Panther Mountain

I recently had a birthday, and despite being far too busy for a real hiking trip with Leo, I wanted to do something special. Two of my favorite pictures are me and Leo on this ledge in the Catskills (in younger, less-lymphoma-y times) and then all of my friends and Leo on the same ledge.  In one of my favorite facebook comments every (yeah, I know), someone asks my friend "who won the king of the mountain?". The reply: "The dog won."

Another episode of "White feet, don't treat"

In politics, they say "it's the economy, stupid."
For Leo, it's more like "it's the ivermectin, dummy."

Back to Watchung

Today we went back to the Watchung preserve, ostensibly to lead a field trip. Yeah, that didn't happen.

Grumble. I went to meet help my students who needed to complete the field trip. I was there. They weren't.

So far, so good

It's been a month an 4 treatments, and Leo is now feeling good. We've had dinner with Grampy, a ton of wandering around Greenpoint and Williamsburg, and now a hike back in Fahnestock State Forest on a most beautiful fall day.

Flugertown, no bears, 500 miles

Previous Flugertown Rd. trip, same site, same coolers, same dog.

Septembro! Time for another Flugertown road experience. Of course, these damn treatments are really inconvenient, and this one was scheduled for Saturday. The camping trip was Friday-Sunday.  I had 2 options - either go for just one day (and miss at least one person - and would have missed 2, had I only gone up on Saturday) or go up for both and drive back for treatment. We all know what I did.

He can do it!

So on Wednesday we had treatment #2. It was not looking good for the home team - Leo had no energy, the poops, and still had a swollen shoulder node. But this weekend - well, Sunday - was just glorious. And I mean glorious - 70, sunny, light breeze. On Saturday, Leo had been, well, pretty darn good! He had energy - it was coming back - and was eating like a champ. His stomach issues seemed to have abated a bit (granted, he was eating chicken and rice and pumpkin), and I need to go on a Geology field trip. So, off we go!

Stop 1 - basalt! There's a parking lot behind me.

Re-evaluating what's really important

This has been an incredibly difficult 2 weeks.  There was the lump, then the confirmation, then the treatment, and now it's the aftermath.  Leo is soldiering through, but the first shot of Vincristine took a huge toll on him (white feet, after all).