And so the journey continues. Nice day for a drive with the exception of a
lot of traffic. Many people heading somewhere
for the Easter weekend. I was once again
reminded of how God watches over my travels as I see traffic in the other
direction at a complete stop due to an accident. Fast forward to the trip home; same exact
thing.
When we check in, they announce over the intercom that Arri
has checked in. All of Arri’s friends
come out to see him. Kathy, from
radiology, brings him a HUGE handful of treats.
I warn her of the dangers and she holds out an open palm of 6 or 7 good
size nuggets. Arri swallows them in one
bite – whole. He has no manners around
other people. I take one treat and
instruct Arri to prove to everyone in the room that he can take a treat
nicely. That boy KNOWS not to snatch it
out of my hand. Why we have never been
able to transfer that behavior to others, I don’t know. While
we are waiting for the doctor, more people stop in the exam room to say hi to
Arri.
When Dr. Obradovich does make it into the room, she is
talking very fast and in circles. I was
having a very hard time following her point.
It felt like she was continuing a conversation she thinks we had, that
we never had. She certainly does not
want to give the feeling that there is not hope but really, that is the point. From this moment forward, it is about disease
control and quality of life. Radiation
has a 90% success rate. Radiation did
not work. So we discuss the options.
For the first time, amputation comes up at as a serious
option. She does not believe the loss of
the leg would be too much for Arri to deal with. His weight is good and his hips are
good. Recovery would be 2 – 3 weeks. The thing about amputation is it is still not
a guarantee. And once the leg is gone,
it can’t be put back. If the cancer were
to move elsewhere, then he still has cancer and now he is missing a leg. Ok, so that is still a last, last resort and
I am not sure I will ever go there. If
Arri were younger, yes, I would try it but why do I need to put him through
that.
Option 2: Melanomic chemotherapy. This is a low dose chemo that is generally given
daily in a pill form. We discussed this
back in January. It is a fairly new
treatment. It had all sorts of handling
and storage requirements. Regular blood
tests are necessary and it has a 40% chance of slowing down the cancer.
Option 3:
Chemotherapy. This is high dose
chemo. It requires in office IV
treatment. We do 5 treatments 3 weeks
apart. Regular blood tests are still
needed but I can have them done locally and the data faxed to the
oncologist. There are many drug options
so if one does not seem to be working, we can try another. My biggest concern with chemo is the side
effects. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and
loss of appetite are possible but common.
They can occur 2 – 5 days after treatment. It sounds like dogs tolerate chemo better
than people do. Or maybe they just hide
it better.
Option 4: do nothing
further. It is estimated that in 4 – 6 months, the
cancer will have grown to the point of inhibiting use of the leg and quite
probably become painful. It also has a
higher risk of spreading to the lymph system. At that point we would be dealing with pain
management and waiting for the right time.
The Dr. checked the nodes in his upper thigh and was pleased to note
that they are not enlarged at all, something that is common post radiation.
I should say Tim was not with on this visit. We did talk about what we could, not knowing
much going into this appointment. If you
have been following Arri’s journey, you may know what I chose to do. Say it together: Dee chose option……3 - chemotherapy. He will be starting out on the drug
Carboplatin. I am hoping that Arri has few to no side effects. I really don’t want to make him sick in order
to make him better. If he does respond
poorly, then we stop treatment.
From this point I have two choices. They can draw blood and do a chest x-ray now,
to verify he is healthy to proceed with treatment. Then schedule treatment for next week
sometime. Or they can draw blood, do a
chest x-ray, verify he is healthy to proceed with treatment and start the
treatment immediately. Treatment will take an hour. Decisions, decisions. It’s 3:00. I want to get home for the Good Friday service.
But I do not want to make an extra 5 hour round trip. Being late for church wins out over a tank of
gas and another day of work lost. They take
Arri into the back and get started. I go out to the car to make some phone
calls. Gotta call my mom and let her
know I will be late for church.
An hour later, Arri comes bounding out off the treatment
area. It might have been nice if his
genetic code contained a little less ‘happy ‘ gene and little more ‘cancer
fighting’ gene.
The drive home involved a lot of speeding, some dirty
looks and a thanks to God that the accident was on the other side of the road. I dumped Arri off at home, changed clothes
and made it to church 5 minutes late.
Just in time to join the choir for the first number.
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