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.