I really didn’t want to share this with the world,l but now I have to own up and tell you. I’m so afraid you will think we have the worst dog luck in the world. Cursed. Horrible dog owners. Frickin’ unlucky. It’s mostly the reason why I haven’t been posting non-stop since we arrived home from an absolutely wonderful semi-vacation in Cancun. That reason being because we arrived home on Monday evening, and after picking the dogs up on Tuesday morning and getting them settled back here at home, I reached down to scratch Sailor under the chin only to discover huge LUMPS. My heart plummeted in my chest because there is only one thing to think at that point: lymphoma = cancer. I quickly checked his other lymph nodes and it wasn’t good. Crap. How could this happen in one week? I got an appointment with my vet for that afternoon but only after literally screaming at them over the phone that NO, next week was not OKAY. I needed an appointment today. Time was of the essence. I got my appointment, knowing what they would tell me anyway (and yes, the vet concurred) and they took aspirations of the lumps to send to cytology.

At least we didn’t have to wait for long for results from the lab, as the next evening the vet called to say the slides were positive for lymphoma. I got on the phone the next morning (Thurs) and the best I could do was to take a cancellation of the referral vet for Tuesday. In the meantime I opted to hold this cancer at bay and use prednisone to reduce the tumors. Within a few hours the tumors were reduced to half, but Sailor was not tolerating the higher dose of pred very well. So, the next day I reduced the dose and he seemed to be better.

This morning they called with a cancellation for today, so Sailor and I took the appointment. I waited nervously for Sailor to be taken into x-ray to see if the cancer had spread to his lungs and to do bloodwork to see if he was a candidate for chemo. The good news is that his lungs were clear of any cancer, but his liver was showing signs of infiltration.  She quickly assured me that the liver involvement didn’t impact his long-term prognosis, just the amount of dosage, so we were good to go with the chemo treatment. So, tomorrow bright and early, Sailor and I will be on our way to what we hope is a road to “recovery” or at least remission. Fingers crossed that he doesn’t turn out to be in the very low percentile of dogs that don’t deal with chemo well, or that the little bit of prednisone that I did give him will alter his cells into not accepting the chemo treatment. Only time will tell.

It’s very costly to have him undergo this treatment (think in thousands of dollars) but we both feel we can’t give up without at least giving it a try. I asked Sailor tonight and he agreed that he is not yet ready to give up. In all other respects he remains the energetic energizer bunny he has always been.

Please send us your hopes and “prayers” (however you may pray) as we will be needing them. Those of you who know me best know that I am not a religious type of person, but I will be offering up prayers of hope to whoever is out there listening to my plea. How much can one person really take? Really, folks, look at his face. Could you say no?