Leonard, May 30, 2000 - August 6, 2010

The pain in our hearts is so great, that there are no words to say...

Parable of Immortality

by Henry Van Dyke - 1852 - 1933

I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength,
and I stand and watch
until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sun and sky come down to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says, 'There she goes!
Gone where? Gone from my sight - that is all.

She is just as large in mast and hull and spar
as she was when she left my side
and just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the places of destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says,
'There she goes! ',
there are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout :
'Here she comes!'

Muddy Puppy after playing at the park

Sorry that I have been away...I have been very busy taking care of our little bean and we also had family in town. I don't think I wrote after our last disappointing Oncologist visit.

Irregardless of my affirmations, the ultrasound showed the prostate tumor developing cranial extentions into the bladder and a new mass on either the liver or gall bladder (doc couldn't tell decisively from the ultrasound). After a minor emotional breakdown, we are optimistic and moving forward again.

We are now trying Leonard on a very promising herb called Artemisinin. Remarkably, he showed dramatic & impressive improvement within 24 hours. His urination straining diminished, he was energetic and eating heartily. Unfortunately, the problem with this supplement is bioavailability, after a certain period of time, it's ability to be absorbed diminishes. Because he was on such a huge dose, we hit that mark by Day 5.

So, we have amended his regimen and we are pulsing the Artemsinin with 95% Standardized Curcumin and dosing that with Fish Oil (DHA/EPA) to aid in absorbtion. This regimen is very tricky, the Curcumin appears to be the only Antioxidant that does not interfere with or hinder the Artemsinin's effectivness. Therefore, I had to stop all other antioxidants and avoid any food with antioxidant properties. This is mentally hard to do since the importance of antioxidants for cancer is pounded into us.

On another note, the Artemisinin works directly with the abundant Iron contained in Cancer cells. Because of this, one has to avoid all iron-rich foods near Artemisinin dosing time. It's a very tricky schedule but I think we are getting a system down.

Right now, I think the single most important thing in our fight is exercise and the way this expenditure oxygenates the cells of Leonard's system. We bought him a new basketball and have several play sessions a day - he is like a puppy, I tell you. The exercise has made a tremedous difference in his success.

Breakfast {where else} at The Farm when mom & Dad came to town.

Leonard's FAVORITE toy - a box.Leonard's new basketball! We were so thrilled to have my sister, Adrienne, here for a week in early July. She was here for the 4th of July *and* Jeff's 41st Birthday!

Adi & Leo at Steele Indian School Park.

Leo gets a little crazy over his basketball :)Here is Adi with Trigger at Steel Indian School Park.

Jeff's Birthday pie.Adi and Leo taking a nap on a hot afternoon.
Here's a short poor quality video taken with my camera. He is *so* into this ball, I would love to see him on a soccer field - he is so good at controlling it and volleying it across the field. There was no audio available but if you watch - you can tell he is barking his head off at that ball.

Prescott

We went to Prescott yesterday to get out of the heat, it was supposed to be around 109 in the Valley. It was still 90 degrees up there though. There was a classic car show downtown, the guys walked around and we sat and chatted. Leonard has another UTI so it was challenging, he had to pee a lot and had an accident on Kat's floor. Thankfully, it was tile; but embaressing nonetheless.

We got to visit Kat & Ed's place up north, it has amazing views and a wonderful deck to soak it all in. I forgot to take photos there, though. :(

Hot & tired bulldog.

Lunch @ Pasquales.

Pam & Kat Another tired bulldog.

Leonard's 10th Birthday!

We decided to go north to Sedona for the day. Was hoping to reach the vortex at Bell Rock to get my boy some healing energy but alas, it was too hot and too far a walk from the parking lot to get him up there. I am sure the positive energy from the day did him wonders. It for sure conked him out!

Are we there yet?

Bell RockTlaquapaqueLunch in Sedona proper.Heading to Oak Creek next.We couldn't find a safe way to get Leo down to the Creek though...Pilot & Co-pilot.Are we home yet?Time for presents!

Yummy dinner, baked Salmon, Asparagus & Broccoli.

One tired Bulldog.

We had an ultrasound appointment yesterday, we waited 5 hours to get in for our appointment. There were no metastasis on the ultrasound (they didn't do the lungs), the prostate tumor measurements were actually smaller but it's hard to compare since it was a different doctor and different machine who took the last measurements. They have deemed Leonard "stable" and they said "stable" is just as good as "remission".

We hired a Canine Nutritionist last week http://www.thepossiblecanine.com/ . I really like her and am very certain that her diets will make a huge difference. Hopefully we will have some input from her this week.

We went to The Farm for breakfast today, tomorrow is their last day open for the season. Big Bean's 10th birthday is tomorrow, I am trying to figure out somewhere fun to take him up north for the day. He is doing really well.

Dad and the kids.

To anyone who reads this blog for updates on our renovations, this will probably be on hold for a while until we get Leo's dis-ease into remission. Please bear with me, he is our little bean and the most important being in our lives right now.

He has been doing fantastic; he is eating well which I accredit to getting him started on the FO/CC (flax oil/cottage cheese) portion of the Budwig protocol. He had bloodwork done just over a week ago and everything was in range except for a few values that were still close enough to not worry excessively.

Two pics below of him eating the FOCC mixture that he gets twice a day with PB8 (probiotics).

Resting.

My Co-pilot.

Leo & Magda sharing the crate.

Yummm....salmon for dinner tonight.

Right now all of his meals are home-cooked organic meats (except for the Salmon that is Alaskan Wild Caught). He gets a handful of organic Quinoa, some lightly steamed organic spinach or kale or broccoli and a splash of shredded organic carrots. Along with some Prozyme, Standard Process Whole Body Support, Dr Schultze's Superfood, Milk Thistle and/or Desert Defense. I kind of rotate these supplements.

He is also on Enrofloxacin (tomorrow ends his RX), Piroxicam (NSAID for the prostate) and Zyflamend (for the prostate). I also purchased some K9 Immunity and K9 Transfer Factor but have not started them yet.

He is getting daily sunlight and walks, which we abandoned for a while due to the heat and his joints but we are doing them again, they seem to perk him up.

I have scheduled another ultrasound for Friday the 28th. I am confident it will be clean. We will accept your positive intentions and prayers for this outcome as well. :)