Hi friends,

I thought I'd drop in with another too-brief update. Frankie is doing better.
He continues to tolerate the decreasing steroids well. He is now down to 3.5
pills a week, from a high of 14 a week when he first went in. The Imuran
helps, it seems, and allows him to decrease quicker than otherwize. This is
good, because the vets are keeping an eye on the increased liver enzymes and
are hopeful that they will go down once we decrease the steroids to an
acceptable level. We need to decide whether we want to try to take him off
completely or not. If so, then it would be better for his liver. But if he
has a relapse, they typically hit harder and are more difficult to suppress
the second go around.

We had a brief interude with a lepto scare. Someone suggested we get tested
for this in *.veterinary, and we did. Upshot was a very very low reading of
one of the strands--we decided it was probably because of the vaccination. We
did another test three weeks later, and those came back even lower--
suggesting against an active infection (particularly in an immuno suppressed
dog). We've determined that he doesn't have an active lepto infection, and
that this is not cause for concern. But Frankie did like the weak full of
liquid amoxil he got to take just in case.

The big problem, really, is that Frankie developed two masses in his mouth.
They are matching on either side of his tongue, which his good, because that
in itself suggests against cancer. It could be a reaction to the drugs he's
taking, or benign lymphoid tissue. Or, of course, it could be cancer, but
because it is bilateral that isn't likely. They want to biopsy, but with the
high liver enzymes and the other conditions, as well as the fact that they
don't think it is cancer, they are going to wait on it. I'm weighing whether
it is even a good idea to biopsy, because cancer in the mouth is a *bad*
place to get it, and I'm not sure whether we'd gain much from actually
knowing or not.

But as his steroid dose goes down, he's more peppy and playful and energetic.
He's even happier, which is amazing, since he's been stellar throughout.
Behaviorilly, he's doing great.

So that's where we are. We're still trying to lower the steroids as quickly
as possible while monitoring his platelet count. When low enough, we'll
consider biopsying the masses in his mouth. In the mean time, he's doing
super, and we're enjoying his company.

Sorry I've been off so long. More as we know more.

Be well, everyone. Best wishes to everyone.

Chad

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