After no treatments for most of the month of October, it was very hard for Gus to drive to Bozeman Tuesday, November 4th.  Now nine days later, he has received two of the three final chemo infusions.  What kept him going yesterday was the knowledge that there is only one chemo session left.  His blood count was down yesterday to the point the nurse felt sure the doctor would not proceed with the chemo.   This was not pleasing to us because we want an end to this four month treatment session and we want to stay on schedule.  The doctor did choose to proceed, but it is because with the gemzar they are allowed to adjust the dosage.  Gus only received 75% of the scheduled dose.  He was done in an hour and we were headed home.   Once we got home, Gus went to bed while the rest of us moved the cows to fresh pasture.  This is the lowest I have seen Gus' white count and platelets.   The numbers are not low enough to cause concern, just caution.

 

Last Sunday, all of our calves left on semi-trucks headed for Minnesota.   Gus was a big part of the physical work this time.  He ran the gate for sorting and made sure everything was on schedule.  It was very taxing to his strength, but worth every moment to him.  This is a very important day to us.  Our entire year of ranch work is all for this day when we sell the calves.  It was an emotional day for Gus knowing he would never be shipping his calves again, but it was a huge relief to me to have that commitment behind us.   This last month has been very labor intensive keeping the calves healthy and alive.   Pneumonia can kill a calf within hours.  Last year we lost two calves right before shipping from pneumonia.  This year we never even saw any signs of pneumonia.  We were blessed.  Now our focus will turn towards finding a good home for our cows.