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Please say a prayer for my boy - HS

52K views 290 replies 80 participants last post by  RebelGSD 
#1 ·
My boy BoBo was not quite himself when I arrived home from work in the evening on Feb. 12. We were off to the vet the next morning as he had a hard time getting up and walking. Beyond pano, cuts and minor 'sport' injuries he has never been ill, so this was highly unusual for him. I suspected a blown disk first.

At the vet I realized that his abdomen was distended. The vet noticed the pale gums, and I knew it immediately. I lost my previous dog to hemangiosarcoma 9 years earlier. They took x-rays and confirmed internal bleeding. His bloodwork cinfirmed that he was very anemic. The vet sent us to the ER for ultrasound and emergency surgery. I wanted to go to UPenn, but she felt that we did not have the time because he was bleeding.

At the ER we ended up waiting 3 hours (I was very upset as the place was pretty much empty, but the ultrasound was a different "business"). The exam confirmed that he had a 4-5cm diameter lesion on the spleen, other organs were clear.

The next step was surgery. BoBo was a blood donor for several years, and his contract allowed free blood, if he ever needed it. I never thought we would need it but here we were. Since this ER did not work with our blood bank, I moved him to a different ER that did. This saved us $1000-2000, depending on the amount of blood we needed.

BoBo had his surgery at 3AM on Feb. 14, Valentine's day. he bounced back amazingly quickly, and he was pretty much his old self after two blood transfusions.

These are the pictures I took on Feb. 15, when I picked him up.

With the vet that operated on him



In front of the hospital with the tech that cared for him



And leaving his signature in front of the hospital



At this time we did not have a final diagnosis yet. The lesion could have been hemangioma, which is benign. Unfortunately, two days later the pathology results came back, confirming hemangiosarcoma. We got the diagnosis on Feb. 17, his 9th birthday. With surgery alone, his prognosis was 1-3months. I reread "Eich Chronicles" and knew how true this was.

We started chemo 2weeks later. I am going to document his journey for us and others. My beautiful, sweet boy is fighting for his life, please say a prayer for him. He is very brave and happy and he has made many friends at the different hospitals that participate in his treatment.
 
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#27 ·
As you know we have been pm'ing each other since my Maggie also has cancer. You know BoBo is in our prayers right there with Maggie's. Since we are doing many of the same supplements, would you share each mushroom etc. he is receiving? I know I have spent many hours researching and buying. This could be a help to others going through what we are going through.
BTW- Maggie just got her first meal with mushroom supplements a little bit ago.
BoBo from Maggie and the rest of her family.
 
#28 ·
Originally Posted By: RebelGSDThank you for all the good wishes and prayers. BoBo has a magic bottle and he gets a a bead into the magic bottle for every good wish and prayer. We look the beads every evening and think of all the people who are there for us and beam healing thoughts for BoBo.
Please add another bead (or maybe 3 from me, Leyna and Levi). We will all be sending good thoughts your way!
 
#30 ·
Please add 3 beads from me, Lady Jane, and Steel.
 
#32 ·
Sending many good wishes, healing thoughts and prayers to you and BoBo. Please add eight beads for us - me, hubby, Murphy, Sammy, Taz, Chessy, Meezer, and Lucy.
 
#33 ·
Thank you all, BoBo is very happy knowing that everybody is pulling for him. He had a good breakfast this morning (this is great news, since he only ate dinner since his chemo on Friday).

I will take a photo of his bottle over the weekend and post it here. He is getting blodwork done this afternoon. If it is good, he can go for his next chemo on Wednesday.
 
#35 ·
Please add a bead from me.
I had the honor of meeting Bobo the day after his surgery. He is MAGNIFICENT. If he comes through chemo as well as he did surgery, that cancer doesn't stand a chance.
Please take care of yourself, as well Rebel.
 
#37 ·
Please add a bead from me and one from Grimm. Bobo is a beautiful, special, loving dog-- and his sweet spirit shines through in his photos! May BoBo really respond well to the chemo therapy!
 
#38 ·
Bobo says thank you to everybody. We have discovered the cure for post-chemo nausea: green tripe was an absolute hit. It arrived in the mail today and we will have to order some more. We had a big meal with all kinds of supplements and now BoBo is chewing on a pork-hide-roll.

Blood test is coming in on Monday and, if all is good, we are off for the next chemo in Philly on Wednesday. We took some photos at the vet's office to show off.

Patti, BoBo thinks that Ulrich also wants to send him a bead. So I'll will put one into BoBo's bottle for Ulrich too. BoBo thinks they are in similar situation and he thinks of Ulrich a lot. He lites a candle every evening.
 
#41 ·
I pre-treat Rainer with Cearnia before his chemo treatments and 2 - 3 days after to keep the nausea away and keep him eating and drinking. He also takes Gluta DMG for immune and liver support, dha and a mushroom supplement too. Good luck with your boy! I hope things continue to go well for you - we will keep you in our thoughts and prayers!
 
#42 ·
Awww, thinking of you guys-all of us here, plus Angie, I am sure (BORK!) so that would be 9 beads more to his jar. Does he need more beads?

I am glad that he is doing well.

I love DMG in general. I think it's great for healing but am not even sure if that's what it's for-I just know that when Nina had that abcess the hole healed so quickly.

Mario has taken Cerenia for his car sickness, and Kyah got it for vomiting-seems like a very effective med.

Take care of yourself.
 
#44 ·
BoBo is thrilled about the beads and we talk about the people wishing him well in bed before we go to sleep, he sends kisses to everyone (I can tell you, he is a great kisser
). He decided that my bed is the place where he sleeps when he first came home at 7 weeks of age.
He made this clear very loudly from his crate, and this remained his place over the past nine years.



He was prescribed Zofran, a medication used by human cancer patients too, for nausea. We had a drama with that one last week. We paid $30 for 20 tablets at UPenn. When we ran out of it the vet called in a prescription into my Rite Aid. I went to pick it up and almost passed out when they wanted to charge me $328 for 12 pills of the generic ($800+ for 12 pills of the brand name). I was shocked. I had no idea how people without insurance/prescription plan are being ripped off by these places. Ripping off cancer patients who are probably too sick to stand up for themselves is just the lowest.

Does anyone know how Cerenia compares with Zofran?

First treatment they told me not to feed him anything the from 10PM before the chemo. I have to ask whether it is OK to premedicate him? He has loose stools (not the runs, but loose stools) and the Flagyl that was prescribed does not help that much.

It seems his appetite is back seven days after the second chemo. he did lose three pounds since his last labwork before the second chemo and we hope to make up for some by Wednesday. I would gladly give him and the Warrior Princess some fat transplants, but I was told that it does not work that way.

We developed a healthy lunch routine. We get a nice burger (they only sell "deli" at work), BoBo eats the meat and mom the veggies.
 
#46 ·
Our Oncologist is Greg Ogilvie he is the head Oncologist at the CVS Hopsital in California. He used to work at CSU and big wig in the oncology field. We originally used reglan, but my dog had a reaction to that. Since our 1st round of chemo (in 07) they are treating more dogs with Cerenia , finding it more effective with less side effects. It's not cheap, but it isn't that expensive. You might ask them if they can prescribe this for you. The injectable is very expensive, but the pills are reasonably priced.

Rainer will occasionally have soft stool, but since part of the reason dogs have diarrhea in the first place is to rid the body of toxins, I let nature take it's course. I feed raw and have found that if I feed pieces with more bone I can usually prevent or stop the diarrhea. I have also found after some treatments he won't eat food with a higher fat content.

I haven't found that feeding him in the morning before or after makes a difference. I usually feed him the night before, he gets his supplements and anti nausea in the morning and them has food in the afternoon/night after his treatments. His protocol rotates 4 drugs over 25 weeks. He is currently 3/4 of the way through his 2nd protocol. He had the 1st of the last 4 treatments yesterday.

He has had Doxorubin (Adriamycin) 7 times so far (4 times in 2007, 1 times in 2008 after beginning chemo again and 2 times so far this year). Knock wood, he has tolerated this drug very well. The vincristine seems to be harder on his system for some reason.

I would ask about them about the cerenia it is great because it lasts for 24 hours! Again you and BoBo are in our prayers.
 
#47 ·
Thank you so much for the great advice. We learn as we go.

I will ask about the Cerenia. I was told that the diarrhea comes from the damage of the cells of the intestines. The chemo destroys fast growing cells, and the cells of the intestines are fast-growing. Since the intestines are damaged in this way they are unable to abosrb the nutrients as they pass through the intestines. The Flagyl he takes is supposed to slow down the passage of the food so that more of it gets absorbed. I have to work on figuring out what he is willing to eat. BoBo is only getting Adriamycin, every 12 days. They tried every 10 days with other dogs earlier in the study and the dogs could not handle it, their blood cell count was too low.
 
#48 ·
I am so sorry to hear about your boy!
I hope good things for him. I've only had my boy for a week and would be devistated so I can't imagine what you must be going through. Good luck to you both!
 
#49 ·
Originally Posted By: RebelGSD.....He was prescribed Zofran, a medication used by human cancer patients too, for nausea. We had a drama with that one last week. We paid $30 for 20 tablets at UPenn. When we ran out of it the vet called in a prescription into my Rite Aid. I went to pick it up and almost passed out when they wanted to charge me $328 for 12 pills of the generic ($800+ for 12 pills of the brand name). I was shocked. I had no idea how people without insurance/prescription plan are being ripped off by these places. Ripping off cancer patients who are probably too sick to stand up for themselves is just the lowest.

Does anyone know how Cerenia compares with Zofran?

First treatment they told me not to feed him anything the from 10PM before the chemo. I have to ask whether it is OK to premedicate him? He has loose stools (not the runs, but loose stools) and the Flagyl that was prescribed does not help that much.......
My Dad takes Zofran on his chemo days. He has strict instructions to take it at least a couple of hours before the infusion. Part of the infusion is also a steroid which helps his naseua, but also to help his body not reject the meds. He is supposed to take the Zofran for a couple of days after the infusion, but he doesn't. Luckily Dad doesn't have the nausea at this point, and it can cause very painful constipation, which he said he would rather vomit. It must be painful if vomiting is a better option


Zofran is the new wonder drug for anti-nausea, and therefore still under patent and VERY VERY expensive. They also prescribed him an older one (can't remember the name of it) - the nurse said that in many people the older one works just as well, and for people who have to pay their own prescriptions, the older one is only $15 without insurance. The Zofran, as you see, is hundreds of dollars for the same amount. Dad is lucky on both accounts, he doesn't seem to be having the nausea problem, and he has good insurance (I think he pays $15 for either of the meds).

If the flagyl isn't helping with the loose stools, I wouldn't use it. Right now, the less drugs the better. Some of the chemo drugs can cause loose stools; some of them destroy the mucous membranes in the body (chemo kills cells that multiply rapidly, even the good ones), the stomach lining being one of those. You might try some l-glutamine and see if that helps.

Did you mention what drug they are giving him? I didn't catch it.
 
#51 ·
Thank you for the explanations about the Zofran. the interesting thing is that after Rite Aid tried to charge me $328 for 12 pills, I found the same medicine for $48 at the Walmart pharmacy. Rite Aid is ripping off people without insurance. There should be some law against doing this to sick people.

I am getting the generic for Zofran for $1.5 a pill at UPenn, it is not expensive. I called the manufacturer, Mylan, and they confirmed that my assumption that UPenn makes a small profit on it could be correct. They would not tell me for how much they sell it to Rite Aid, but I filed a complaint against Rite Aid.

We are back in the house after the evening potty break: we had formed poop tonight for the first time after the second chemo!!!
This is a reason to celebrate!!! BoBo did lose 3lbs during the 12 day cycle.and he has three more to go. His appetite was good tonight too!!! yeah!!!
 
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