Thank you!
I also wanted to give you an updated total-we've actually raised $645.00 for Remy's treatment thanks to a combination of online and cash donations! That is a huge help covering over 10% of Remy's treatment.
Remy's ChemotherapyOrganized by Kate Foster-Bankey |
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3/29/09-Partial Remission!
Sorry it's been a while since I posted anything. Things have been really busy with my new job. I am very excited to tell you that Remy has reached partial remission with only two weeks of treatment. That's great news for us. This has been no walk in the park, however. We're thinking about renaming Remy "Murphy" because this whole process has been an exercise in Murphy's Law. From the tumor lysis to all the internal organ problems, Remy has not had an easy time. Most recently, after a routine urine sampling, Remy got a horrible urinary tract infection that about scared us to death when he came home from the hospital peeing blood. God love his oncologist, because she was still at the hospital when we brought him back in at 10:30 at night. Dr. Sahora has been our angel, following up on Remy daily and taking my late night calls. She too has been sucked in by Remy's charm. She tells me she's lost her objectivity with Remy because she's fallen in love. It make us so happy to know that the team is fighting as hard as he is to beat his cancer.
3/14/09-Getting better every day
Remy is quite the fighter! I had a long talk with Dr. Sahora today, and she is really impressed with his progress. It is so rare for a dog to survive tumor-lysis syndrome, and Remy did it! Additionally, his blood coagulation levels continue to stabilize, and it looks like his kidneys are going to be just fine. He looked so much better in our visits today. I'm not going to lie, seeing him on Friday night was scary. It turns out he had a wretched reaction to one of his anti-nausea drugs. As soon as they gave him the reversal drug, his demeanor improved in about 30 seconds. He's not yet back to our goofy little Remy, but we know that's around the corner. He is still experiencing a lot of nausea from all the internal inflammation. Dr. Sahora says as soon as he can drink on his own and keep it down, he can come home. Not everything is good news, however. Remy's internal issues have moved to his pancreas. His pancreas is inflamed which, while very painful, is not life threatening. While we do not want Remy to be in pain, we are very thankful to finally have a problem where the risk of death is not imminent.
3/13/09-Another little glimmer of hope
Based on Remy's blood work this evening, his oncologist thinks we may have the tumor-lysis syndrome under control. That's good news, but we are by no means out of the woods yet. While most of Remy's values are improving or stabilizing, his kidneys are our biggest concern right now. They remain at dangerously elevated levels, so he runs the risk of kidney failure. We our hopeful that his improvement in other areas means his kidneys will fall in line as well. As I stated before, Remy has some important tests in the morning, I will update you when we have the results. 3/13/09-Update
Good news! We just got a call from the oncologist and Remy's coagulation levels are returning to normal. His PTT levels went from over 200 right back into the normal range of 28-38. His PT levels are still high at 20; they should be around 12, but this is a huge step in the right direction. He is experiencing some residual problems like high blood pressure and fluid under his skin, but this positive development gives us hope that he will continue to improve. For now, Remy will stay in the hospital, so he can be closely monitored over the next 24 hours. Tomorrow, he will have another critical test to confirm these problems are not the result of resistant cancer cells. Based on the reduction in the size of his lymph nodes, his doctor does not think this is the case. Keep your prayers coming because they are obviously working!
On a side note, the oncologist told me she tried to make a little bed for Remy in his crate, but he kept messing it all up and tearing apart the towels. That put a huge smile on my face because that is exactly what I would expect from him. He will spend forever making the blankets just so before he will lie down. As far as he's concerned, the more lumps, the better! I'm glad to hear his quirkiness is still shining through even in the toughest circumstances. 3/13/09-Remy's First Chemotherapy Treatment
The first 24 hours of Remy's treatment have been both good and bad. On the positive side, the first dose did its job and killed off a lot of cancer cells. The size of his lymph nodes have already seen a measurable decline.
On the negative side, Remy is experiencing a very rare but potentially life-threatening condition called tumor-lysis syndrome. This occurs in less than 1/500 cases. Essentially, when large numbers of cancer cells die, they release toxins into the body all at once thus overwhelming his body's ability to process them. If these toxins are not eliminated, Remy runs the risk of damage to his vital organs and complete system shutdown. Fortunately, we made the decision to hospitalize him overnight, so they caught this quickly. He has just finished a plasma transfusion to help flush his system and get things back into balance. The preliminary blood work post-transfusion shows some of his numbers going in the right direction and others in the wrong. We're just holding our breath right now and saying a lot of prayers. I will update you when we know more. Why we need your help:
As many of you know, our dog, Remy, was diagnosed with lymphoma on Wednesday, March 11, 2009. This was a huge shock to us and a devastating blow. For those of you who have had the chance to meet him, you already know that he is one of the greatest dogs that ever lived. For those of you who have not had the privilege of hanging out with him, I wish there was some way I could explain to you how wonderful he is and why he means the world to Rob and me. The best I can do is reference what I wrote about him just over a month ago on my Facebook page:
Remy is the coolest dog ever. Everyone that meets him falls in love. Heâ??s our dog walkerâ??s favorite client. The vet and all his staff love when he comes into the office. Our neighbors love to run into him in the hallway, and he is the life of any party at our house. Remy is the sweetest guy and handsome to boot. Because of him, I will have pit bulls for the rest of my life. Hopefully, this gives you some idea why we have decided to take the most aggressive approach to fighting his cancer. We have elected the "gold standard" in treatment which consists of five different chemotherapy agents to try and attack his disease from all sides. For the next 18 weeks, Remy will be visiting the vet once a week to receive his chemotherapy along with a regimen of additional drugs at home. With this program, he has up to a 90% chance of going into complete remission. Obviously, this rigorous treatment does not come without a tremendous cost. Our current estimate for the 18-week treatment is $6,000.00. This figure does not include the diagnostic tests and hospitalization Remy underwent to discover he had lymphoma. To be perfectly honest, Rob and I made the decision to treat Remy without any idea how we were going to pay for it. Rob is in law school, so we live off one income, and as a result, we do not have much in savings. I was lying in bed tonight stressing and trying to come up with ways of earning extra money when a thought occurred to me: between Rob and me, we have over 300 friends on Facebook. If each person donated just $20.00, we could completely cover the cost of Remy's treatment. The idea seemed so simple and yet so powerful that I got out of bed and started doing research to see if it was even possible. That is how I found chipin.com. So here we are, I am asking for your help to prolong Remy's life. I know things are tight right now for a lot of people, so if you are not able to help financially, please send a few prayers our way. We need those as much as anything right now. If you are able to spare a few dollars, we would be eternally grateful. Lots of love, Rob & Kate |
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