Our Precious Gift

“To call him a dog hardly seems to do him justice, though inasmuch as he had four legs, a tail, and barked, I admit he was, to all outward appearances. But to those who knew him well, he was a perfect gentleman.” 

       – Hermione Gingold

Retrieving her tennis ball

Today we locked in on our treatment strategy for Bella's lymphoma.  We have decided that we will not do chemo and we will treat her symptoms with Prednisone.  Note that I say "treat her symptoms" because that is all the Prednisone will do.  In a sense that's all chemo does for her...there is no cure, nothing will do anything other than reduce the severity of her symptoms, put the cancer in remission and hope to buy her time.

Where's the ball Dad?

We met with Dr. Wonders this morning and reviewed the treatment options...mostly for Sherry since she hadn't visited the vet since learning of Bella's diagnosis.  We walked through the two options...chemo (the "CHOP" protocol) and Prednisone.  There was nothing new here and we told Dr. Wonders that we'd decided not to do chemo.  He thought our decision, based on his experience and Bella's diagnosis, was a good one.  He asked to see her again on 2/22/19 or sooner if her situation changed.  At that point we'll decide whether to start the Prednisone or further delay it.

Our decision was based on a number of things..  First of all, the extraordinary cost of chemo is an issue for us, particularly since chemo only guarantees that she'll eventually slip out of her remission and die from her cancer.  Aside from that there is the burden of driving her to Atlanta for her treatments, stressing her with trips to a strange place full of odd smells and sounds, producing toxic waste that we'll have to dispose of and risking that she'll become sick from the poisonous chemo.  And with all of these downsides, there is the certain knowledge that she's going to die from it all anyway.

More bad days for us, more bad days for her.   Its no bargain.

Sherry and I are in complete agreement on one thing, that we will pull the plug on her at the first sign of distress or suffering.  As our friend Kyle said, protecting her from suffering is the most precious gift we can give her.