WHAT.THE.HELL.

Ok, so today was the craziest, most horrific day out of all the crazy, horrific days Jenna has had in her near-death-experience-filled life. This morning she was scheduled to go in for chemo as usual. My husband took her to the clinic as usual. He started to unbuckle her collar in order to hand her over to the vet tech - as usual. In the instant that he loosened the buckle, Jenna suddenly wrenched her head back, pulling herself free of the collar, then bolted for the door. Somehow, in her adrenaline high, she managed to shove both the interior and the exterior doors open herself (they are heavy doors), then bolted across the busy street, with my husband and a clinic staff member hot on her heels. To their horror, she then disappeared under a one-tonne truck and took off at a mad gallop out the other side.

This happened at about 9 AM. My husband called me at work, and I left to help him look for her. We spent the rest of the day driving up and down every street and trudging around every park in the vicinity, calling her name and interrogating pedestrians and the postman. By the time it got dark, we hadn't seen a sign of her since some guys reported seeing her at about noon, so we checked in at the pound and then decided to go home to start phoning vet clinics, posting internet ads, and printing Lost Dog posters. Then, just as I was getting ready to take my posters and head back to the area where we lost her, we got a phone call from the clinic. A good Samaritan had brought a dog that matched her description to the pound. Anne, one of the receptionists at our vet clinic, hightailed it to the pound to pick her up, telling us to meet her at the vet clinic. We had no idea what kind of shape Jenna was in, as my husband and a vet tech had actually witnessed Jenna getting hit by a truck, not to mention that she'd been out all day in minus 16 degree weather.

Our vet, who had waited around after her shift was over, came out to examine Jenna right in the waiting room. There were no broken bones, no collapsed lungs, no frostbite, no abdominal bleeding, no nothing. The damage? A broken nail and a bit of a stiff hind end, which is more than likely due to the fact that she was running all day. To top it all off, her lymph nodes are still fine. The vet decided to put off chemo until the weekend to give Jenna a chance to recover from her ordeal.

I know this sounds like I'm making it up. I can't believe it myself. And I can't even express how grateful I am that she's alive, that she's safe, that she's home. I also can't believe how many people came out in force to help us look for her, including a complete stranger who witnessed the accident, drove up to my husband, shouted "get in!" and then proceeded to drive him around the area for an hour looking for our dog. And to whoever saw a lost dog out in the cold night and made the effort to catch her and drive her to the pound instead of leaving her there, I hope karma finds you.

Week #13 Checkup

This post is behind schedule, mostly due to my sudden and somewhat embarrassing obsession with the Twilight books, about which most of my immediate friends and family will have already heard more than they care to. I hope to finish the stupid things this weekend so I can return to my life.

Jenna is indestructible, as always. We didn't have to do chemo this week - the lymph nodes have not come up at all, so it was a false alarm! Hooray! And in the spirit of Christmas, the vet gave us a freebie this week. I think we owe that largely to Jenna, who is a model patient and seems to be a huge favourite with the vets and clinic staff.

Chemo Week #12

Well, it has been exactly 3 months since Jenna was diagnosed, and she's still going strong. Yesterday was chemo day, and as usual, she did great. She got home and gobbled up her dinner and then proceeded to beg for ours.

The only concern is that the vet thinks Jenna's submandibular (under the jaw) lymph nodes are a tiny bit enlarged. She isn't that worried, because none of the other nodes are at all enlarged, not even the original chest lymph node that was huge back in September. However, when Jenna goes in for her checkup next week, if the jaw nodes are still a little weird, we will just go ahead with chemo, instead of giving her the week off. This is fine, because Jenna tolerates the drugs so well, but we were looking forward to a bit of a financial break over Christmas. Oh well. Our Christmas present to each other this year is Jenna!