January 26th, 2010
The last two weeks flew by. This morning I took Marty in for the final treatment of his L-CHOP protocol. He was, as usual, nervous but friendly.
He did fine with his treatment and I picked him up this afternoon. It was, once again, an uneventful treatment. That’s just the way we like them.
Today’s treatment was $150. This brings the grand total for all of his veterinary treatments to $3,092 (my math may be off, but that seems to be in the correct vicinity). That includes his day at Ohio State but does not include the over-the-counter medications, pill pockets, or extra toys.
Now, we wait. Since in dogs we don’t attack the cancer as aggressively as we do in humans it hasn’t been wiped out. It’s still in there, hiding, waiting to make its return. When it does, decisions will have to be made.
Statistically, 50% of dogs that undergo the L-CHOP protocol enjoy a full year of remission. 25% get two years. We will see how Marty does.
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January 14th, 2010
Marty’s trip to the vet this week was about as uneventful as it could get.
Notably, I realized you can’t palpate any of his lymph nodes any more. This is tremendously good news!
His blood work was fine, he got his treatment, and I brought him home. This week it was about $55.
He only has one treatment left. He’s doing great!
Well this is a short one. Somehow I’m sure that’s a good thing.
Tags: Marty, vincristine
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December 30th, 2009
Marty’s “nothing” week went well. In fact he’s had a remarkably side-effect free course of treatment.
On Marty’s “nothing” Tuesday Bosco had surgery to remove two of her lymph nodes for analysis. On Monday of this week we got the results. We now have two dogs with lymphoma. Bosco will not be getting the full L-CHOP protocol. Instead, she started this week on a doxorubicin-only course where she’ll get a dose every three weeks for five doses. The total cost for her course of treatment should be around $750.
Bosco’s cancer is considerably more advanced than Marty’s ever was. She has the full spectrum of lymphoma symptoms-no appetite, difficulty breathing, “coughing,” the works. Undoubtedly her advanced age is not helping matters. It is absolutely heartbreaking. I am hopeful that over the next couple of days she’ll start to show signs of improvement. I do fear that the cancer is too far along for a successful outcome, but the vet is optimistic.
Marty’s blood work this week was fine. I gave him what should be his last dose of cytoxan. Marty’s cost this week was just $51, as we had bought all of his cytoxan with his first dose of it.
Tags: Bosco, cytoxan, doxorubicin, Marty
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December 17th, 2009
Week 18 was uneventful, another no-treatment week. Marty, as usual, mainly slept and played and did all the things that he does (ok mainly he eats).
Week 19 found him at the vet once again, this time with his big sister Bosco tagging along. We had noticed about a week ago that Bosco wasn’t acting like herself. She was somewhat lethargic, was skipping a few meals, and has shown no interest in hopping up on the bed or couch. Since we’re there every week it was no problem for the vet to see her during the day along with Marty.
Marty’s treatment went fine. His blood work was great again. They doped him up and delivered his vincristine. He had no issues and is already back to normal.
Marty’s fee for this week was $80.
It turns out that Bosco has most likely developed lymphoma. While it is improbable that we would have two dogs with the disease it is obviously not impossible. It’s not contagious or anything either, we’ve just got rotten luck.
The vet took samples from Bosco’s lymph nodes (the prescapular nodes are absolutely enormous) and sent them out for cytology. We should have confirmation on Friday.
Bosco’s 12 years old. I spoke with the vet and we agree that we probably should not go after things as aggressively as we did with Marty-it would just be too hard on her. She will most likely get a dose of doxorubicin every three weeks. This generally gets a dog six months of quality life. Still, though, we haven’t had final confirmation, so we’re keeping high spirits. Can’t do anything about it anyway, we just have to play the hand we’re dealt.
Marty’s off for week 20. He only has three treatments left! He’s nearly done!
Tags: Bosco, Marty, vincristine
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December 6th, 2009
This week marked Marty’s first doxorubicin treatment with his new vet. I will say this for him, he has become a world-class whiner when it comes to getting his blood drawn. You’d think they were using a screwdriver to get the stuff out!
His blood work was completely normal. His treatment was uneventful. They did give him a pretty heavy sedative dose. That always bothers me a bit since it takes him a day or so to get back to normal.
The treatment this week was $180.
At this point he’s down to four remaining treatments, spaced out every other week. He’s a happy little dude and it certainly looks like he’ll be around for Christmas!
No treatment for week 18.
Tags: doxorubicin, Marty
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November 26th, 2009
Marty is now well into the “every other week” phase of his protocol. At this point he’s down to his last five treatments!
He has done well in both of his off weeks. The dose of vincristine last week was lower than previous weeks’ doses, so he lad less side effects this time around.
Since this week is a no-treatment week and his WBC should have recovered by today, he’ll be getting a ham bone we purchased on a trip a few weeks back for Thanksgiving. I’m sure Marty will also help with the cooking. He did lose most of his larger whiskers over the last week, but is otherwise happy and playful-fully Marty all around.
The treatment last week cost $170, as Marty had to purchase vincristine once again.
Next week is a big one, his first doxorubicin treatment with a different vet.
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November 3rd, 2009
Marty’s blood work this week-after a two-week break-was perfect! His doctor gave the OK to treat him. Cytoxan with a bit of lasix to make sure it goes through all right. That gets administered at home, so he had an easy week.
The vet also checked out a new lump on Marty. It turned out to be a fatty deposit underneath a muscle over his ribs. That was a relief, although I can’t imagine how a new tumor would get a foothold given the chemical cocktails we keep putting through his veins.
His current vet was fired today. For his next treatment he’ll see one of the other vets, one that has been at least peripherally involved in his treatment plan. I hope that the new vet brings the same kind of enthusiasm his old one did. He’s alive and well today because she put in a lot of effort making sure we did the right things.
No treatment next week. This week’s cost was $75. It was a bit higher due to the cytology work.
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November 3rd, 2009
Week 10 was a no-treatment week.
For week 11, Marty got dropped of for boarding at the vet. Maria and I went out of town for a trip, so he and his sister Bosco (and his weird sister Schrödy) got to say the week. His blood work was good and his treatment was fine, vincristine this time around. During his stay they made sure he got his medication and the vet even took him for walks when the weather was nice!
Week 12 involved me picking him up from boarding. He’s now permanently on every-other-week treatments, a big break for him!
The week 11 cost was $150. Weeks 10 and 12 were free!
Tags: Marty, off week, vincristine
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October 11th, 2009
You may have noticed that week 8’s post was here and then it was…gone. My hosting provider did some upgrades in the past week. Unfortunately we lost about a week’s worth of database contents. That’s what happened to the week 8 post!
So I’ll pick it back up here-week 8 was fine. For that matter, week 9 was fine. Marty’s blood work was great. Since week 9’s chemotherapy was doxorubicin, Marty needed heavy sedation for the treatment. He was pretty wasted when he was picked up! He shook it off after a day or so and is once again doing fantastic.
The total cost for weeks 8 and 9 was about $300.
Marty is off for week 10. I’ll update later in the week with any interesting developments.
Tags: doxorubicin, Marty, vincristine, week 8, week 9
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September 22nd, 2009
This morning we headed to the vet to see how Marty’s blood counts are doing.
He, as usual, barked and carried on at the vet. I guess he felt he hasn’t been getting enough attention.
His blood work came back great-everything well within normal values. The vet cleared him to get back on track, to resume at week seven. I gave him his cytoxan and lasix this morning. He’ll get a half-dose of cytoxan again tomorrow without the lasix.
The vet also checked his lymph nodes. There was a chance that, during the week he missed, he’d have another “explosion” of the cancer. Fortunately he did not. In fact, his lymph nodes are indistinguishable from a dog without lymphoma.
This is wonderful news. I was concerned losing a week could cause problems. It looks like it has not.
No charge this week-the $26 for the blood work will show up on next week’s charges.
Tags: cytoxan, lasix, Marty
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