Month: January 2020

Hiiii everyone! All the comments that I received on my previous blogs showing support and sharing advice was absolutely amazing! I could not be more thankful to have found this site. Thank you very much to everyone who commented, you are helping me get through this journey more then you know! Speaking of which, I realized something recently. I can’t dwell on the fact that Bentley has cancer. I can’t let these days pass by with me being sad for benny. Often I find myself wondering, “What will I do without him?” “How will I live this life without my best friend?” Some people say I saved Bentley from that puppy mill when he was a baby. I say bentley saved me when I needed saving the most. To have this dog love me so unconditionally, is the strongest love i’ve ever felt. To have him leave, is going to be the strongest pain i’ve ever felt. That being said, I need to be more like Bentley. Full of joy, life & love. I’m only human for thinking these things about the future. We have an appointment coming up to figure out a diet for Bentley. Since the diagnosis, he’s lost some weight. I’ve been feeding him chicken or beef, and vegetables every night but it doesn’t seem to be sticking. By the way, I wish I had this problem lol. This hasn’t stopped bentley from loving life at all! If anything, he loves life a little more because he’s getting gourmet meals daily 🙂 We had a big snow storm so he got to indulge in that for the weekend with his best bud! The only difference that I have noticed since bentleys diagnosis is that he is an even bigger cuddle bug than he was before. Which I didn’t think was possible but it is and it’s wonderful! So enjoy bennys photos of his past week filled with fun & cuddles 🙂

 

This is going to be a touchy topic to some, but I feel it’s important to document every step of bentleys journey so here we go… First off, Bentley is doing very well! He inspires many people every single day. We had our last oncology visit & after a very long stressful visit. We found out that benny may only have a few months to live without  Chemotherapy.  With Chemotherapy, the oncologist can promise 10-12 months of life. After talking to the oncologist & asking as many questions as I can. I found out that, yes, chemo will prolong bennys life. I found out that he can experience serious side effects as in constant vomiting & diarrhea, loss of appetite, hair loss, etc. Dogs can become lethargic & depressed during their chemo months. Chemo treatments would take 4-6 months. Now, before you judge me, I walked into that oncologist office ready to say yes to anything that would help Benny. You couldn’t change my mind if you tried. What I learned from this visit, is that you can’t be selfish. I can’t put Bentley through something that could turn out horrible again. Honestly, with the luck we’ve been having I don’t want to take anymore chances that will make him unhappy. Just to give me a few more months with him. For the rest of bentleys life, no matter how long that is, I want him to be happy. I will do anything to make that happen. The way that I see it now is, we could’ve done the chemo treatments. We also could have lost 6 amazing months together just to gain 4 more.. To bentley, that is not fair. He has been through enough. Since that last visit, we have been enjoying life to the fullest!! This past week, Bentley had a weekend long sleepover with his best bud cash! He went hiking, played in the snow, got a bath & a haircut! Here are some photos of bennys past week 🙂

So. Here I am today, writing this blog, because my best friend was recently diagnosed with osteosarcoma. For those of you who don’t know what osteosarcoma is or can’t even begin to think of how to pronounce it, well welcome to my life for the past few months. I STILL don’t know how to pronounce it nor do i care. All i know, is that i hate that word & it’s a disgusting “C” word that has turned my life upside down in just a matter of weeks. The doggo that you see all over this page, his name is Bentley & he’s my best friend. He is a 3 year old golden doodle that has been my saving grace. About 2 months ago our lives changed forever. Instead of going hiking, going to dog parks, or any of the things we use to love to do together; we have been running around to vet offices, chiropractors, surgeon specialists & oncologists just to find a way to cure my best friend. What i haven’t told you yet, is that through out all those visits we made, we only found out one answer. It’s not curable. So, you see, this disgusting osteosarcoma is a very aggressive, painful & deadly cancer that eats away at the bone. Osteosarcoma ate my best friends entire hind leg in a matter of 3 months. So after a long conversation with my best friend & much thought, we both decided that he was WAY too young & full of life to leave this world behind. You know, you never really think that one day you might be responsible to make every decision for someone you love so much. Someone who has no voice. No way to tell you if they want to keep going or if they’ve fought enough. Decision making was a little easier because through out all of this, Bentley remained himself. A happy, energetic, loving, crazy pup. That’s why I have decided to relieve him of this horrible pain he was experiencing but in a more moderate way. Amputation. A scary word, but still not as scary as the “C” word. A lot of people think i’m crazy for this. A lot of people think that a dog can’t be happy with only 3 legs. A dog can’t be a dog with just 3 legs. Well, we are here today to prove that dogs can be tripawds & still live just as happily!  Bentley no longer has 4 legs but bentley has life. & I think that means more to him than a silly leg! It didn’t take bentley long to adjust to being a tripawd. About 12 hours post operation, actually, is how long it took him to get up & get moving on with his life. I remember the nurse that called me from the hospital where he was staying over night after surgery. She said “Bentley did wonderfully. I have to tell you though, I’ve never seen a dog stand and be so ready to go after only 12 hours post op. He is amazing.” Right then, I knew I had made the right decision for my best friend. Benny was no longer in pain. He was ready to live his life again, no matter how long he had. See, to dogs, it’s not about how long they have. It’s about who’s there with them through it all. To dogs, we are their everything. So as long as we are there, together everyday through it all, Benny is happy. I am happy. We are a happy tripawd family. This is just a little intro to our new lives. I will be posting about bennys journey quite often so follow along if you’d like 🙂