What’s Next

After little sleep last night, we awoke around 6 am to prepare for our trip to A&M….    Let me just get it on the table that I’m a huge Texas Longhorn fan and being from Austin, I felt as though I was going into enemy territory but I have to say – those Aggies ROCK! Now we’re a house divided.  It was tempting to purchase an A&M tee shirt on the way home.  WOW, I have such respect for that wonderful program and the people who are there to help us during these trying times.

Dr. Heather Wilson is a veterinary oncologist who has such a great attitude and personality.  From the moment I met her, I felt that my vet – Glen Portie from Dripping Springs Veterinary Clinic made the right decision in encouraging me to make the 2.5 hr drive to College Station just to meet with her.

We know that Toby has histiocytic sarcoma and that it’s a cancer that they don’t know a whole lot about.  It’s aggressive and has a good chance of appearing in some other part of his body.  There is a doctor who is the pioneer in this field of cancer named Peter Moore and I’ll be reading more about his findings tomorrow.

Today was about getting the cancer staged – and from what they discovered, we have caught it very early.  Removing the limb was the correct place to start and the ultra sound and chest ex-rays all came back clear.  By the way, the knot I was concerned about on his right foot is arthritis..  Never thought I’d be so happy to hear that!  His bone marrow test results will be back tomorrow morning but from what she could tell, there wasn’t any indication of irregular cells.

She didn’t sugar coat the prognosis…  While so much of the information is good and encouraging,  the bad news is the average life expectancy is only 9 months. There have been many cases where the dog has lived much longer – and I have a feeling Toby will surpass that “average”.

Our next step is to FIGHT!  We start our first of 5  rounds of chemo tomorrow.  The drug is called Lomustine aka CCNU.  He will take these treatments every three weeks for a total of 15 weeks.  She said that most dogs tolerate the drug very well and show few side effects.  On day three after the drug is administered, I may notice that his appetite isn’t as good and maybe he’ll sleep a little more but beyond that, we shouldn’t notice much difference in him. Before I administer it (she sent it home with me), I will do more research.  I’m not sure it will make a difference because without it, there is a greater chance the cancer will appear faster.

Because I’m feeding him homemade dog food, she recommended that I consult with a veterinary nutritionist and is against antioxidants or raw meat (due to salmonella) while he’s undergoing these treatments.

At the end of next week, I’ll bring him in to our regular local vet for a blood test to check his white blood cell count.  If it’s good, we’ll keep on truckin’ if not, she’ll prescribe something to get him back on track.

He got his stitches out today while we were there.  They shaved even more belly hair to do the ultra sound so he looks like he’s had a very bad haircut.  He ate a good dinner and crashed in his favorite spot – next to his daddy’s side of the bed.  Sometime during the night, he’ll make his way over to my side…   Ahhh, I’m so glad we get to sleep in our own bed tonight..  There’s no place like home!