Living WITH cancer

This is what I posted today to the bonecancerdog group at Yahoo.



Hello,

Last Thursday I took Chelsea into UT for her second carbo treatment. At that time, they did a FNA with ultrasound of the lump/tumor on her left hip. The oncologist said there was a blood supply to this tumor and it was some type of sarcoma, possibly osteosarcoma.

The discharge papers said: "Cytology results of the subcutaneous mass overlying the left hip: Interpretation: Mesenchymal proliferation, consistent with osteosarcoma or other sarcoma.
Comments: I think this is most likely a metastatic OSA lesion, based not only on the patient's history but also on the morphology of the cells (especially the occasionally markedly eccentric location), but histopathology is indicated to solidify and refine the diagnosis. "

The x-rays of her leg and pelvic appeared clean, arthritic changes were noted. We decided to add rapamune to her treatment plan, she receives this orally before during and after the chemo. 3 days worth. At $14 a pill, it is not cheap. Chelsea had a few bad days from the chemo, just not wanting to eat. But overall she was ok.

On Monday I noticed her slightly favoring her right front leg. Gut feelings were not good, so when I scheduled her for her weekly bloodwork at the local vet's, I asked them to plan on x-raying this leg. I started her back on Tramadol on Tuesday, by Wednesday evening her appetite had returned and she felt well enough to take a walk to the top of the property and eat some horse poo along the way!

Wed afternoon, I received a phone call from the oncologist at UT and she said the head of radiology had reviewed the pelvic x-rays and noted a small lesion on her pelvic bone, in an area that you could palpate via the rectum, (which was done last week with no notable findings). The oncologist said it would be good to get chest x-rays as well and to start Chelsea on Piroxicam. Wednesday was an emotional day for me, my gut telling me Chelsea's favoring her front leg was not just arthritis, and the what if's running through my head in a rampant fashion all day and then more so after the phone call from the UT vet.

So today I took Chelsea for her blood work (which was fine), chest x-ray (which was clear) and leg x-ray which showed a small lesion on the backside of the long bone of her foreleg (don't know the correct anatomy). Chelsea has been reluctant to jump down from the back seat of the truck and of course now I know why. So today I fashioned some stairs for her using a low table from my front porch and she hopped right in. Once home, I added pillows to it and a hay bale with a pad over the bale beside it. Even then, it took her a while to make up her mind she could step down. (No jumping involved.) But she did and we went in the back yard. In the meantime Roxie (aka yappy rat dog, aka happy lap dog) jumped in the truck and would not get out. I would open one door and she would jump to the other seat. Such fun for her, not for me! LOL.

Yesterday when my eyes were tearing up on the ride home from work after speaking to the UT vet, and again later as I was walking Chelsea, I stopped myself and said, there will be plenty of time for tears later. But now I am going to enjoy my time with Chelsea. And so I have. The walk was nice, she has a great nose and is always tracking something on our walks. She snuggled on the couch with me last night and slept soundly in the bed for the night. (Except for the midnight potty break, where I stagger to the French doors and open it wide enough to let her slide out with her sis to check for rabbits and whatever else they do.)

So I have decided that Chelsea is just living with cancer the best she can and I need to buck up and do the same. I haven't made a decision about continued treatment, but most likely I will continue with the chemo etc unless the vets feel differently. Rather than looking over at my 10 yr old heart dog and say she is dying from cancer (hey we are all dying), I am choosing to say we are living with it. I won't even grant the c word a capital C, it is not going to take over our lives!

While at the vet's today I did check to see when the time comes that he will make a house call to help Chelsea with her passing and I also found a local pet crematorium that I can use. I also came home and stuck the camera batteries in the charger so I can record our autumn days together

That is the latest here,


Kathy and Chelsea 10 yr old Rottie
Northeast TN
DX August 25th 2010
Hemimandibulectomy Sept 15th 2010
Carboplatin #1 October 14th 2010
Carbo #2 and Rapamune November 5th 2010