Oh, forgot to add that his one year ampuversary was on Dec. 10th.  Harley's 11th birthday is on January 3rd.  

Yeah - my last Golden Retriever had oral melanoma but his was on the inside of his lip and they were able to remove it and get clean margins.  He lasted another 9 months after diagnosis without any other treatments but that is not what got him.  He ended up with hemangiosarcoma of the heart.  Had an inoperable tumor that was bleeding into the pericardium and causing right side congestive heart failure which in turn caused fluid to build up in his abdomen.  We had the pericardium tapped three times to take pressure off of the heart but after the 3rd time, the cardiologist said that it was the last time because it was getting too painful for him and we had to let him go :'(  In Harley's case, he was given 12 to 18 months from amputation and he's a little over the 12 month mark, so it may not be prudent to spend the $6500 on radiation to buy him more time with the melanoma, only to have lung mets from the osteosarcoma show up within the next few months.  A crystal ball would be nice 🙂  

So....   sorry for the late response.  Had the electrochemotherapy consult scheduled for January 12th at Hope Advanced Veterinary Center in Vienna, VA - my old stomping grounds so to speak.  But I canceled the appointment.  Why?  Harley's regrowing mass disappeared!  What is that you say?  Yep, he's achieved complete remission!  At Harley's vet appointment with his Oncologist last Tuesday (17th), he got his 4th Oncept vaccine (for malignant oral melanoma) and the Oncologist noted that there is no evidence of any tumor growth in his mouth and the scar tissue where the mass was debulked is now all back to normal.  She firmly believes that it was the chemotherapy that was the catalyst for remission so we are going to do 3 or 4 more Carboplatin treatments just to keep the cancer in remission.  More good news - his chest x-rays were all clear!  So both cancers are in remission and his Lar-Par (GOLPP) is stable.  This dog is defying the odds!!

Hey Everyone, Harley update.  Well, Harley was to have gone in for Chemotherapy on 1/24 but he ended up having to be rushed (on the same day) to the ER instead.  He was fine in the morning - ate his regular breakfast with gusto and then went for his walk.  He seemed to be breathing a bit harder than usual so I limited his distance and had him ride in the wagon more.  We didn't get to go straight home after the walk as I had to pick up my husband at a car dealership where he had dropped his vehicle for servicing.  It was a bit of a hike so probably 1.5 hours longer than usual to get Harley home.  About an hour into the drive, we noted that Harley was shivering and his breathing had gotten shallow and quick.  We thought maybe he was nauseous and would settle once he got home.  But he didn't settle and I took his temperature.  105 degrees.  Yikes!  So, back in the vehicle and pretty much back the direction we had just come from to the ER which is part of the practice where he sees his Oncologist.  We had called ahead and they were waiting for us.  Long story short, he had aspiration pneumonia which had gone septic.  It happened so quickly because he went from being "fine" or at least seemed fine to needing oxygen and IV antibiotics within a 3 hour span.  He spent two nights hospitalized - he probably could have come home after one night but they wanted to err on the side of caution (and of course run up the vet bill )  His white blood cell count was extremely low.  What likely happened was that when he aspirated whatever it was (there was a bit of vomit with a green bean in it on the floor by where he had been laying overnight), the neutrophils which were already depleted from the chemo, rushed to the lungs to fight the infection and left a void of WBC in the rest of the body.  Very scary.  Happy to report that he has almost fully recovered and has since had another chemo treatment.  The tumor looked like it had started to regrow so the Oncologist gave the go ahead for the next chemo treatment because his WBC count was right in the middle of the normal range.  He is still on oral antibiotics for the pneumonia - his lungs were not totally clear and if they remain the same the next time he gets chest x-rays, then it's likely scarring from the pneumonia, but it will make it more difficult to note any lung metastasis.