November 4, 2010 - All Is Well

Appetite, energy level and everything else is back to normal.  Her blood tests are also normal.

November 3, 2010 - Feeling Punky Today

I had to dip into the Immodium last night and she has no appetite this morning.  I hope this is a temporary thing.  My mental attitude towards these momentary setbacks have changed over the past few months.  I'm more accepting that this is part of the deal, unfortunately.  Just hope that she'll be able to take her meds.

November 1, 2010 - Keeping Our Fingers and Toes Crossed

CJ had her first checkup Friday since starting the chemo and everything looks pretty good.  There are no signs of the cancer and the lump on her lymph node appears to have disappeared.  She's a lot more lethargic that she used to be but we took a 5 mile walk yesterday and she was her usual bundle of energy.  So I'm very much taking this one day at a time and appreciating the time we have.

This may be of interest to other dog owners whose pets are on chemo.  Most municipalities require a current rabies vaccine in order to get a dog license.  I had to get a letter from the vet requesting a vaccination waiver on her when I renew her license.  Remains to be seen whether the city of LA will accept it.  I spoke to them on the phone and they said they would but it remains to be seen.  Call me un-trusting.

October 8, 2010 - Who Knew?

CJ is doing great.  Thank goodness she still thinks that the Pill Pockets are treats and anziously awaits them at the appropriate times.  But I've noticed two small bald spots on her back.  Guess I didn't figure that hair loss would be part of the deal.

October 5, 2010 - Feeling MUCH Better

Happy to say that CJ is doing great today!  She's back to her meal-scarfing self and I have no issue with her taking her meds.  She's bck to hanging out at my feet during the day (she was hiding under the bed) and her stools are normal.  I just hope this works but I feel hopeful.  We'll see what happens on her visit to Dr D on the 29th.

October 3, 2010 - The second day

Have you ever been in the middle of a dream and you "hear" something in the dream that wakes you up and, upon awakening, you find out that the sound was real and had been unconsciously been incorporated into the dream?  Let me give you an example.  Last night I was dreaming and in the dream a dog was barking.  I woke up and realized that CJ was barking.  There's only one reason that she barks in the middle of the night.  It's that she has diarrhea and wants me to let her out of the crate before she poops in it.  I always knew she was smart!  So I let her out into the back yard and she did her thing and went right back into her crate.

Today is not a good day for her!  She's got no appetite and vomited in her crate.  Thank goodness she took her morning pills.  I don't know how I'm going to get the chemo pills down her later today.

How Did I Get Here - Catching Up to 10/1/10

So, with much trepidation, I went to my appointment with Dr. D, the oncologist, preparing to be bankrupt.  I'd heard horror stories about the one vet cancer center in my area, and was glad Dr. D wasn't associated with them.  Dr. D was great and knowledgeable.

Essentially, she gave me 5 options.  I won't bore you with the details but they are:
1 - Prednisone and wait to see what happened.
2 - Conventional chemotherapy
3 - Radiation
4 - A new type of chemo that was approved in Europe but was in the last stages of FDA approval in the US.
5 - amputation

I loved the fact that she wrote out a detailed report for me in language I understood with all the costs, risks, success probabilities, side effects....pretty much everything you would want.  Words of wisdom - get it all in writing because there's no way your brain can fully take it all in.  And be prepared with a list of all the questions you can think of, whether they seem stupid or not.

Now I had to make a decision that would affect both CJs life and my pocketbook.  Between advice from others and my project management experience I knew that, before I could make a decision, I had to decide on what my "success factors" were.  How invasive did I want to be?  How much money was I willing to spend?  How much did I want my life to be interrupted?  How much did I want to consider CJs short term comfort?  Of course, being the perfectionist I am, I wanted zero impact on me, zero pain to her, zero cost and 100% probability of success.  NOT GONNA HAPPEN.  Turned out that the option with the highest probability of success was the most costly, the most invasive and the most interruption to my schedule.

So I did what any good 12 Step person would do.  I prayed about it, talked with my sponsor and tried to educate myself as much as I could.  After a few days, it came to me.

I chose option 4 but sought out a second opinion.  The second vet turned out to be the mentor of my vet in LA.  I consider it well worth the money spent to get that second opinion.  He reassured me that (1) Dr D was very knowledgable (2) my choice wasn't out in left field and (3) I was doing most of the right things

SO, here's what I'm doing for CJ:

1 - Benedryl, 1 25 mg tab twice a day.  Since MST is a cancer of the immune system and produces histamines, this helps keep the histamine level down.  It does make CJ a little drowsy but that's not the worst.
2 - 1/4 Pepsid twice a day.  Dogs are prone to stomach ulcers.
3 - Prednisone - 1 tab twice a day.
4 - Probiotics - helps rebuild the immune system
5 - DHA (algae-based) - 600 mg daily.  they recommended the algae-based as opposed to fish oil.  Helps the immune system
6 - 1 t brewers yeast.  We have a bad flea problem in Southern California and I chose to stop all chemical  flea medications.
7 - 2 chemo pills once a day

Dr D told me that I could use chemical flea control in moderation if it was really needed.  However, since it's getting into the winder months, I'm going to rely on natural topical flea spray instead and see how it goes.

So that takes you up to today.