Feelin' Good

Today was Jake’s checkup at the CSU Animal Cancer Center. Our appointment was at 8 am so we were on the road early this morning. Among other tests, he was scheduled for an abdominal ultrasound, which requires fasting. That’s always a pain for humans but worse for a yellow Lab (with an endless appetite) who doesn’t understand why I “forgot” his breakfast today. It was a bit surreal today. Driving up to Fort Collins, with Jake in the backseat, I remembered the first time I brought him here last year and he was accepted into the clinical drug trial. All I wanted then was a few more weeks with him (or maybe months, if I could be really greedy).

While we were waiting in the lobby, I met a first-time client whose 3-year old Golden Retriever was being treated for cancer. I told him to have faith – that Jake was here a year ago with a tough diagnosis but is doing well – and that the staff at CSUACC would take good care of both of them.

We started with a physical exam from Dr. Lana and Dr. Hafeman. They aspirated a number of the lumps on his body…all normal, non-cancerous.

I really like this photo of them measuring what used to be the tumor on his leg. It just looks like a birthmark now but check this or this out if you want to see how massive it was in the past.

They took him away for a couple hours for x-rays and ultrasound. I came back at 1:00 pm to get the test results. ALL CLEAR! We’re done with pills and docs! He gets to go back to being a regular dog for awhile.

Thanks to all of everyone at CSUACC for everything…on so many levels. Jake and I really appreciated the extra attention today. But looking back, everyone was fantastic when we first walked in the door last year like any other patient. Thanks, too, for accommodating Dave from 9News and letting him go “backstage”. He’s working on a follow-up to last year’s story on “Jake’s Journey”. I’ll post the link when it airs.

Dr. Hafeman asked me if I was going to keep doing this blog now that Jake is OK. I only thought about that for a second. Absolutely. We’ve only visited 27 out of the 260 parks in Denver. We still need to get on Coors Field. And I really want to get him to a beach one day. This is just the prologue.

Late in the Afternoon

Dan and I did a full day of yard work, under Jake’s supervision. I left his leg braces off today since he was just lounging around on the grass – mostly sleeping but occasionally greeting neighbors and kids in strollers, or inspecting our progress on the plantings. As much as I love the “big idea” postings in distinctive places, these kinds of days are my favorites. Like the saying goes, “music is the space between the notes”.