My dog had Cancer; November 7, 1989

After the one o’clock feeding Samantha woke up at three o’clock. I picked her up and she fell asleep almost right away. I put Samantha back to her crib and went back to sleep myself. Samantha woke up again at six o’clock and nine o’clock. After the nine o’clock feeding I had a shower and got dressed. Alex had a bath earlier, gotten dressed and was having his breakfast. I had my breakfast as well. After breakfast I expressed my milk and sterilized a bottle. Alex turned the TV so loud that it woke Samantha up. Luckily she went back to sleep. Charlie told Alex to turn the TV down he had woken Samantha up. Alex said So what I don’t care! I said What! Do you want to watch TV down in the basement. Alex just laughed. We are having quite a time with him. I did a few loads of laundry and put the garbage into the compactor. After Alex had his lunch I asked him to get ready for school. Alex had come to tell Charlie that Kelly was having a seizure. Kelly had one last night at nine o’clock. I had talked to Dr. Hi this morning. He said to stop the valium and to give Kelly Rivotral three times a day, a dose of 2 pills. Dr. Hi said it looks like Kelly has a tumour because epilepsy can be controlled with medication and Kelly’s seizure doesn’t seem to be controlled with medication. I told him Kelly was disorientated, walks in circles and looses control of his bladder. Dr. Hi said that’s from the tumour not the medication. Dr. Hi said at some point you are going to have to make a decision. I tided up the house and got Alex ready for school. Alex didn’t want to wear what I had picked out. They’re having their pictures taken today. Alex actually wanted to wear a sweat suit. Alex finally agreed to wear the sweater and cord pants I had picked out. I took Alex to school while Charlie stayed at home with Samantha. When I came home Charlie went grocery shopping. Marla and Paxton came before Charlie left. They brought Samantha a present, socks with rattles in them. They didn’t stay long as they had to go get Lanie. Samantha and I went to get Alex. By the time we got there, Alex was coming out of the school. When we got home I fed Samantha and put her in her crib. I started to cook dinner, clean up the kitchen and wrote in the journal. We ate dinner at six o’clock. Samantha had another feeding at six thirty, she had a long feeding for twenty minutes. I put her back in her crib. Alex put away his toys and got ready for bed. He watched Cosby of course. I read him a story then he went to sleep. I watched TV and wrote in the journal. It’s now almost nine thirty I’m going to go to bed.

My dog had Cancer; November 2, 1989

Samantha woke up for her feeding at three thirty. After I had put her back to her crib I checked on Alex. He woke up and told me he was hot and had a headache. I took his temperature, it was a bit up. I gave Alex Tempera but Alex still didn’t feel well. Alex started to cry that his head really hurt. Charlie was awake by this time, he said Alex could sleep with me. I told Alex he couldn’t cry when he came into our room as he might wake up Samantha. Alex said okay, he asked me to put my arm on him while we slept. Samantha woke up again at eight o’clock. Mom and Dad were already up. Her next feeding was at noon. Alex wasn’t well today, he didn’t go to school today. He followed me every where I went and wanted me to sit with him. It was rather difficult as I had to look after Samantha as well as do all the chores. Alex’s temperature was up, I gave him Tempera throughout the day. Maybe Halloween was too much for him. Mom had made dinner as usual. I feel rather guilty that she has to go to so much trouble. They want to use up their meat. They have a whole freezer full of meat. Mom said she thought she would be using it when Blair came down but Blair ate at the hospital. Samantha ate at four o’clock and again at eight thirty. Charlie and I picked Kelly up from the vets at six o’clock. Kelly sure doesn’t look very good. He looks so upset and his eyes are blood shot. Kelly is very dopey from all the medication they gave him today. The vet said Kelly is a severe epileptic, he put Kelly on valium as well as Rivotral. It sure is bad seeing him like this. Alex seems to be feeling a lot better now. He got ready for bed at seven thirty. I went to bed at nine o’clock.

My dog had Cancer; November 1, 1989

Samantha had a one thirty and five thirty feeding. Then she had an eight o’clock feeding. I gave her a bath before her noon feeding. In between that, I had a shower, got dressed and had my breakfast. I also did the laundry and emptied the garbage. I took Alex to school, Mom watched Samantha while I was gone. I rested until it was time to get Alex. I fed Samantha at three thirty. We ate dinner at five o’clock. Alex, Charlie and I went out while Mom and Dad watched Samantha. We went to Canada Trust, I needed to sign the T-Bill account. Then we went to London Drugs and came home. When we got to the driveway Dad was waiting for us, he looked very upset . My heart dropped when I saw him. Then Mom came out too. They said Kelly was having seizures and they couldn’t get them to stop. Mom figured Kelly had about seven seizures by the time we got home. I phoned the Port Coquitlam Animal Hospital. I was told all the doctors had gone home. They finally gave me an emergency number which was for Eagle Ridge Animal Hospital. I phoned Dr. Hi at home and told him the problem I was having. Dr. Hi said he would meet us there. Charlie put Kelly into Dad’s station wagon. Charlie, Dad and I took Kelly to the vets. Kelly had two more seizures in the car. Dr. Hi said he would started working on Kelly right away and he would phone us tomorrow morning. Not long after we got home the vet phoned he said Kelly had a temperature of 106F and they had been able to get him stabilized. He said he would phone again tomorrow. It sure is an awful feeling when Kelly has seizures like that. It’s bad enough when he has one let alone continually. Dad kept asking me if I was alright. I stayed upstairs for quite awhile. Alex went to bed at eight o’clock. After Samantha’s nine thirty feeding I went to bed.