The Riley Report
Five weeks ago, Riley had his first x-ray after finishing chemo. His last x-ray was on Halloween, and it showed clear lungs. This one was not clean. They took three pictures, and on one of them, they could see a shadow that they were pretty sure but maybe not but probably is a lesion. So Riley’s cancer metastasized. When we got his diagnosis at the end of last summer, they told us that with the amputation and chemo, his odds were 50/50 that he’d be cancer free in year. Looks like Riley fell into the wrong 50. They couldn’t tell us anything else (like how bad, how fast, how much longer) without a second x-ray, so that brings us to today. His second x-ray was this afternoon, and while there’s still only the one spot, it has grown by 38%. That only brought it to 2cm, so it shouldn’t be affecting him yet. The vet says it probably won’t bother him until it gets to 5-7cm or unless more appear. We started the metronomic chemo (low doses by pill) yesterday, in the hopes that it will slow the growth. Our next x-ray is in 7 weeks.
John is upstairs trying to make an L-shaped cut into a porcelain tile with a hacksaw, I just finished cooking Riley some chicken, and he’s hanging out on his dog bed looking at me. (I feel judged – I’m not being entertaining enough. Or I’m in trouble for not giving him the chicken yet. It’s too hot, buddy!)
He’s still okay for now. We are, too.