Another Week, Another Round of Chemo

With apologies to the U.S. Postal Service, our own motto today might be "neither rain nor sleet nor snow will keep Chance and George from their appointed chemotherapy."  It's been snowing here for 48 hours non-stop -- none of this forecasted -- and I worried about whether to trailer blind Chance and George into Missoula for their chemo treatment this afternoon. 

We got off schedule last week because of a delay in their chemo drug shipment, and we now have a heavy snow warning on for late tonight through Friday morning.  (Memo to National Weather Service:  What about the past 48 hours?)  Thus I was concerned that if I didn't get them in today, I probably wouldn't tomorrow, either.  So we dug out the trailer, hitched up the truck, loaded Chance and George, and I set off for Missoula as the snow continued to fall.

This is the alternate week when Chance and George get the 'heavy' stuff -- cytoxan injected intravenously -- and we do this at Dr. Bill Brown's clinic.  Bill determined that we didn't need to use IV bags to drip the cytoxan into their veins, but instead could dilute it into 60 cc's of fluid and inject it with a syringe directly into the vein.  This saves us money (no IV set up or materials) and time.  That's what you see in this photo, with Bill injecting the cytoxan from a syringe into George while Bill's vet tech Vicky holds the tube in the vein. 

Meanwhile, over in the horse stock, Chance was getting bored and antsy, just like the first time he came here for chemotherapy.  He started to reach over and pester George, considered untying George's lead rope (the blue one looped around the post), and in general became quite the goofball.  A few minutes earlier Bill had taken off his cap and placed it on Chance's back.  I saw it sitting there and thought I'd like to see what our goofy blind horse might look like wearing a hat.  Your typical horse would have thrown the hat off in an instant, but not Chance.  He seemed quite content to wear that hat.

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After leaving Bill's clinic, I stopped at Dave Bostwick's clinic to pick up blind and deaf Angel.  She will need sub-Q fluids every other day for her kidney disease, plus twice-a-day Norvasc for high blood pressure.  I also picked up the ashes from Keisha's and Willis' cremations.

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(Click on photos for larger image.)

Comments

[ginger & Tobias (the greythound)]

What a great photo of Chance with the hat! You do capture some great photos Steve! Thank you so much. Please be careful in those hazardous conditions. We need all of you to stay healthy and well.

[Nancy]

I worry about you on those roads, please be very careful because the animals cannot afford for you to be hurt!!

Take much care.

(Course with the karma you have you are pretty well-protected - I take my comment back!)

Your admirer, Nancy

[Roz]

That Chance is such a fun guy. Love the hat! I'm so hoping the chemo treatments help our big friends, Lonesome George and Chance; and much love to Angel that her fluids and meds get her feeling better. xxoo to all RDR animals.