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Monday 10am - 6pm Tuesday 10am - 6pm Wednesday 10am - 6pm Thursday 10am - 6pm Friday 10am - 6pm Saturday 11am - 6pm

Whiskers & Wet Noses Rockbridge Virginia

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Natural Bridge, VA
Whiskers & Wet Noses Rockbridge Virginia

Samantha Smith, owner and trainer at Whiskers & Wet Noses, has devoted her life to love and care of

10/11/2024

And then it was all gone! And as mom would say, at least I have a nice coconut!

09/27/2024

It's finally the big day! I am fu***ng pumped! I'm so ready to get this cancer out of my life you have no idea!

It has been a crazy year and it's about to get even more interesting with my recovery! I am going to rock this transplant and recovery so please do not be scared for me!

I know, with my village behind me, I'll be back to myself in no time! Until then enjoy some wonderful hospital pictures!

Also I don't know if I'm going to be doing a zoom during the transplant or just going live on Facebook because multiple people have asked me about it. Let me know your thoughts? We are scheduled around 2 and I will keep the comments posted if that changes!

Peace & Paw-Prints
Sammy

09/05/2024

Just a little blood work and bone drills for our 2-day stay at UVA. As of right now we are still all ready for the transplant on the 26th!

Once again I am filled with love by the outpouring of people in my life who have reached out or helped in any way. And a special shout out to Jesse my fiance who has been by my side through all of this from day one.

The next two and a half weeks will be filled with doctor's appointments and family visits before I head to the hospital for my transplant. There is finally a beginning to the end of this!

If you could all keep sharing my story and donating it would be greatly appreciated. Almost everything has been purchased on my wish list and I can't thank everybody enough. I will be updating it with a few things I have left as well as adding a few things that could help Jesse while he's in the hospital with me as well. Just like me he will have to have all new fabric that's not coming from the house. I truly believe he is one of the biggest gifts I've ever received in my life!

Peace and Paw Prints Sammy

https://gofund.me/f0beaa35

Venmo- sammy-smith-14

Beat Cancer Wish List - Amazon Gift List - https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/U90VJHS8WSDG

08/17/2024

The ball is rolling and it's coming up fast. Just like that we have dates!! September 2nd and 3rd will be my pre-transplant testing, I will have my central line placed on the 20th, I will start chemo the 21st, and my transplant will be the 26th!

Please keep sharing my story, I couldn't have gotten this far without my village behind me. Please go out and donate blood!!

Thank you again for all the gifts and donations that'll help me get through the next year of recovery.

Peace & Paw Prints
Sammy

PS I'm going to miss this boy like crazy! I don't think I've ever lived a day in my life without owning a pet. Everyone will be truly missed.

08/06/2024

A long overdue HEALTH update and it's a good one, finally! I'm sorry to everybody that's been checking in on me and messaging me on Facebook and leaving posts, I just haven't had anything good to write about.

So first off, WE ARE GOING TO TRANSPLANT! It has been a ridiculously hard road up until this point but it is only the beginning. My recovery post stem cell transplant is going to be a beast and I'm ready to tackle it.

I've had doctor's appointments just about every day of the week at this point, as well as blood transfusions at least every other Saturday. I can't believe all of this started last September, never mind my ovarian cancer from January of last year.

I feel like I truly never got a chance to recover from my ovarian cancer before my symptoms started from the MDS. I can't believe that the lifesaving chemotherapy that was used for my ovarian cancer actually gave me a life threatening blood cancer.

If it wasn't for my doctor's appointments and trips to the pharmacy, I would have truly spent more time sleeping in bed. I wish there was a way to convey just how fatigued and how much pain MDS gives you.

Physical and occupational therapy have been absolutely instrumental in helping me get to a healthy point where I can be accepted into the transplant. I just started strength and weight training, as well as hitting my mile marker 2 months ago. I also completely quit smoking, and only drink now on special occasions.

It's not going to be an easy road as I will be spending four to six weeks in the hospital and then another two to three months in the hospital hotel where I have to be monitored daily. After that I'll still have a nine month to a year recovery.

As many of you know I've been out of work since last January and it has not been easy for Jesse and me. It's so hard to function when your levels are dropping and you're constantly going in for blood transfusions. I just want to thank everybody that's part of my village, that has been in touch over the last year and a half to help make this possible for us to keep moving forward.

I have shared my GoFundMe as well as my wish list on Amazon to help me obtain things that I'm going to need when I go to the sterile hospital floor. Unfortunately many of my own things I can't bring including any fabric which definitely makes it hard. If we could reach our goal on GoFundMe or have some of this burden taken off it would definitely help with our anxiety and keep me from worrying while I'm in the hospital.

Once again I cannot thank everybody who has been behind me this whole time, I couldn't do it without you! Please continue to send positive vibrations and prayers my way, as well as sharing my post to help us reach our goal.

I can't believe I'm this excited for more chemotherapy and an extensive stay in the hospital. I'm just really lucky to draw so many medical mysteries and percentages that one day I'll be in multiple medical journals. At least my horrible sense of humor is still intact!

https://gofund.me/f0beaa35Venmo

Venmo -smith-14

PayPal [email protected]

Beat Cancer Wish List - Amazon Gift List - https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/U90VJHS8WSDG

02/17/2024

New health update for everybody who has been asking!

https://gofund.me/277a9171

It's been a couple weeks since I met my new hematologist oncologist at UVA where I will be getting my stem cell transplant. He's like the Energizer Bunny and he literally does not stop talking. I am lucky however that the only thing that he deals with is MDS and ALM. He's even been the head of 13 clinical trials at UVA since you started there 14 years ago.
UVA completely blew me away it is a huge medical school and cancer center. There's so many nurses and doctors and everybody is assigned to their own team so you don't have to go through a million people to get an answer everything is right in front of you. I also got to talk to an amazing social worker who is going to help me with disability as I've now been out of work for over a year.
January 2nd was the anniversary of me being diagnosed with ovarian cancer so it's very nice to say that I'm still clear and everything looks good at this point.
My hematologist and oncologist team have started me on a new set of shots that is supposed to help me make my own red blood cells so I can stretch my transfusions and not be so dependent on them every two weeks. Today was the first time since October that it took me two weeks for my levels to drop enough for me to need a transfusion.
I cannot stress this enough but if you are able please go out and donate blood. I had to split my transfusion in two parts one today and one on Monday just due to the fact that the blood bank is constantly running low. They even gave me o negative today instead of my regular b+.
I had three doctors appointments this week which included a trip to my P*P. We talked a lot about what's going on and getting me into an endocrinologist so I can get my genetic mappings on for my stem cell transplant. From the beginning of our time together we have discussed my weight and how much I gained through chemo and recovery. We really couldn't do much about it with all of the drugs that I was on up until this week. I found out that I am pre-diabetic and that is what is causing some of my swelling as well as my inability to lose weight. I am now on a new drug that will help me regulate my insulin levels and glucose.
It's exhausting running back and forth to Roanoke and Charlottesville and Buena Vista but I really do have a great team behind me that's all working hard to make sure that I'm getting the care that I need.
As per usual I've posted my GoFundMe at the top of this post and any donations are completely appreciated from the bottom of my heart.
A huge shout out to my Aunt Christine for the beautiful box of comfort items. She's been where I am and she always knows what to say, I hope she knows how much I love her.
Until my next update keep reaching out and sharing my story it means more to me than you will ever know.
Venmo -smith-14
PayPal [email protected]

01/28/2024

Health update since it has been a few weeks!
https://gofund.me/1607b6f4
I got another blood transfusion yesterday as once again my numbers have dropped. I'm not even making it 2 weeks in between my transfusions at that point. The blood blanks are extremely limited and low and have the lowest number of donations in over 20 years. Giving blood saves lives like mine.
Overall I've had terrible joint pain that continues in which nobody can figure out. I have a gut feeling that my iron counts being so high is exactly why. I'm even more exhausted with each passing day.
The last two blood transfusions have barely done anything for my energy and once again I'm sleeping most of the day. My anxiety is staying pretty much level throughout the entire day with the fear of the unknown and having to work with an entire different team for this new cancer diagnosis.
I am very excited though to meet with Dr. Kang and his team on Tuesday. UVA has a stellar reputation and my new oncologist runs the MDS patients. I have already spoken with his nurse coordinator and they have requested all of my records including the pathology for my bone marrow.
It was confirmed that I have MDS and that it was a correlation to the chemotherapy that was given to me to save me from my ovarian cancer. I started off last year with a 1% chance of my tumor being cancerous and I started off this year with a 2% chance that my chemotherapy would land me with a second cancer diagnosis.
Within one day of the year I managed to shave my head back into a mohawk because it's all going to fall out anyway. Everybody I meet at the doctor's office and all of the patients always get a smile out of my bright hair and funny t-shirts. It's nice to be able to make other people smile even when I feel like poo myself. I went with ovarian cancer teal, and I'm planning to do red for my new blood cancer after the blue has been used up. My nephew agrees that red would look cool on me.
I'm doing my best to keep my spirits up but it's really hard to take a back seat again to my own life. I just want to be able to get up and do things and work and walk my dog, but alas I spend most of my days in bed because my body hurts everywhere and I'm too exhausted and out of breath to do much.
Please keep sharing my story as maybe it will help somebody one day. Not having a diagnosis and suffering since October has definitely taken a toll on my mental health. I'm ready for this process to begin and they have already started taking tissue samples to find a match for my stem cell transplant. I hope it is fast and I can get back to a somewhat normal life after recovery.

Address

565 Red Mill Road
Natural Bridge, VA
24578

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 6pm
Tuesday	10am - 6pm
Wednesday	10am - 6pm
Thursday	10am - 6pm
Friday	10am - 6pm
Saturday	11am - 6pm

Telephone

+15406208552

Website

http://whiskers-and-wet-noses.com/

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