other exciting work they are going towards is trying to get the vaccine to be more generic than tailored to each patient’s cancer, so the surgery and taking a sample of the patient would not be necessary. If they have such a success where it works on all animals in one formula they can make it readily available as a vaccine to distribute wider and cheaper. It would still be used as a treatment after diagnosis rather than, as I asked, a preventative. But it would be a huge breakthrough nonetheless.
So Cody got his shot and the Medrol seems to be working ok for him too, although he looks scrawny and tired. The Medrol seems to make him pant a lot and wears him out, and it also makes him somewhat constipated. So many small issues for the poor guy. He just seems to be somewhat falling apart and it makes me sad. If he still was not so happy and loving I would be more worried, but he is maintaining his personality and spirit so I think we are still ok. I asked Doc for some stool softener to see if I could help the boy a bit with the constipation and the bleeding. As I said he has a bit of a hemorrhoid which Butzer actually thinks may be a tumor… and every time he goes #2 it bleeds… so Mommy has to be pretty handy with the wipes.
Whatever it takes…
So that is where we are. I have his birthday on the horizon as a goal and we plan to celebrate fully once again with a nice steak dinner and a party for the boy. July 15th he will be a big SEVEN years old!!! That is 49 to you and me folks! My sweet baby boy all growns up!
Trudging forward… I will keep you all informed…
Saving Cody 