Some Mondays are worse than others...

[Guest Jamie]

This is Bella, our oldest dog:

She just turned 7 this month... and this morning was diagnosed with Lymphoma.

We don't know how long she's got, or even what we can do, at this point... Vets don't work for free, after all. We do intend to do everything we can to make things as comfortable for her as possible. We're currently sitting around waiting for a call back from the doc, letting us know what the meds are gonna cost, once he finds the best place to get them.

Anyway, I'm probably not gonna be in a very good mood for a while, and figured I'd let you folks know why... or why I haven't been around, if I go missing.

Really just don't know what else to say.

Hope you're all having a better day than I am.

[Guest db99wj]

Man that sucks, hope the meds will make her as comfortable as possible, I know you will do everything you can to make her comfortable. Thoughts are with you.

[Guest G-Pa Glynn]

Thoughts and prayers for you and Bella.

[KahrMan]

That really sucks. Hopefully the meds will make her comfortable and will not be to expensive.

[Guest Jamie]

Thanks fellas.

It's really pissing me off that how much we can do for her is directly proportionate to how much money we have in the bank... I'm someone who can generally tend to most anything myself, but this time, there's just not much I can do.

I know this is one of those things that every pet owner knows ( or should know ) they're going to have to go through, but that doesn't make it any easier.

I honestly think I'd have less trouble with it if it were me that was diagnosed with lymphoma. I'm sure the wife and a few other people would disagree though.

( If it were me, I might accidentally be able to figure out how to stick Obama with the bill. But as it is, he's the reason we can afford to do so little. )

[bubbadavis]

Wow - that's bad news Jamie. I know you'll do whatever you can to make her comfortable.

[LagerHead]

Really sorry to hear this. She looks like a good ole girl.

[Jasongar8]

Hate to hear it Jamie.

[Guest Jamie]

Well, there's another aspect to this that neither my wife nor myself are looking forward to... We're trying to figure out how to tell a 14 year-old with Asperger's syndrome about all of this, in a way that she'll understand.

We're not really sure how much will sink in, or what her reaction to it will be, given her rather... unique... perceptions of some things.

Also, it's exactly 2 months 'til Christmas today... Now, add the fact that money's already tight to the fact that Bella could very well not make it any further than that... Well, I think the picture it paints is pretty obvious.

I hope y'all don't think I'm trying to have any kind of pity party here... I'm just rather stunned and trying to wrap my mind around all the ramifications of our trip to the vet this morning. And unfortunately, none of it's coming up anything but gloomy.

We'll deal with whatever happens, one way or the other, just as we always do. I'm more or less just typing/venting because that's really the only thing I can do at the moment.

[G27]

Man, really sorry to hear, Jamie.

[bubbadavis]

Vent away Jamie - you can't keep all this bottled up inside. What are friends for anyway?

[Erik88]

That's bad news. Sorry to hear it. She looks like a sweet dog too.

[Guest Jamie]

Oh... something I was going to mention, but got side-tracked and forgot. ( And probably something that should'a told me it was going to be one of those weeks )

Last night I learned that the officer I rode with the most, when I first started the S.O.'s Ride-a-long program, died suddenly Saturday.

He was sitting at his dinning room table, and complained that he didn't feel good and was gonna go lay down on the couch... and apparently was dead before his butt hit the upholstery.

The guy wasn't but a few years older than me... maybe 53 or so.

I still haven't gotten all the details on what happened, but he supposedly hadn't been sick or anything of the like. From the sounds of it, he just up and died, out of the clear blue.

Sort'a makes my wonder - and worry a bit - about how the rest of the week's gonna go.

( I hope none of you are feeling puny, or have the sniffles or anything... )

Edited October 25, 2010 by Jamie

[Mechanic_X]

Sorry to here it. If I could be there with you I would be.

[Raoul]

What a crappy day. You should go shoot at something asap.

[hipower]

Jamie, I'll pray for you, you wife, daughter,and Bella. I've been in you situation and know how difficult a position this puts you in. I wish there was something I could do or say that would help. I had to put down my best friend during the first year of my cancer treatments and that was reallly hard.

I can't personally prove it, but I believe that God who gave us companions like your Bella and my Cody, will take care of her. I have to believe that such creatures as these and the total uncondition love they give us, will be cared for. And we''ll see them again.

[-boatman-]

I know how you feel and what you are going through. A good dog is more than just a pet. They are a member of the family and it can really hurt. I hope it goes as easy as possible for Bella and you and the family.

[Guest BEARMAN]

Hang in there, Jamie, my brother. Our prayers be with you, and your family.

[Guest Jamie]

Again, thanks for the well-wishes, all of you. It does mean a lot to both of us.

I hadn't heard anything back from the vet at 4:15 or so yesterday evening, so called back up there to see if he had found out anything. The lady that answered the phone said if he had, he hadn't relayed it to her ( no real surprise there, since Doc likes to talk directly to one of us, given a choice ), but that he had leave for a Dr.'s appointment himself.

Wonderful. I do hope his doctor has better news for him than he had for us. Given how things seem to be going, I'm not gonna hold my breath.

Doc's no spring chicken, at 68, and we've already told him retirement is right out. He's still got a bunch of patients that need him, after all, and breaking in a new doctor is out of the question.

Anyway, now the bad (worse?) news... I've done some checking around this morning, and the drug he's after - Elspar (Asparaginase) - goes for about $120 to $180 a vial... and I don't know how many it will take for Bella. Given that she's 100 pounds, I suspect it's gonna run about $500 to $600 for what she needs of that alone....

...which pretty much means I've gotta scrounge around and see what I have that's worth selling, 'cause I don't imagine those folks that run the Tn lottery are ready to hand anything over to us just yet.

This week is certainly sucking, so far... and I don't suspect it's going to get a helluva lot better any time soon. I'm sure I'll hear from the vet sometime this morning though.

[laktrash]

I went thru this with one of my danes several years ago. Its tough on everybody, not much people can say to help but I understand where your at.

[Guest Jamie]

Well, I heard from the doc this morning...

It looks like Bella is going to need 2 treatments with the Elspar, 3 weeks apart, after she finishes a couple of weeks of Prednisone.

The cost of the Elspar alone is going to be just under $500, with the doc needing half that to order it. So it looks like we've got a couple of weeks or so to get the money together.

There will be other costs involved too, but at least it looks like we'll have a chance to do what's needed. Given the cost of some meds, we were afraid it would be completely out of reach.

I'll be gathering up some things to sell off, to help offset the cost - we still have Christmas for the 14 y/o coming up, after all - but at least it's do-able.

BTW - I'm sure some folks think we're crazy for spending that kind of money on a dog... especially when the treatment could fail anyway. All I can tell 'em is that I take my responsibilities seriously, no matter what they are, and when I took the animal in, it's welfare became one of those responsibilities.

And if I have to explain it past that, then they probably aren't capable of understanding any way.

Edited October 26, 2010 by Jamie

[Il Duce]

Sorry to hear about this Jaime. Hope all works out

[Guest Lester Weevils]

It really sucks to lose pets. Sucks to spend money you don't have too.

Hopefully you got a diagnosis soon enough that treatment has a good chance of working. Odds are real good for some kinds of doggy cancer if caught early.

One old dog got some flavor of leukemia which was mis-diagnosed as tick fever, and 2 months of precious treatment opportunity was pi$$ed away feeding her lots of doxycycline for the non existent tick fever, adding-on anti-nausea drugs because the nausea was blamed on the doxycycline, and adding on special foods, and adding on steroids because the joint problems were blamed on the non existent tick fever.

When she finally got an accurate diagnosis, she was so far gone there was only a tiny shred of chance of treatment, but I took her up to the UT Vet Hospital for a week and a few thousand bucks, then brought her back nursed her at home a couple of weeks, making her even more uncomfortable giving her cancer meds she couldn't tolerate, going down hill every day. Finally put her down. I got too involved in it, and put the dog thru too much misery trying to save her. The money was a minor factor, but I feel bad letting her suffer a lot longer than necessary. If I had it to do over again, I'd get the vet to prescribe plenty of narcotics and phenergan, take the dog on a nice little vacation and pet on her about a week, then humanely put her down before she began to suffer too much.

She could have been doped up and reasonably comfortable getting petted on at home, for that week when she was locked up in a cage at the UT Vet Hospital. The UT Vet folks are great, not saying anything bad about em. They tried their best. But the dog would have been happier doped up at home.

If she had started cancer treatment first time showing symptoms, it may have turned out a lot better.

Later on another old dog got "suddenly sick" with an abdominal cancer that is slow-growing and non-painful, where the symptoms come on very quick near the end, but are not especially painful even at the end stages. The vet said results of an operation were about 50-50. I decided the dog was 10 years old and wouldn't enjoy maybe spending the last days of her life getting possibly futile tests, shots and operations. Took her home for a few days and found a vet that would come to the house to put her down so she didn't have to go to the vet again.

These things mess me up for a year or more. I take it harder than people dying.

[laktrash]

Your not spending money on a dog. Your spending money on a devoted and loving member of your family.

[Guest Jamie]

It really sucks to lose pets. Sucks to spend money you don't have too.

Hopefully you got a diagnosis soon enough that treatment has a good chance of working. Odds are real good for some kinds of doggy cancer if caught early.

I think we caught this early enough that if we get her treatments started, she's got a very good chance of having a good quality of life for at least a while longer. She's still eating well, getting around pretty good, and isn't showing any signs of being in pain... well, at least nothing more than her arthritic knees bothering her when the weather gets ugly.

One old dog got some flavor of leukemia which was mis-diagnosed as tick fever, and 2 months of precious treatment opportunity was pi$$ed away feeding her lots of doxycycline for the non existent tick fever, adding-on anti-nausea drugs because the nausea was blamed on the doxycycline, and adding on special foods, and adding on steroids because the joint problems were blamed on the non existent tick fever.

When she finally got an accurate diagnosis, she was so far gone there was only a tiny shred of chance of treatment, but I took her up to the UT Vet Hospital for a week and a few thousand bucks, then brought her back nursed her at home a couple of weeks, making her even more uncomfortable giving her cancer meds she couldn't tolerate, going down hill every day. Finally put her down. I got too involved in it, and put the dog thru too much misery trying to save her. The money was a minor factor, but I feel bad letting her suffer a lot longer than necessary. If I had it to do over again, I'd get the vet to prescribe plenty of narcotics and phenergan, take the dog on a nice little vacation and pet on her about a week, then humanely put her down before she began to suffer too much.

She could have been doped up and reasonably comfortable getting petted on at home, for that week when she was locked up in a cage at the UT Vet Hospital. The UT Vet folks are great, not saying anything bad about em. They tried their best. But the dog would have been happier doped up at home.

If she had started cancer treatment first time showing symptoms, it may have turned out a lot better.

Later on another old dog got "suddenly sick" with an abdominal cancer that is slow-growing and non-painful, where the symptoms come on very quick near the end, but are not especially painful even at the end stages. The vet said results of an operation were about 50-50. I decided the dog was 10 years old and wouldn't enjoy maybe spending the last days of her life getting possibly futile tests, shots and operations. Took her home for a few days and found a vet that would come to the house to put her down so she didn't have to go to the vet again.

I've already talked to our vet about this very sort of thing; I don't want to keep her around for her to just be miserable. But by the same token, I don't want to put her down just because it's the less expensive thing to do.

And yes, if it comes to that... and I'm sure it will eventually... the vet has already said he'll come do what needs to be done right here. There will be no dying in an exam room if it can be helped.

Basically though, as long as she or any of the others seem like they're not ready to give up - and if you know your animals, you'll know when they're tired and ready to quit - we'll do anything we can to give them what they need to keep going and to have a decent, good quality life.

These things mess me up for a year or more. I take it harder than people dying.

Same here...

BTW, when the first wife left, the only thing I really regretted seeing her take with her was the dog we had at the time. But he was "her dog" ( even though I'm the one that spent the most time with him ), so I had to let him go. I don't know what ended up happening to him, and I've kicked myself over allowing her to take him ever since.

It's one of those things that I just can't think too long about. And I believe you know what I mean.

Your not spending money on a dog. Your spending money on a devoted and loving member of your family.

That's how I look at it but you know how some people are.

Edited October 26, 2010 by Jamie