Changing chemos
2009-01-28 11:48 Filed in: Beau's
lymphoma treatment
Sorry I’ve been remiss in putting updates here. The
words have been there, but they just wouldn’t leave
my fingers.
Most importantly though, Beau continues to be happy and energetic. His appetite is excellent, and he’s had no nausea or diarrhea. That’s all good.
The bad news is that his lymphoma continues to progress. After some mild coughing, he had a chest x-ray last week that revealed an unknown mass between his heart and lungs. His doctor put him on a different chemo last week to try to kick the lymphoma back a bit. As of today’s follow-up x-ray, that doesn’t seem to have helped or hurt. The lymphoma and the chest mass are about the same.
So, today they’re aspirating the chest mass to find out what we’re dealing with. It could be lymphoma, although his oncologist said it doesn’t look like a normal lymphoma mass. It could be another type of cancer. (After all, several of his chemo drugs have themselves been carcinogenic.) Or it could be an opportunistic bacterial or fungal infection. But we have to know what it is before we can decide what to do.
We also decided to try another, slightly more aggressive chemo that he has NOT yet been exposed to. It has about a 40% success rate with only mild and infrequent side effects. That will likely be augmented with some other treatment, depending on what the mass turns out to be.
Our feeling is that he’s happy, energetic, etc. We want to give him every chance to stay happy and energetic as long as he can. As much as we’d love to see another remission, and one that lasts for (say) a century or so, that’s not likely to happen.
So we proceed one day at a time. My goal is to keep that tail wagging as much as I can, and for him to never ever doubt how much we love him.
Your thoughts, prayers, and aloha are greatly appreciated!
Aroooos,
Ken
FOLLOW-UP: The vet was NOT able to reach the mass in his chest via his esophagus, so we’re proceeding (with the new chemo) under the assumption that it’s the most likely thing, the lymphoma. Oh, and the radiologist mistakenly thought Beau would also be getting an ultrasound, so he’s gotten another “Brazilian” cut... He’ll be home sometime around 5 or 6 PM and will get LOTS of TLC then.
Most importantly though, Beau continues to be happy and energetic. His appetite is excellent, and he’s had no nausea or diarrhea. That’s all good.
The bad news is that his lymphoma continues to progress. After some mild coughing, he had a chest x-ray last week that revealed an unknown mass between his heart and lungs. His doctor put him on a different chemo last week to try to kick the lymphoma back a bit. As of today’s follow-up x-ray, that doesn’t seem to have helped or hurt. The lymphoma and the chest mass are about the same.
So, today they’re aspirating the chest mass to find out what we’re dealing with. It could be lymphoma, although his oncologist said it doesn’t look like a normal lymphoma mass. It could be another type of cancer. (After all, several of his chemo drugs have themselves been carcinogenic.) Or it could be an opportunistic bacterial or fungal infection. But we have to know what it is before we can decide what to do.
We also decided to try another, slightly more aggressive chemo that he has NOT yet been exposed to. It has about a 40% success rate with only mild and infrequent side effects. That will likely be augmented with some other treatment, depending on what the mass turns out to be.
Our feeling is that he’s happy, energetic, etc. We want to give him every chance to stay happy and energetic as long as he can. As much as we’d love to see another remission, and one that lasts for (say) a century or so, that’s not likely to happen.
So we proceed one day at a time. My goal is to keep that tail wagging as much as I can, and for him to never ever doubt how much we love him.
Your thoughts, prayers, and aloha are greatly appreciated!
Aroooos,
Ken
FOLLOW-UP: The vet was NOT able to reach the mass in his chest via his esophagus, so we’re proceeding (with the new chemo) under the assumption that it’s the most likely thing, the lymphoma. Oh, and the radiologist mistakenly thought Beau would also be getting an ultrasound, so he’s gotten another “Brazilian” cut... He’ll be home sometime around 5 or 6 PM and will get LOTS of TLC then.
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