Fionn's 3 legged journey to beat cancer

It’s been a month since mom decided I was done with chemo and I had to go back for another chest x-ray thingy. I’m cool with it cuz- cookies! When they brought me back to mom, she was crying. Something about finding a “met” in my lung. She stopped crying when she hugged me because I have the AMAZING POWER of HAPPINESS. Everyone smiles when they hang with me! I don’t know what all the fuss is about- I feel fine. My front leg has been tired lately ( something about all my weight being on it. Here we go with calling me fat again!) so I’m taking something called meloxicam and the tramadol I took for pain after surgery if I need it. Anything to keep me from falling on my face, it’s embarrassing.

Mom feels bad because she can’t afford to do any more treatments. There’s a drug called Palladia that they could give me, but I have to be checked a bunch, get more x-rays, it can cause side effects AND all of this costs about $1000 a month. They don’t really know if it will help and, frankly, I’m kinda done with the poking and prodding. It gets in the way of  the fun I could be having. So, in the spirit of fun, after seeing the oncologist, we met with one of my kids and had lunch. She found a cafe that has a DOG MENU. How awesome is that? I got my own bowl of water and ordered from my own menu. I chose a hamburger patty and a dog bone cookie for dessert. It came on a frisbee! Click here for a video. I’m not into chasing frisbees, but mom thought it was cute. It was delicious and I got lots of attention so it was a very good day in my book. Here I am putting on my best sad eye look trying to beg a french fry from mom. Works every time.        

Mom is still kinda sad and stayed home with me the next day. There’s a group of people who meet at the dog park in the mornings and I never get to go because of mom’s work, so she took me! I couldn’t decide who I wanted to play with the most. I got so excited I pooped like 5 times. Mostly at the far end of the park. Why make it easy? Then, mom surprised me with a trip to the lake. She got me this new vest thingy that she says will help me float. She wanted to wait until it was warmer to use it, but who cares? I sure don’t! I LOVE the lake. SO MUCH GOOSE POOP to smell. Mom says it’s a good thing I don’t eat it or she would never take me. This was the first time I’ve been in water since they took my leg (well, other than that time I jumped in really fast after the swans and mom had to jump in after me because she thought I was going to drown). It felt weird to walk in it, but I gave it another try, went out a little further and I CAN SWIM! Then I just stood in it. The cold water felt really good. After a short rest, mom took the vest off so I could roll in the sand. OMG, sand is so great for rolling! Here are some pics from today. I think I look quite handsome in my Nemo vest!

Mom says in a week, it will be 5 months since my surgery. Wow, time flies when you aren’t in pain am I right? I’m going to do my best magic to make mom not sad anymore. Every day is a happy day in my book especially if I get to swim some more!