Hi friends,
Anna here, just wanted to say hi before I let my humans take over on the typing front! Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to supervise!
–
Hi all!
We are Christina, LJ, and Sarah but most importantly known as Anna’s humans!
Can you believe that Anna has been at Michigan Medicine for 8 years and will turn 10 in February?! She and her buddy Denver were our first two facility dogs, arriving in August 2016, and they laid the foundation for our growing Paws4Patients program (now with 7 facility dogs!). During these 8 years, Anna has done amazing work with so many people and has cultivated an incredibly loving and supportive work family.
Given the immense love so many of you have for Anna, we wanted to share an update regarding her health journey: this fall, Anna was diagnosed with Lymphoma. Earlier in the year, Anna began having some strange symptoms. It took some time, but her primary vet was diligent in trying to figure out what was happening and how to help her feel better. Once there was a clear diagnosis, we made an appointment for the same week with a veterinary oncologist who started Anna’s treatment right away.
Amazingly, Anna started to look and feel better within just a few days of her first treatment! We know that not everyone has such a significant and positive response to treatment, so we felt especially grateful for that gift.
Anna has continued to tolerate her first three chemo treatments well, even with some expected side effects (low blood counts and tiredness). At times, she’s felt so well that it’s been like having a puppy in the house again! Through it all, Anna has continued to be the compassionate, food- loving, brave and sassy dog that we all know and love.
Given her treatment plan, Anna’s work load will continue to vary. She loves coming to the hospital every day, but may not be able to take care of as many humans as she used to. This will all depend on how she is feeling and what her vets think is safe. We recognize that this news may bring about a variety of emotions and that we each process tough news in different ways. Thank you all for being here and loving Anna!
We also recognize that some of you may want specific updates about Anna, while others will prefer the more general updates on what our Paws4Patients dogs are up to. So, we created this blog space to offer specific updates on Anna and reflections on going through a cancer diagnosis. If you’d like to follow these updates, please subscribe!. If you’d prefer to keep things lighter, be sure to follow all our dogs on the Paws4Patients Instagram account.
Since Anna may need to scale back on her workload, we wanted to share with you the process for requesting a visit from our full-time facility dogs For any dog requests, please email the patient’s name, MRN, and brief info about the need to paws4patients@med.umich.edu. The team will do our best to meet as many needs as possible.
We have also received several questions about financially supporting Anna and our program. As you may know, our dogs depend entirely on donations from their friends, for everything from vet bills to grooming to medications. If you would like to contribute to the program and help Anna continue to receive the care (and treats) she needs, you may do so through the Paws4Patients gift fund.
Last, we know you love our clothing fundraisers. You can order your favorite shirt or hoodie with our new design anytime. Proceeds from this also go to support Paws4Patients.
We will be back soon with more updates. For now, enjoy some cute Anna photos and know that Anna loves you all!!
If you are interested in following along with Anna’s journey, feel free to subscribe below! (Technology Tip: make sure to confirm the subscription in the email from Michigan Medicine Spiritual Care in order to fully subscribe)
