Chocolate Kisses

 

Charley celebrated his 6th birthday yesterday, 3-29-14!

Happy Happy Happy 6th Birthday Charley!!!

 

 

It was a very special birthday for Charley for many reasons!  This was his 4th birthday since being diagnosed with osteosarcoma (he was only 2-1/2 when he was diagnosed)!   It’s  been 5 months since Charley was diagnosed with metastatic OS (the tumor was removed from underneath his amputation scar with clean margins)!  Charley finished his 6 rounds of chemo (alternating between Doxorubicin and Lomustine) on 3-12-14!  Charley celebrated his 41st Month Ampuversary on 3-28-14!  As you can see, we have many reasons to celebrate!

 

 

We had a birthday party yesterday for Charley and my dad!  Charley celebrating 6 and my dad celebrating 74 (on April 1).  Both of the birthday boys enjoyed their special birthday meal.  Charley had his famous meat cake and my dad had a filet….and he even shared some of it with his furry grandson, Charley.

 

The Birthday Boys!

 

 Yummy!!!  I can hardly wait…but I’m being a good boy, mommy!

 

Meat Cake:  Before….and….after!

 

Charley enjoying some fresh air during his pawty!

 

Mommy, did you say I get a Birthday Cookie?

 

Here I come!  I love cookies!

 

Oh my!!!  A Birthday Cookie Bone from Treats Unleashed!  YUM!

 

My mommy and me!

 

 

Thank you for all of your prayers, positive thoughts, hugs, and kisses.  It is greatly appreciated and we can’t thank you enough for all of your support!

 

♥  Hugs from me and chocolate Labby kisses from Charley!  xoxo  ♥

 

 

This post has taken me all day to write (and I apologize to everyone for having to wait so long for the news)….

 

I have started typing and then deleted everything and I’ve repeated this process multiple times.  I’ve given up on writing something enlightening and eloquent because I’m pissed off.  I hate freaking cancer!

 

Today is Charley’s 3 Year Ampuversary!  I am so proud of Charley for being the OS Warrior that he is and has been for over 3 years!  I’m so proud of his courage, strength, and resiliency!  I’m blessed to have been given an additional 1,095 precious days with Charley since his amputation!  I’m in awe of the lessons that Charley has taught me along this journey!  BUT…I am pissed that this freaking cancer has tried to ruin a day of celebration for Charley, for me, for Joe, for my family, for this community (Tripawds) and the other communities (Bone Cancer Dogs, Arte and Cancer group) that Charley is a big part of!

 

This afternoon, I received the dreaded phone call from Dr. Buss with the results of Charley’s FNA of his “lump”.  His 3cm hard lump near his amputation site is officially a sarcoma and as the pathologist worded it, “….strongly suspect an osteosarcoma.  The exhibited phenomorphism and noted mitotic figures are very suggestive of an aggressive behavior”.  After talking to Dr. Buss, surgery is still scheduled for Thursday morning with Dr. Jill Luther who amputated his leg.  Charley will spend the night Thursday at MVRC for pain management and we’ll bring him home on Friday afternoon.  Pending the histopathology from the tumor after it’s removed, Dr. Buss wants to try an oral chemo that has shown some good results.  Of course I can’t remember the name of the oral chemo for certain because I was still processing the OS return, but I think he said Lomustine (I’ll confirm in a later post).

 

This evening we celebrated Charley’s 3 Year Ampuversary (he doesn’t know that his cancer returned).  I made him his famous “meat cake” aka “3-Year Warrior Cake” with 2 pounds of ground sirloin ( mixed with 2 eggs & small container of cottage cheese), Philly cream cheese for the icing, and natural peanut butter for the writing.  Charley would have been delighted to eat the entire cake, but I only let him eat a piece (in addition to his dinner).  The cake is a bit crooked (I need a new spring-form pan), but Charley didn’t seem to mind!

 

Here’s some pictures of Charley from this weekend and this afternoon!  He’s his typical happy Labby self and he doesn’t know his cancer is back!  All he knows is that he has a great life and his mommy and daddy love him very much!

So far now, we’ll continue to pray for a miracle and hope for the best.

We’ll pray that Charley has a successful surgery this Thursday and a speedy recovery.

We’ll pray that Charley’s journey here is far from being finished and that he has plenty of lessons left to teach us.

We’re not finished fighting and either is Charley.  We will continue this battle with Charley as long as he wants to fight!

 

Thank you for all of your prayers, positive thoughts, hugs, and kisses.  It is greatly appreciated and we can’t thank you enough for all of your support!

 

♥  Hugs from me and chocolate Labby kisses from Charley! xoxo  ♥

 

♥ ♥ ♥  Here’s more pictures of our beautiful boy!  ♥ ♥ ♥

Hi everyone!  It’s me, Charley!  I’m sneaking on my mommy’s ‘puter again since she is isn’t looking….

 

I had a great time at my birthday pawty this weekend!!!  It was a double birthday pawty…I turned 4 and my Grandpa turned 72!  I can’t wait until I’m 72 because I bet I would gets TONS of presents and treats considering the amount I got for turning only 4!

 

My mommy made me a meat cake again!  I LOVED it!!!  I almost ate the whole thing….until my mommy and daddy pried the last piece out of my mouth.  They were talking about me eating too much and getting sick and puking.  HELLO?!?!?  Don’t they realize that I am a Labrador Retriever and one of my bestest skills is eating, then tripawd counter surfing, and finally retrieving….and in that exact order!

 

Here’s some pictures of me from my birthday and my pawty!!!

 

Hugs and chocolate Labby kisses from Charley  xoxo

 

YUMMY MEAT CAKE!!!

EATING MY CAKE…..

EATING MORE CAKE!!!

I LOVE OPENING PRESENTS!!!

I USE MY ONLY FRONT PAW TO HOLD IT DOWN….

THEN I BITE AND TEAR OFF THE PAPER…..VIOLA!!!

CHARLEY         ~~ THE BIRTHDAY BOYS!!!! ~~        BEN

 

My mommy and daddy threw a “Survivor Pawty” for me for my 1 Year Ampuversary!!!  My ampuversary is also my grandma’s birthday so we had a dual pawty!  My grandma and grandpa came and so did my Uncle Andrew and Aunt Jaime from Peoria, IL.  I haven’t seen my uncle and aunt in awhile so I was super excited!!!  They got me a big red un-stuffed dragon toy with 16 squeakers (I haven’t figured out how to make them squeak though…my mommy thinks it’s because us labs have “soft” mouths–whatever that means).

 

My mommy made my my very own “Survivor Cake”.  It was sooooooo YUMMY!!!!  My mommy made it with 1-1/2 pounds of ground beef, 2 eggs, 1/2 container of cottage cheese and some garlic….it was basically a big meatball!  The icing was cream cheese with peanut butter writing…could it get any better than that?!  I  don’t know why they wouldn’t let me eat the entire cake that night….don’t they know I’m always hungry!  They’ve been rationing some out for me every day, but I’d rather just eat the whole thing!

 

I’m a smart boy and I was able to open my presents with my one front paw and my mouth.  I got lots of new toys to add to my huge collection.  I got the big red dragon, a llama, a lion, a polar bear, a spider and a witch.  My mommy says that I have more babies (animals) than Noah did on his ark!!!

 

Before I got to eat my cake I had to dress up in my Halloween costume for some pictures.  Any guess on what I was???  I was Super Tripawd!!!  In one of the pictures I look like I am going to take off in flight just like Superman!

 

I had so much fun at my pawty!

 

Hugs and chocolate Labby kisses from Charley!  xoxo