We're still here!

So much has happened since the last post that there is no way I can write it all down. Matt and I are still in our current jobs, all of the animals are still kickin' and we are enjoying the cooler weather. I'm mostly excited about our electric bill and how it has significantly decreased since we turned off the A/C:)

We hope everyone is doing well and we wish you the best! I will report back when I have some more time to write it all down and promise it won't be as long between posts. Until then, here is one of my favorite pictures of Savvy asking for a carrot! Please Mom....I'm asking politely!!

Our New Ride!

So I'm not going to post nasty pictures anymore of Savvy's backside....today:)  But a quick update on her. There is still some swelling  but it has reduced immensely! She is still not really going to the bathroom by herself and needs help but her over attitude really is back to normal so she must not be feeling too bad, which makes me feel better. It would make me feel even better if I actually saw her go to the bathroom....but the Neoplasene is working!!!

All of the small melanomas are opening up and draining....I know it sounds gross, which is why I didn't put up a picture. This is exactly what it is supposed to do. Once all the bad stuff drains out, then new healthy tissue will grow from the inside out. It is actually quite fascinating to watch how it works.....gross but fascinating!!!

Fingers crossed she will be going to the bathroom on her own by this weekend as our plan is to start feeding it to her as well in very small doses. This will hit the ones she has internally. This will not be painful for her and shouldn't affect her but as with any drug, there are always complications. I'm actually very nervous about it, so we will see what happens. I might wait a couple more weeks until her backside is healed. Nevertheless, it's working and she is starting to feel better!! Thank goodness!

Ok, on to the fun, less gross stuff.

Matt and I went to the dump the other day near our house and we saw this lovely sign posted. Actually, this was one of two identical signs. I guess alot of people are getting in the "dumpers"....haha. I think they meant "dumpster".

Our new ride!!! We desperately need it!! 

It's working!

It's been a very long week since we started Savvy's treatment but there are finally signs that it is working. She is still swollen and having a hard time going to the bathroom, but her appetite is still great. She is constantly grazing and for the most part looking and acting normal. I missed pictures from Thursday, day 4, but here is Friday, day 5. Just to warn you, they get more nasty as you scroll down.

She is still swollen but all the pink skin is where the melanomas are peeling off. You can also see where the melanomas were cut off is healing nicely.

This is taken on day 6. All the yellow skin is normal and she is still swollen. I can't imagine what it feels like, but it's no wonder she doesn't want to poop!! I wish I had a pointer so I can point out stuff. But the melanomas that are directly above her anus that used to be hard are now soft and squishy and I am taking off more and more every time I clean it. The trick to keeping her comfortable is lots of warm water!!

You can see it is working as well underneath her tail and you can see the melanomas on her anus again that are sticking out. These are the ones that have become soft.

This is a melanoma under her that was injected but I also put the Neoplasene on it topically on Friday. I kept it on for 12 hours and then washed it off. It is already working and has been oozing.....good sign! The grosser it is, the more you know it is working!

It looks worse overall, but it is getting better!

Unfortunately, the smell is quite awful, but it is dead tissue. I have a very sensitive stomach and I stupidly ate milk and cookies before I went out and cleaned her tonight.....not a good idea!!! Not to self!!!

I also had an issue with a fox the other night. I came out around 10pm to check on her and she was laying down. I live around alot of wood and damn, if there wasn't the largest fox I have ever seen standing at least 4 feet from her backside....no lie!! I'm sure it smelled the dead tissue and wanted to have a taste, which of course freaked me out. I yelled at it to go away and it just stood there and stared at me! Damn sneaky little scavenger! She and Evie unfortunately have to be locked in the paddock at night to try to deter night creatures. I'm keeping the barn lights on as well.

The light at the end of the tunnel is super faint, but I know even though she is very uncomfortable, I didn't do this in vain, and it really is working!!!

Send your prayers and positive energy her way!
Rock on!

Day 3....and some nice pictures!

It's day three for Savvy and things are going well. I'm a bit tired from all of the night checks, but she is definitely more comfortable and the Neoplasene is starting to sluff off. It makes things quite gross and she is pretty sick of me messing with her under her tail, but it looks pretty good.

This is taken yesterday around 530pm. Her staples are still in and all of the pink area is where the melanomas are sluffing off.

The swelling has gone done immensely and the Neoplasene is working.

These next pictures were taken at Wed  April 4th at 8am. 

The top staples came undone last night around 10pm, which is where you see the whole beneath her rectum. The pink/yellowish color is normal, which means the Neoplasene is working....great sign. I was still having to help her poop but this morning she went on her own, so I'm very excited. 

This is the large melanoma under her tail. It hasn't been affected as much as the ones around her rectum but you can see the pink area, even though the picture is fuzzy. 

It's starting to work on the smaller ones toward the top of her tail. 

She still has swelling below, which is normal.

My girls this morning after I cleaned Savvy up noshing on some grass in the front yard. Makes my heart smile!!

Here are some pictures that aren't as gross:) These are all tomatoes, YAY!, except for the very middle one, which is marigold which will help bring in the beneficial bugs.

CORN!!

Fig tree!

Until next time!

Pictures

I was finally able to load some pictures. Here is Savvy before. You can see her the melanomas above her rectum. It is not a smooth patch of skin.

This picture is a little blurry but you can see her rectum with the melanomas above and below. 

She has many melanomas under her tail as well, This one is the largest.

Ann-Marie cut off the melanomas that were below her rectum.

This is the area below her rectum stapled closed. We hope they will continue to stay stapled and not open up. It actually looks pretty good!

This is her rectum at 1am this morning. It is supposed to swell and be uncomfortable. The melanomas will eventually open up and fall off. 

This was taken at 11am today. You can see how the swelling has gone down. A huge improvement from last night. She did scratch it on the fence last night some, so you can see some tearing. There is also swelling down below, which is normal as well. Her staples are still in thankfully.

Here is a closer picture of her rectum. You can see how the swelling has gone down. She is peeing normal and is having problems pooping, but it is coming out. She has had no signs of colic. She has been eating grass or hay ever since the area was injected. 

Haha!  We took this last night. Pal is in heaven with his bunny and ball! He's a happy dog!!

Stay tuned for more pictures. I want to say thank you to Dr. Ann-Marie Hancock and all the staff at Greenville Mobile Equine. They are fabulous and helped me through a very difficult day yesterday!! You guys rock!!

What a day!

It's been a super long day and night. I took both Savvy & Evie to see their favorite vet in the world, Dr. Ann-Marie Hancock at Greenville Mobile Equine on Monday for their spring shots, Savvy's Neoplasene treatment and for Evie to get an ostheopathy treatment. Please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors as it is 4am.

Evie was a trooper for her shots. For those of you who don't know her, she used to turn into a very nasty horse when needles were around. Both of her ovaries were stuck and AM adjusted them.

Savvy's treatment has been stressful and tiring but I'm still feeling hopeful. She has melanomas around her rectum, under her tail, one near her throat, two on her neck and a handful along the crest of her mane and who knows how many internally, but I don't want to open that can of worms.  The ones that bother her the most are the ones under her tail and around her rectum. She has unfortunately ripped open her vulva three times in 4 years because they become so itchy. Thank goodness I took this week off from work. Here are some pictures of her before.

Ok, for some reason I can't load them on this post, so I will have to create a new post. Hang with me!

A pain in the neck!

I started my stay-cation this week with a pain in my neck...literally. I was diagnosed with a bulged disc in my neck and I irritated it yesterday. Hopefully with some ibuprofen and heat I will be feeling better! Geez! But I get to be at home with all the animals and will hopefully finish cleaning up our Christmas stuff! :)

Pal has been on the Neoplasene for five weeks now and it still doing fabulous. He did start having some issues when it got around 80 degrees outside and we haven't turned on the A/C yet, but other than that, he is doing great. He has maintained his energy level and isn't losing any more weight. I would recommend this to product to anyone.

I'm nervous and excited at the same time since Savvy will start her treatment on Neoplasene tomorrow. I've been waiting for this day for a long time. I'm very hopeful in how this will help her. She will have her large melanomas injected, the small ones will be treated topically and then we will feed it to her as well. This way we will hit the melanomas both externally and systemically.

We will not change her diet like we did for Pal. She will keep eating the same feed. One side effect is that she could get sores in her mouth from eating it, but not all horses have had problems with that so I will definitely keep an eye on it.  Everyone cross your fingers and say a prayer for us! I'm going to take pictures and blog about it every day for the first week. There might be some graphic pictures, just so you know.

This past week was Evie's 7th birthday. It's hard to believe I've had her for 7 years now. I think she has finally grown up. She was definitely a late bloomer!! I'm hoping she will grow just a little bit too and hit 16.2h, but that would be pushing it. I think this is her year to start going to school and be a horse. Who knows, she might even go to a show this year:)

Matt and I have been eating salad almost every night from the garden. It tastes amazing! The strawberries are already producing small green berries and the corn has sprouted. He has also been growing hydro lettuce. I don't know if I said that right, but he is growing lettuce under a light in a machine that runs constant water.....does that make sense? It's pretty cool. He is going to put the tomatoes in the ground in the next week or two. All I can think about it friend green tomatoes!!!! TOWANDA!!

I will post more pictures soon!
Rock on!

Noshing!

I don't know about the rest of you, but our farm is super green! Thank goodness we've had some good rain storms here lately(the thunder and lightning added were not favored by our animals ) but were happy to have the pollen washed away. I wish I would of take some pictures of all the rain water we collected in anything that didn't have a hole! Matt is saving alot of it for when it becomes super hot. He refuses to use tap water on the garden unless he has a filter on it, but he hasn't gotten one yet so he is saving the heck out of some water. Helping on our water bill as well!!

We've been noshing on some ridiculous spinach and lettuce lately. I eat it straight out of the ground with dirt and all....it's amazing! I've included quite a few pictures of the garden and other fun stuff around the farm. 

I think this is the row of yukon gold potatoes, but who knows. There are four different varieties of potatoes and they all look the same to me.

If you look to the back of the photo you will see strawberries under the red tarp(for increased growth), watermelons and canteloupe on the mounds with the drip line and then if you look closely you can see a few leaves blooming off one of the fig trees. All three are blooming. I hope it bears fruit this year!

The apple tree has some growth too. Pal is searching for "treasure" aka cat poop!

This is a hydrangea bush in our front yard. It's blooms are ridiculously gorgeous!

Strawberries that we will get to eat this year! YUMMY!

SPINACH! 

Heirloom Red Leaf Lettuce

I stopped outside the barn while Savvy was enjoying the view while she was munching on some hay. You can barely see her head popping out.

Mama Kitty enjoying a nap on one of my dirty saddle pads.

Pal is continuing to do well on his treatment. We upped the dose up a bit more because it has been so hot so early this year. I refuse to turn on the A/C yet and he hasn't been too uncomfortable. Savvy will have her treatment in just 8 days. I'm feeling very good about it!

Love to all our friends and family!!
We hope you are noshing on some flavorful food like we have been!

Mushroom Adventures!

Matt and I feasted on fresh mini portabella mushrooms last night straight from our mushroom box!! All I ate was mushrooms for dinner....seriously!! Matt at least had the common sense to pick some red leaf lettuce from the garden to add to his plate. 

This is the box we grow them in, which is located in our guest bathroom. There's lots of fungus in there! HAHA! You can see the website on the bottom of the box if you want to order one. Sooooo worth the money! www.mushroomadventures.com

Here is the first harvest! Directions tell us we can get up to 12 harvests once first picked!! God I love fresh mushrooms!

Pal chillin' outside while I do chores. He is doing FAB!!

I wish you could really see how FILTHY Ebony is in this picture. She had just rolled in the sand and was soaking up some rays. What spoiled dogs we have!!!

Long live the mushroom!!

...til I'm red in the face.

As I have been sitting at home for the past two days due to an adverse reaction I had from taking steroids....not those kind of steroids. I want to lose weight, NOT gain weight! Unfortunately, I had a reaction on my face, but all is well from the help of some super duper antihistimines!

So hanging out at home with my unfortunate red face, I've gotten to lounge around with our wonderful animals. They were MORE THAN HAPPY to keep me company. We have had beautiful days here in the 70s. This lack of winter really makes me worried about how hot the summer is going to be but I will deal with that as it comes. BUT what I've noticed is Pal's lack of breathing. What I should say is his lack of LOUD breathing! Every time it gets hotter than 60 degrees in either the house or outside, he would breathe super super loud and uncomfortable. These past two days I've barely heard him pant!!!!!

What does this mean, you ask?!!! It means that the Neoplasene is working!!!!! He is only been on a low dose for 2 weeks now and there are huge signs of improvement!! I can't tell you how excited I am!! I highly recommend this product to anyone!!

Owen is now demanding my attention by sitting next to me petting me and I actually just got bitten, so I should shove off.

Remember life is short! Eat pancakes, not rice cakes!

Growing Machine!

Matt has been a growing machine!! He is starting off most of his seeds in the smoke house(you can see to the left of the picture) under a constant light. He is checking the amount of moisture(since each plant needs something different) and checking the pH thru out the garden to make sure it is correct. I think he said it was too alkaline(a higher # for all of us non-chemistry people). I'm excited for him AND excited about this wonderful food we get to eat! 

He found some fencing(you can see in picture below) that he put around the entire garden to keep out deer, dogs & cats:) He seems to believe Mama & Owen won't jump it to get it....let's hope he is right!!

To the right is lemon balm and under the cover is watermelons, which he started from seeds.

Here is garlic, elephant garlic and red onions that he planted just after Thanksgiving. Vampires won't be visiting our house with all the garlic!!

Here is one of the potato plants, not sure which one.

This is red leaf lettuce.

Spinach

Being resourceful and collecting rain water!

I wanted to give an update on Pal, who we started on the Neoplasene, nine days ago. We kept him on the lowest dose possible and he was doing so well we bumped the dosage up a notch. He did lose a little weight but now he is really at a healthy weight as he was overweight before. There were all those fillers in the dry dog food so his new diet of ground beef, white rice and veggies and some dairy when he gets his meds is giving him more energy and spunk!

He really is doing fabulous! His appetite, water drinking and bathroom habits have all remained the same. The color of his stool is different, which is to be expected with the change of diet, but he goes like normal and with normal frequency. All of us animal owners know that checking color & consistency of the stool may be gross, but necessary!

It's hard to say if his breathing has gotten less labored, but then again he has only been on the medicine not even two weeks. I'm very happy with how he is doing all around! Which makes me VERY HOPEFUL about how Neoplasene will work on Savvy!!!

Remember to be an original, even if it means being a little eccentric !

Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow.....

Here are pictures of Matt's garden. I think the picture below is watermelons or cantelopes that are being grown inside. I'm amazed how fast the seeds are growing. 

This isn't even the entire garden. There is a small area behind me that will house corn....again, I think. I get confused on where everything will be planted. But he keeps it straight, so that is all that matters.

We started Pal on Neoplasene last night. I chose to try this on him because of the tumors on his lungs and because I am going to be using Neoplasene on my 18 yo TB mare, Savvy, who has melanomas.  Pal is a 10 yo male black lab who is healthy other than these blasted tumors. He is happy, eats great, drinks great, goes the bathroom normal and likes to beat the crap out of my other lab. His breathing is labored and he is especially uncomfortable when it is warmer than 60 degrees. It sounds like he has a chronic case of asthma, but it's worse than that.

This is taken from http://www.holvet.net/neoplasene.html
Neoplasene® Background:  Neoplasene is a relatively new drug available for veterinary use.  It is derived from the perennial herb bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), so named because of the reddish sap of the root.  It has historically been used as a dye, an emetic (induces vomiting) and a wart and tumor treatment, esp. by Native Americans.  In cancer it has been used as a caustic escharotic paste called Black Salve, which "burns" any flesh it comes into contact with, whether it is healthy or not.  This is indiscriminate necrosis.  Neoplasene is not Black Salve, anymore than refined stainless steel is crude iron ore.  Nor is Neoplasene whole bloodroot.   It is, only in part, an isolate of the active ingredients of bloodroot called benzyl isoquinoline alkaloids, with the primary one being sanguinarine.


Another good website is http://www.buckmountainbotanicals.net/index.html.


Pal's diet is very strict. He is supposed to get 11oz per meal of his new diet which is 50% ground beef, 25% white rice & 25 % cooked veggies. This is mixed all together and then the liquid Neoplasene is added. We then add some type of dairy(yogurt, cottage cheese, etc) to the meal as well to help settle his stomach. We are starting him on a very small dose. He is also not allowed to have any dry dog food or dry dog treats, which is won't be happy about this!!! He is also only allowed to drink water directly after his meals and nothing in between. 


I'm very hopeful but anxious as well....I'm anxious all the time so that is nothing new:) Keep checking back on updates on Pal. Savvy will start her treatment on April 3rd. 


Live strong & rock on!