Fighting for Beau's Life: Visiting the Hillside

Today Beau and I woke up and went to PetSmart before his doctor's appointment. He ran out of food and I wanted to get him some of that "all natural"dog food that I've heard so much about. I loaded him up in the cart and began searching the massive store. It definitely wasn't hard to find; it was in a refrigerator right at the entrance of the dog food aisle. I got the food out and let Beau sniff it to see if he'd like it. Then I looked at the ingredients and saw a bunch of random stuff that doesn't sound natural to me, "calcium pantothenate, biotin, riboflavin, thiamine mononitrate". I was like, "What the hayyyyy!" Then I decided this is as natural as it gets so I bought him a crap load. Including doggy cookies you bake at home. He loved it but it smells nasty. His appetite was wonderful this morning although he was extremely sleepy, as usual. We went to pick up my oldest brother Justin and head off to see Dr. Rosonke. When I pulled up I was actually in tears because my Dad and I were having a conversation about Beau. I've just been worried about him lately because he's been so tired and I'm afraid there's been no improvement. Although it is hard for me to really tell because I see him every day. Plus there's only been one round of chemo so there wouldn't be a huge amount of progress anyway. Justin didn't know I was crying because I had my huge sunglasses covering my face (one reason why girls buy those). Beau was happy as a clam napping in his Uncle's lap. We got to Hillside and we were welcomed by all of the staff who know and love B. The technician Gayle talked about how Beau just can't get a break but said there's no shortage of people loving him. It's true. My entire family loves Beau so much. He's really touched our hearts. Dr. Rosonke came in and looked at Beau's eye and said that it isn't an abscess! This made me relieved knowing that they wouldn't have to stick a needle in his eye. That would've been stressful for Beau to go through. The vet also said he seems to be doing great considering the circumstances. He perscribed Beau another antibiotic to take with the augmentin that he is already taking. Dr. Rosonke also gave us medicine for nausea because antibiotics tend to upset dogs stomachs. I love that he covers all the bases. I really feel as if Beau is taken care of by both his oncologist and his general veterinarian. We have been so blessed with their care. If everything goes as planned, Beau's swelling should go down with the help of the antibiotic combo and we should get to start chemo back up. His immune system is just too compromised to heal his infection from the fight right now. We came home and napped because we were both heat exhausted. Then I baked Beau cookies. He needed it after going through yet another appointment at the vet.