Griffin's Journey

A lot has happened in the last 3 weeks since I last posted on Griffin’s blog!  Griffin slowly regained his appetite after we stopped using Palladia and had gained one pound by his next oncology appointment on October 7th.  On that day, he was administered a round of Doxorubicin (IV chemo), ate a McDonald’s cheeseburger after his appointment, and then did not eat again for 3 full days.  Oy vey!  Griffin was prescribed 2 different meds – Zofran for nausea and Entyce as an appetite stimulant.  Entyce caused diarrhea, so we discontinued it after 3 days.  He remained on Zofran for 8 days during which time I regularly lowered the dose and discontinued only after I was confident that his appetite had fully returned.  Griffin has been eating consistently for about a week now, a mixture of his regular dry food (Taste of the Wild) with a low quality wet food and shredded chicken breast.  While the wet food he currently enjoys is not up to my usual standards, it is a compromise I’m willing to make if it keeps him eating.  Griffin weighed in at 53.5 lbs (a loss of 1.5 lbs) six days after his chemo treatment, and I am hoping that he will be back to about 56 lbs when we return to AMC next week.

Despite his lack of appetite some days, Griffin is always up for our morning walks, even if he is hitching a ride!

As if the issues with appetite and weight loss were not enough for him to deal with, Griffin has an aural hematoma that formed in his left ear flap from his excessive head shaking after swimming for hours each day on our summer vacation in August.  Our local vet has drained it 3 times, but it keeps returning and so it needs to be dealt with surgically.  I am thankful that Dr. Spector, the surgeon who performed Griffin’s amputation, will also handle his hematoma.  He assures me that the procedure is minor (15 minutes) with a great rate of success but putting Griffin under anesthesia always makes me nervous.  His procedure is scheduled is scheduled for November 13th, sandwiched in between his upcoming oncology appointments on October 28th and November 19th.  My understanding is that Griffin’s ear will look a bit Frankenstein-ish with a lot of stitches, so it’s too bad the timing didn’t allow for him to have a cool look for Halloween! 🎃

While October has certainly presented a good number of challenges, it has also been filled with good times!  A trip to New Jersey on October 1st allowed us to meet baby Zane and have fun with big brother Miles (and his parents and dog sisters, too – that’s Callie in the background!). 🐾

A few days later, we hung out with our Monkey Bread crew in Mahopac, NY.  Griffin was a big hit with Noah, Julius, Zion, and Sebastian (and Mabel, too!) and loved playing fetch in the huge backyard. 🇩🇴 🇵🇷

This past weekend, we scooped up 3 of the godchildren and headed back to Beaver Creek in Lancaster, PA (where we vacationed this summer) for a long weekend of autumn fun with our Baltimore family.  Griffin did not understand why I wouldn’t let him into the pond, although you can see what happened when I turned my back for a minute…I guess it was really too cold since he didn’t manage to get all the way wet! 😆

We are back home in NYC and looking forward to enjoying the crisp weather and watching the leaves slowly turn to beautiful fall colors! 🍂🐶🍁

xoxo Stacy