Life Lately with Lots of Zoey Updates

Hi friends. Life has been full lately in beautiful, hard and mundane ways. I just finished a long run and am posted up on the couch (one of my favorite weekend combos is long run + couch & tv time) so let’s catch up.

MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND 

Let’s backtrack to Mother’s Day weekend because a lot has happened in the last seven days! First, how stinking cute is this craft that Finn made for me at his dad’s house? It’s a little love crab made from his fingers, thumbprints, palms, etc. I will cherish it forever!

We spent Saturday doing all the weekend things: famers market, soccer, Home Depot, Trader Joe’s. That evening we got tomatoes, peppers, herbs and flowers planted on our back patio. It’s one of Finn’s favorite spring activities and he goes outside every day to check on the plants!

The other big activity of the day was bathing these two dogs. Little did I know it would become the start of a multi-day saga. Zoey somehow got herself stuck under the shed on Saturday – we’ve lived in this house almost five years and she’s never done this before. I got her out from under there and she smelled like absolute trash so I bathed her, and then Benji got washed while I was at it.

Well friends. It seems Zoey went after something under the shed that I can only guess was a nest of baby animals or a dead animal. She started throwing up on Saturday night and I spent all morning on Mother’s Day cleaning my house. I had to wear a mask and had every window and door open downstairs because it literally smelled like death. Thankfully she did all of her throwing up on this one rug so it’s going to rug heaven. No amount of cleaning could ever make me bring it back inside.

UPDATES ON ZOEY GIRL  

By Sunday night she was really sick and on Monday morning I cancelled my clients and had her at the vet right when they opened. She got a TERRIBLE case of food poisoning and we had a very scary few days.

We decided to x-ray and ultrasound her abdomen as part of her exam to make sure she didn’t have a blockage – we’ve also had some concerns that she may have cancer and those were sadly confirmed. Zoey has a mass on her spleen that is likely hemangiosarcoma. It’s the same kind of cancer that Sullie had. Zoey has lost almost 20 pounds and her red blood count is continuing to trend downward. She also has a mass on her side that is muscularly attached – we didn’t want to remove that until we knew what was going on viscerally on the inside. Splenic hemagiosarcoma has really poor outcomes and I am devastated.

Splenic hemangiosarcoma has a poor predicted outcome, especially in cases with no surgical intervention or only surgical removal of the spleen without chemotherapy. These dogs typically live between 2 weeks and 3 months after diagnosis. If the dog is a candidate for surgical removal of the spleen and chemotherapy, the survival time increases to around 9 months. However, fewer than 10% of dogs with splenic hemangiosarcoma are alive 1 year after diagnosis.

I have decided to opt out the splenectomy and chemotherapy because it’s not curative and the odds of it extending her life in a meaningful way are low. Putting her through a major surgery and chemo doesn’t feel like how I want her to spend whatever time she has left with us. These tough calls we have to make as dog owners feel impossibly hard.

We made four trips to the vet in two days and on Tuesday I thought I might need to call Finn’s dad to bring him over to say goodbye. She was unable to get up or walk. It was so hard for me to know what was cancer and what was food poisoning. She’d been so energetic and happy before the shed incident so I kept praying it was just the food poisoning.

I slept on the couch Tuesday night so that she wouldn’t try to come upstairs. And then when I got up Wednesday morning, she stood up and walked to the back door. I felt a flood of relief.

She’s continued to improve every day and is back to her normal energy and disposition. I’m so grateful that we’ll get a little more time to spoil her and say goodbye. I went through this with Sullie so I know what to expect but that doesn’t mean I’m not heartbroken all over again.

I’m by far the most anxious about walking Finn through it as he’s very attached to the dogs and he’s never known life without Zoey.

LOTS OF TEACHING 

Teaching group fitness is my absolute favorite work to do but it’s not always easy when you’re going through something and don’t feel like you have a lot to give. That said, with 15 years of experience under my belt I can turn on teacher mode and get through it. I recently developed a new class format at The Health Club called Flow + Lift and taught four very sweaty and fun classes this week. It’s a mash up of yoga and strength training. We do 10 minutes of power flow to warm up, 30 minutes of upper or lower body focused strength with cardio intervals and lots of core and 10 minutes of yoga stretch to calm down – in a heated 95 degree room!!!

I also taught four power flow classes at Charlotte Yoga and ugh, this studio and these yogis have such a special place in my heart.

SEVEN

Finn is turning SEVEN tomorrow. He’s just the sweetest soul and the light of my life and I feel lucky every single day to be his mom.

He’s also wrapping up his kindergarten year and they had the cutest musical performance at his school this week called “Cookies.”

It all goes so fast but it’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my whole life.

Well, I think we’ve covered a lot of ground in one post. I hope you guys are well and thank you for being here. <3