And she is about 90% “herself” still. Probably 10% of the time I feel she is low energy or having an “off day”. She has had occasional bouts of panting for several hours or drooling, but I am not convinced they are directly related to the cancer. Most likely some of the herbs she is on.

Very sadly I have had to cut back on some of her supplements and medications because I literally have wiped out my budget. A few days ago, I compeletely ran out of K9 Immunity. Scary!

Then today, I got a message from an angel. A wonderful woman only 30 minutes away from me read my blog and offered to donate her golden’s neoplasene and K9 Immunity to Jazzy. Her poor girl Bella succumbed to cancer on Monday the 20th.

To the owner of Bella (withholding name for privacy): You have no idea how this makes me feel. I am so saddened by your loss and at the same time I am so grateful and touched by you making this donation. I was truly frightened about being without K9 Immunity and wondering how I would pay for her next bottle of Neoplasene! What a beautiful gift you are giving. Thank you!!!

Jazzy on a ride through the country

I feel like I have not done an update lately because there is nothing much different than last time, thank God! Jazzy had her monthly check up last week. I wish I could have afforded to get her an ultrasound… but at $350 a pop, just could not do it!

The vet did a pretty thorough abdominal exam which was uncomfortable for Jazzy as she was digging in pretty deep. At one point, Jazzy yelped and I thought “uh-oh!” but the vet was puzzled saying she yelped after she had moved her hands away. I am (strangely) hoping that it was her bad leg that got twisted or something that made her yelp. Other than that the visit was excellent. The vet said everything “felt” normal in there. (Still wish I could see inside!)

Jazzy actually gained 4.5 lbs over the last month. I had been overfeeding her I guess. All those extra raw meatballs with pills stuck in them probably. So I am cutting back now.

Over the last couple of weeks I had run out of the Hoxsey blend and the K9 Immunity pills. Due to lack of funds had to wait for the next paycheck to order them. Super frustrating! Now I am nervous about that.

As if I did not have enough to pay for, I am thinking about talking to the vet about adding Maritime Pine Bark to the mix, thanks to Christine, who left a comment on my blog about it. I had read about it early on and it does seem amazing.

So, yes, stressful and draining for sure…physically, emotionally, financially. But Jazzy, other than being a little more tired than usual, is still enjoying her life, playing like a puppy, chewing on bones, relishing her meals, attacking her stuffed toys and doing all the things that happy, healthy dogs do!

“As I was reading about the fears and hopes and grief that you see on this board every day, I couldn’t help but think about why we go through all this. A lot of our friends and even family will say, “Why do you go to those extremes? It’s just a dog.”

Since we have had Rocky, he has fought pancreatitis, severe dermatitis and skin infections and hypothyroidism. The MCT seemed like a mountain we were facing and you would not believe how many people whom we count among our loved ones were urging us to have our baby put down. My oldest daughter was, she said, speaking out of concern for our finances. We are seniors on a fixed income and we did have to dig into our Roth IRA to pay for the radiation treatments. And we both know that we would do it all again.

I am looking at Rocky, right now, lying beside my chair, dreaming about digging a hole from the motions of his forelegs. I am thinking about his newest game at bedtime called “race to the bed.” We will all three, Daddy, Rocky and Me, line up in the hall and when I shout “Go” we run to the bed. Of course, Rocky wins and he has to play a couple of more times before he will settle down for his evening belly rub. I can picture him dancing in little circles and grinning that lap-tongue grin when we are ready to go out. He gets really excited if we ask him if he wants to go for a ride and will run from room to to room when he sees be putting on my shoes and reaching for my purse.

He had rolled in something really nasty yesterday, and we had to give him a bath. After towel drying and the doggy shaking, all I had to do was sit and put a towel in my lap and he jumped up for more drying and some comfort after the ordeal of bathing.

He patrols our yard and warns off the deadly gopher tortoise and the dangerous wild turkey and any and all delivery people. He’s a terrier. What can I say?

My point with all this rambling is that the joy he has brought us cannot be measured in dollars and cents or in worry and fear. We will continue to fight for his right to live as long as that life has quality. When (we hope, years down the line) that quality declines or he is in pain, we will, with heavy hearts but much love, help him over the bridge. ANd whatever we do for him in the interim we don’t have to explain or justify to anyone. He is our Rockster, our Joy-Boy, our baby….enough said!

Robin, Darrell and Sleepy Rocky”

Thank you, Robin, for putting words to everything I am feeling.

Jazzy is perusing the paperwork to rent a storage unit in my office.

Yesterday, after so much wondering about what was going on inside Jazzy, I decided to get an ultrasound done. It has been over a month since the surgery to remove the ruptured spleen which had a huge canine hemangiosarcoma,  and the docs had given her as little as 3 weeks to live, up to 3 months…possibly more if she was “really lucky”.

Well, I think my girl is “really lucky” because the ultrasound was perfect! NO sign of cancer at all! Of course, this does not mean she is cured by any means. This is an aggressive nasty cancer which could rear its ugly head any time, but there ARE dogs that live for 1, 2, 3 or more years. The lucky few! And I have a feeling Jazz will be one of them.

We did go ahead and put her on Neoplasene, which my vet has high hopes for. She believes it could help to prevent any cancer spread for quite some time. It is a botanical based medicine that has had some great results.

Also finally added the K9 Immunity and the Transfer Factor. Added a mushroom based supplement (anti-cancer) cannot remember the name right now. Eliminated “Open the Liver Canals”.

What a juggling act! But whatever we are doing seems to be working for now. (Knock on wood!) And today I am walking on air knowing that Jazzy is not in any immediate danger. I can finally take a breath and relax…for a little while.

So now, more decisions lay before me. I’ve decided I would like to see inside her to know what is happening and what we are up against at this point. The vet says neither an X-ray nor an Ultrasound will give us a complete evaluation of the extent of metastasis of the hemangiosarcoma.  So I should do both to get the whole picture. Probably $600+. Ugh. (I know she has no ulterior motive to suggest both because she knows I would be going elsewhere for that.)

For emotional reasons I almost do not want to see. But I think it is important to know what the status is to make the next decision, which is whether to put her on Neoplasene or not. I have been waffling. Although it is a natural herbal concoction, it can be harsh on the system possibly causing digestive upset, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. And, in order to use Neoplasene, I apparently need to cut out the usage of many of the other remedies I had high hopes for.

My new vet is not the bastion of knowledge and insight I was hoping for. I wish I could find a “holistic oncologist”. I really need someone who specializes in cancer but who focuses on holistic treatment. I am sure they exist somewhere. And charge out the yin yang.

Hard decisions can be torturous. Comments and feedback welcome as I struggle with this.

On a positive note, Jazzy is really enjoying her diet. I found a great source for inexpensive, yet high quality meat. I was doing Bravo Blends since last August, but with the added bonemeal and her love of chewing on buffalo knuckle bones, there was just too much bone in her diet and her poop was getting too hard and difficult to pass. So, now she is on bravo beef and liver (no bone) and the local butcher shop has anti-biotic free and hormone free chicken breast for $1.99 a pound! That’s the regular price! Then they grind and vac-seal package it for me in the portions I want for free! So convenient and so fresh. I blend the chicken with the beef and it is a nice balance.

And I have honed the veggie component quite nicely. My vet recommended:

Kale
Spinach
Sweet potato
Kelp
Asparagus
shiitake mushrooms (or any kind, I can afford portabella)
garlic (equivalent of 1 clove per day)

She wants it to be 20% of her food intake by volume, so I put enough in for about 4 meals (wild guess of course) and steam them in a little water for about 10 minutes. Then I put it all (water included) into my son’s BlendTec (on par with a VitaMix) and voila, a nice creamy blend about the consistency of baby food, maybe a little thinner.

I throw that in the fridge and then heat up just a ladel-full every time I feed her. Heating it allows me to warm up the very cold meat, which my vet said was important to do, especially since Jazz does not have a spleen. Chinese Medicine dictates that spleen issues need warming foods. So before, I was having to leave her raw meat out for a half hour or more to get it to room temp, which was TORTURE for Jazz! So, now, I get to heat the veggies up, pour them over the meat and it is a perfect temp after blending them. Then I add the Essiac brew, the capsules and tablets (they get eaten without much camouflage!) and the krill oil.

A nice little system!

On the emotional front, I am still wobbling, but coping. When I catch myself thinking about the future for any reason, I stop and think…will Jazzy still be around then? And I get that brick in my stomach.

If you are so inclined to help out even a little ($5 even) we would be so grateful. If not, I completely understand. Please continue to enjoy my blog either way…

Click here to chip in with paypal or credit card: http://jazzy.chipin.com/jazzys-cancer-recovery

She works with Chinese herbs as the previous vet had, but seemed to either have a better understanding, or was just better at conveying her knowledge.

As a reminder, due to the large mass on her spleen, Jazzy had a splenectomy which turned out to be hemangiosarcoma, one of the most aggressive forms of cancer a dog can get.

Dr Wells created a seemingly great plan for Jazzy, not for “recovery” according to her, but for optimal life extension and quality of life. She wants Jazzy to stay on the current Essiac brew as well as the other herbs she is already on.

She also is OK with raw but made it clear it needs to be room temperature. She explained that the spleen issue makes it so Jazz needs “warmth” in her diet. She also took her off the Yunnan Pai Yao, saying it was unnecessary at this time, but to keep it for the future if Jazzy starts bleeding internally.

So, I am going to give a rundown here of the current plan and future plans. Right now, Jazzy is on the Essiac Brew (plus other herbs) as described in the first blog post. She is also taking (keep in mind Jazz is 85 pounds):

Bilberry extract (2 per day)
Open the Liver Canals (Chinese herb 4/day)
Bloods Castle (4.day)
Hoxy (2 per day)

Canine Wellness Blend (this is a splendid blend developed by a local animal herbalist named Joyce Belcher at herbsforlifeinc.com . She came into our lives when Jazz had surgery last year for her cruciate ligament. It is an every day supplement good for all dogs.

For diet, we are to be on raw beef and beef liver (using Bravo) or chicken, turkey or fish. She can still have her raw buffalo knuckle bones too. no lamb, rabbit and no grains except for barley. I should be feeding her 70% protein, 10% carbs (barley or sweet potato) and 20% of the following veggie mixture:

• kelp
• spinach
• kale
• shitake mushrooms
• asparagus
• a little garlic

This should be lightly cooked, maybe 10 minutes.

She recommended Super EPA oil, but I already have krill oil on order.

Also on order is:

• K9 Immunity (which she knew nothing about)
• Transfer Factor

She is well versed in using Neoplasene and when we return for a 2 week follow up, we may very well begin her on that although she advised me of the nasty digestive side effects.

She recommended an ultrasound in one month’s time as well as testing her heamatocrit levels.

Jazzy is still playing happily and gobbling up her food. Today is a good day. One day at a time at this point. Today is a good day.

My thoughts are shifting today. I am really going to
treasure every moment and try to keep the fear at bay. Living in fear is
not really living at all. And I am less “present” for my dog. So, I need
to rejoice that I have these times with her and live in the present
moment.

I have been taking extra time to look into her eyes, lay down on the floor with her, take her for long rides in the country each evening and go for short walks in new places (her left rear leg is not in great shape so she gets tired easily) amongst other things. I realized, with the help of an online friend, that the more fear and stress I feel, the less quality of life Jazzy will have for the time she has left.

So, I am not saying I am going to be perfectly joyful every moment of every day, but I have a new goal and a new outlook. To live each moment in that moment and enjoy it fully.

My Jazzy Girl

On 6/25/10, I rushed my girl to Dover Vet after noticing she was not really moving, nor was she sleeping, and would not eat. Dr Renni did an Xray and felt almost certain there was a large mass on the spleen. She sent me to the Port City Referral Vet Hospital in Portsmouth NH, (where Jazzy had her TPLO surgery less than a year ago). They did an ultrasound and came to the same conclusion. The spleen had burst overnight, which caused the unexpected and acute symptoms. They told me there was an 80/20 chance that it was an aggressive form of cancer called hemangiosarcoma, but that it could possibly be benign. The only way to know would be to do surgery to remove the spleen and send it out for biopsy. The other option would be to put her down that day. Through the explosion of tears, I chose the surgery of course.

Enormous gratitude goes to my Mom for putting the $3600 on her credit card for me to pay off over time. I never would have been able to save my girl that day if it were not for my generous Mom!

Before I left her alone at the hospital, I spent a few precious moments with her, knowing surgery had its own risks. I even asked the vet to take a photo of us together. I realized I had a lot of photos of her, but none with me in them! I left. I was a nervous wreck waiting to hear from the surgeon. Finally he called at 7PM and told me Jazz fared well through the surgery. He also offered some positive feedback in that upon inspection of her abdomen there was no visible sign of metastesis. He said her liver looked great too.

It would be 5 days of praying until we got the lab results on 6/30: hemangiosarcoma. One of the most aggressive cancers going. Prognosis was 19 days to 3 months.

I knew I would not be going the chemotherapy route, due to the stress Jazzy would feel from it and the potential side effects. So we were going to go all natural.

7/1: Spoke to Dr Renni (Jazzy’s primary integrative vet) and she gave a grim outlook. She said to “get her off raw food immediately” now that she does not have a spleen to help fight infection. That upset me, and made me wonder why no one on the surgical team mentioned it. They certainly knew she was on raw since I had brought it in for her during the hospital stay. The earliest Renni could see me for a holistic consultation was 7/9. But I was not going to sit around doing nothing until then. I had already begun scouring the internet for information and resources.

I also downloaded and read Dr Demian Dressler’s Book “The Dog Cancer Survival Guide” and there are tons of good resources in there.

Here is a list of promising sounding treatments (and/or supporting supplements) I found online, in no particular order (I will not go into detail here about each one of them, just google them for more info, or later you may see detailed reasons why I chose SOME of them):

• Artiminisin
• Neoplasene
• modified citrus pectin
• Transfer Factor
• K9 Immunity
• Yunnan Pai Yao (herbal blend to help stop internal bleeding in certain patients)
• Milk thistle
• Essiac herbal blend
• European Mistletoe
• Oncoplex
• Vitamin C
• CoQ10
• Krill Oil
• Apocaps
• Paw Paw Cell-Reg (not to be taken with CoQ10 though)
• Luteolin
• Curcumin
• EGCG
• Vit. A and D subcutaneous injections
• Vitamin C  I.V.
• Yunnan Paiyao

There are probably more, but my notes are a mess.

7/3: Met with Carol of Green Gem Herbals in Fremont NH. Herbalist of the animals. Wonderful person. She spent an hour with us, and developed an Essiac blend, which included:

• Essiac Tea (burdock, slippery elm, turkey rhubarb, sheep sorrel)
• Red Clover: blood cleanser
• Kelp
• Medicinal Mushroom blend (anti-tumor properties)
• Ashwagandha (adaptogen, anti-tumor, anemia)
• Astragulus
• Milk thistle
• Echinacea
• Nettles
• Yarrow

WOW! Looks pretty powerful. Jazzy gobbled it right up no problem when I mixed it in with her food. I had run out of salmon oil and was short on funds, so I switched her to Hemp Oil, which I use on my salads. Great source of Omega 3s.

7/9: Today I had a phone consultation with a vet in Belfast ME who came highly recommended named Dr Herzig at Full Circle Holistic Vet. It was only a half hour (for $75) so things were rushed, but he highly recommended Artimisinin, Buterex (sp?) and Blood’s Castle. He also said NO GRAINS. Only protein and veggies, preferably chicken or fish and organ meats. He loves a raw diet (which Jazz has been on for almost a year) but then said “why take the risk” with a compromised immune system. He also recommended K9 Immunity, Transfer Factor and Vit A and Vit D injections as well as a once a month Vit C IV treatment! Phew!

7/9: The same day I met with my local vet and she put her on

• Yunnan Paiyao
• bilberry extract,
• Blood’s Castle, a Chinese Herb from Kan Herbal
• “Open the Liver Canals”, from Kan Herbal.
• She is looking into the injections that Herzig recommended
• She said to feed 10-20% grains. UGH! I hate conflicting information!

One of my problems right now is trying to distill all of this information down to a solid plan that is sustainable financially. Adding up everything I would LIKE to do seems like it will cost $600+ per month. For someone living virtually week to week, this would be some challenge. (Also I need to pay off my mother’s credit card bill that she put the surgery on). I might be able to sustain that for a few months, but if my dreams come true and she continues to live, I have no idea how I will sustain the financial output! What a pity it would be if she died only because I could not pay for the things that would help her!

I am trying to stay positive and thinking about ways to bring in extra income. I am a web and graphic designer, but times are tough right now. Not much work. I will need to step up my marketing. But I digress.

Thanks for reading this far. See you in the next post.