Saying goodbye...

The blog is temporarily on hold as I simply can't stand looking at old pictures and videos. We enjoyed the summer as best as we could, been to wonderful places, experienced lots of unforgettable things and enjoyed our moments together - moments that had to end completely unexpectedly. When I can, I will share our last adventures together with you, right now I just can't, it hurts too much.

On September 11th I had to say goodbye to the one I love the most... Travel safe, my dearest friend... Thank you for sharing your life with me. Now watch over me like you always did and give me the strenght to survive this...

Getting into shape

Don't think that one hike per week is enough for us… After conquering St. Jacob with the Swissy gang we joined forces for some water fun in Iški vintgar (a nice, smallish gorge near Ljubljana, with a little river and lots of shade, suitable for hot days) and on Saturday Gregor took us to Limbarska gora, a hill 20 km from Ljubljana :) .

Živa with Klark and Leia





On the way to the top of Limbarska gora







Beneath the peak of Limbarska gora

Back in action

Some time has passed since our last report, but by now you know that doesn't mean nothing has happened. They removed Sambo's stitches after 3 weeks and it was obvious by then that all healed amazingly well; now, after a month, I can only say Wow. Judging by the way it looked after the operation I would never even imagine that it will be barely noticeable. You can see from a front view that his face is a bit 'bumped in', from the profile it's quite visible under certain angles, whereas under other angles you can't see anything at all.

Otherwise Sambo's feeling well, he's in a normal mood – therefore hyper, neurotic and giving big grins all over the place; he has an unusually big appetite, so I finally managed to convince him to put on some weight – because of his problems with his hind leg and lower back we visited a physiotherapist and she was a bit shocked because of his figure (she probably though I was kidding when I told her we didn't need to do an Xray cause he has nothing to hide…). I told her that this was a nicely slim figure for him and that until a few years ago he had 4-5 kg less and that he has had problems with low weight his entire life (actually, to be completely fair, he couldn't care less, I considered that a problem). Anyways, he did need a kilo or two more and now that he's gained it I'll reduce his meal a bit, keeping the treats for clicking and we're increasing the activities as it is, so I hope we'll get to a state when he's neither too thin nor too heavy for his joints.

And some photo documentation of recent trips from this month:

Beautiful winter in Bovec





Hike to a nearby hill, St. Jacob







Doesn't look bad at all for a post-cancerous almost 10-year-old with half his nasal bone missing, don't you think? ;)

Final act

I hope the final act of this epic battle is finally behind us – Sambo has been operated on Wednesday, 18.02. Here's the last report of his sick days, which I hope are finally over with this, and from now on these pages will be filled only with news about successes on trials and hills and mountains we've conquered :).

The CT at the end of January showed the tumor has shrunk considerably, therefore the radiation was a success (since it was a sarcoma, not a carcinoma, it was expected that the tumor won't disapear completely). There was a good chance that Sambo will bleed a lot, so a blood donor escorted us there in case a transfusion would be necessary. The operation went ok, they removed what was left of the tumor, the surrounding tissue wasn't damaged by the radiation and Sambo didn't bleed a lot, so everything went really great. The night after the operation Sambo didn't quite know what to do with himself, but after a while he finally calmed down so that we took a short nap together – at 4 am. Before that he would only walk from the living room to the vestibule a hundred times, then we both dosed off for 5 min on the vestibule floor, and then we were up again… Anyhow, at 4 am we finally fell asleep, I set my alarm clock to go off at every full hour so I could check if Sambo was ok, but I woke up by myself every half hour anyway. The next days were full of preoccupation – will Sambo be ok, will he walk ok, eat normally…

Sambo at the night of the operation



Unfortunately we had some complications – Sambo started limping on his left front leg and when I touched it I felt as if I were touching a water bag, it felt all bubbly. I rushed to the vet and they said it was an emphysema – since the bone of his nose ridge was removed during the operation, the 'channel' that lead the air directly to the lungs was gone, which resulted in air going anywhere it could – under the skin. Air gathered all over his body, most obviously in his left leg and his neck, right up to the end of the rib cage. And yes, it felt just as disgusting as it reads, but they said it's not painful or dangerous, even if a bit unpleasant. Sambo stayed at the vet for a few hours, he got an infusion and an IV painkiller, and just in case they gave him a plaster with an analgesic that works constantly for days – for which they made a canyon of 10x15 on his flank :P. all in all, the poor fellow didn't look quite olympic, with a shaved and sewn face, airbaggy legs and body and a hole in his flank, but at least he felt better.

After 10 days...





He's much better now after three weeks. The face healed really nicely, the hair grew a lot, the airbags are slowly decreasing, he's in a normal mood, he has a good appetite, but another problem arose – due to two weeks of reduced activity he got a little stiff and has some problems with his hind legs, but it's getting a bit better by the day and we go to normally long walks already. I certainly hope this will be over soon as well cause this recovery has been dragging out for much too long now. I know it takes an older body more time to heal and regenerate, but I believe this will be behind us soon as well.

On Thursday we're going to the vet to take the stitches out and I hope that with this we'll leave our cancer story behind us for good. We're surely optimistic about it with Sambo obviously feeling better. And with an improved state of health we're consequently in a better mood, so we're already planning this year's new adventures :). I entered Sambek to the World dogshow in Bratislava in October and I'm going to enter him to the World show for Belgian shepherds that will be held under the FMBB World championship in the Czech Republic in May. In sum, we're looking forward to many new successful battles :).

News

This month I've been totally occupied with translations, studying and trying to get Sambo into a better mood, but now I finally breathe a bit easier, so it's high time I report the news to you. Despite of the predictions that weren't that optimistic Sambo did fantastically right until the last three radiations. That's when he started to show the first signs of weariness. Unfortunately that's when his state became more normal, therefore worse – he started being more tired, without energy, he got the typical burns, the tip of his lips and snout got depigmentated, his lips started peeling off… I think everybody expected the consequences to be much worse, but considering how well he got through almost the entire treatment it was still quite a shock for us when things started going the more conventional way…

At that time he looked like this:





About 10 days ago things started improving, his spirits started coming back, he became more lively, especially indoors (he was almost normal at doggy walks, so there wasn't any big change there, unlike indoors, where he was distinctly calmer), he started coming to us to get his head scratched more and more… His lips healed nicely, the pigment started coming back so he wasn't as pinky as before, but he did lose the hair around his whiskers (however, the skin stayed ok and uninjured there).



During the weekend the situation started being normal again – Sambo finally gave me the first kiss this year (and has been giving them ever since), he started barking more, moving further away from me on walks (before he stayed really close to me, a few metres in front or behind me, whereas he usually circles me at about 30 m on a familiar territory), he demands more action every day… Yesterday we took advantage of the first sun after a long time and tried out a dry shampoo on Sambo for the first time and then went to play ball on a field, all clean and sparkling, and took the opportunity to take some pics :).



We used today's gloomy weather as an excuse to cuddle big time



do absolutely nothing



(yes, Sambek wears socks/slippers at home),

and then we went for a nocturnal snowball fight :D



Last week we went to visit our regular vet, he examined him thoroughly, listened to his heart and checked his blood; everything's ok, the heart and blood are fine, all internal organs are supposed to be ok… It was about time for some good news. On Thursday morning we're going to do a CT, so keep your fingers crossed we'll get some good news there as well. I hope this year's first month has been treating you well too. I'm sure this year will be a fantastic one :).

Kind regards to everyone from us

Old for new

I change the old year for a new one, just as beautiful, but with a better ending. I accept all offers on my e-mail.



I wish you all a happy and most of all healthy 2009. May it be as doggish as possible!

Urša and Sambek

Weird reactions 2 or David VS Goliath

People are sometimes surprised at my sense of humour – I have lots of it, in every possible type and extent, and it can also appear in the most peculiar moments. I usually reply to their amazement by saying that if I didn't have such a sense of humour, I could probably ease the situations I find myself in only with a nice Smith & Wesson product…

Since my life has been totally overly monotonous and boring someone up there kindly decided to make it more interesting. This year has been absolutely wonderful (especially the last few months), so I got a nice finish to round it up, one that reminded me of the importances of 'coincidences' in my life. Živa and I decided to have a cartoon-watching sleepover to make the best out of the last few days of being home alone. We first agreed that Gregor and I would pick her up on our way home from the mall. But she said that would be too early, so we said I would pick her up when she is ready. Then she called and told me she would come by bus. So I wait and I wait, and she still doesn't come. Finally she calls to say that she's still waiting for the bus; since it was already past 9 pm I told her that I would come to get her. And I went – in a T-shirt, a light jumper and 10 year-old untied sneakers. When I came to the main street I saw a bus coming from her direction, so I pulled over and called her to check if she was on the bus or still waiting. She was waiting, so I started driving again and after 2 min come to the bus station where she was standing. I turned the right directional signal on(yes, that's the formal name of the blinker) and start turning right so that I would wait for Živa to come to the bus stop on this side of the road. However, while I was turning right I saw a bus driving behind me in the rear mirror. Since I couldn't stop so that I wouldn't obstruct the bus and since I know how much bus drivers love people stopping cars on bus stops, I looked ahead, saw the street was empty and turned the left blinker on so that I would make a U turn and stop the car on the bus stop where Živa was waiting. While I was turning the wheel, I looked over my left shoulder – and saw the bus going right at me without reducing its speed. We both turned into opposite directions, but a second later the quiet, empty street already resounded with a mighty Boom. My mom's poor Kia was thrusted right, I heard a loud crushing noise from the left – I assumed it was the sound of the bus running over something that was once attached to the Kia, and then all was quiet again. My first thought was to move the car to the right, but it wouldn't start. Then I thought of Živa and hoped she wouldn't run like a beheaded chicken, crossing the street and possibly getting run over as well. At last I remembered it might be a good idea to get out of the car to let everybody see I was ok (in the hopes that it was true) and check how's the bus doing. The girl on the bus stop was completely stiff and white as a ghost, Živa was running towards me with a face you can't imagine and and the bus driver was standing at the bus door, holding his head and cursing. It took me a while to convince them I was ok, the girl will probably avoid bus stops for the next few months and the bus driver calmed down when he saw there where no serious consequences on anybody. The reason for the collision was as moronic as it can be – as it was late at night I didn't think it was such a sin to make a U turn and I also wanted to get out of the bus's way as soon as possible. Since there was a person standing on the bus stop I didn't even consider the possibility of the bus not stopping – but it didn't, cause it was headed into the garage (that also means that fortunately the only one in the bus was the driver). All in all, an unfortunate sequence of events/coincidences that lead into a battle between the Kia and the bus; it's a tie, by the way /I hope that doesn't mean there's another battle to come…/

The Kia isn't that injured at all, the bumper fell unhinged on the left side and fell off without having a scratch and the left side is a bit bumped, but really nothing serious. In sum, a night that was planned to be calm and fun with cartoons and junk food developed into a night of freezing in my jumper at temperatures of minus something, waiting for the car tow to come and take the Kia away and for Gregor to take us home. Živa gave me a really weird look from time to time, so I asked what was wrong – she couldn't believe I was that calm, so I told her that it wouldn't be any better if I freaked out, so why do it. The driver was very glad to hear that; he was a really nice guy who tried to help me resolve the situation. In about an hour the car tow and Gregor finally came, so Živa and I could go home and watch Madagascar before falling into bed.

And once again I'm very glad that 2008 is almost over as it brings me more and more rounds of pure delight and I'm afraid I could soon overdose…