It’s really amazing to read just how close our shared experience is.  I have sobbed at times this weekend.  i have a couple of hours of normalcy and then I’m reminded again and i sob again. i don’t even know if it’s an option and I’ve gone back and forth on what i would do about  a half dozen times.  Their lives are in our hands. Their happiness is in our hands. 

Jerry - I just came to the forum to ask a question about pain control.  I will update on the oncology visit later, but this is more of an immediate concern that i have.  It seems that her pain is getting worse.  But it’s hard to tell if it is that or if it is the meds that she has been given.  She was given a sedative yesterday at around 1 pm at the hospital so that they could take images of her lungs.  I was told it would be like a glass of wine, but she was out of it for the rest of the day.  More like a bottle and a half of wine.  

she was more herself this morning but wouldn’t eat her treats and has not eaten a meal in about 36 hours.  A little shredded chicken, some peanut butter and some dog beef jerky.  But not much of anything. 

She has been on carprofen (150mg as needed) for a couple of years just to help with normal aches and pains of getting older.  My regular vet added Gabapentin at 400mg every 8 hours which is what I’ve been doing since Friday morning.  So she is taking both.  But now i feel that it’s a) not enough because the pain is really affecting her or b) too much because it’s cracking her out.  

She has never taken much of any kind of medicine other than the caprofen before so it’s tough for me to interpret what is going on with her.  

Any advice?  

It’s hard to gauge how she was really.  She had been up and down the two days prior to the sedation. I felt like her pain was probably increasing because she did seem more lethargic and had less of an appetite.  But her mood was great yesterday morning prior to seeing the oncologist.  She’s just been out of it more consistently since.  So i don’t know if it’s the pain or the sedation. 

Is the combo of GABA and carprofen a common one used?

Thanks Jerry.  I haven’t been able to find the ELIAS conversations.  I’m usually on my phone so navigating is tough sometimes.  

Ophelia was more herself today.  She spent last night with my ex and they met us at her physical therapy appointment.  The PT advised me to check out this site btw. I told him that I’ve already spent 5 or 6 days reading as much as i have time for.  

Ophelia and i are meeting with the ortho surgeon tomorrow at 2 pm. She’s going to evaluate her to make sure that she’s a good candidate for amputation.  

i am cutting and pasting the following update.  Ophelia is sort of a celebrity on Facebook so she literally has hundreds of people cheering her on right now.  I just wish that i could tell her how many people love her.  
——

An Ophelia update. We spent Monday afternoon meeting with an oncologist. Her pain has gotten a little worse and you can tell that she’s feeling it. She is on some heavy pain meds to control that though. I’ve been trying to keep her as active and normal as possible. She went to physical therapy and was fitted with a harness that is good for dogs with three legs. She was able to do her hydrotherapy almost as normal. The water was raised a little more than usual to take more weight off of her legs though.

It appears that the best option for her is going to be to amputate her entire right front leg with follow up treatment. The idea of having her leg amputated is absolutely destroying me. I just can’t fathom doing that to/for her. But she has surgery scheduled for a week from today.

The treatment options after amputation are:

1) Chemotherapy which could possibly extend her life by about a year if she is lucky. That is an average. It could be much shorter, or could be longer.

Or,

2) Immunotherapy. This is a treatment that is still technically in an experimental phase but has had a lot of success. It’s a vaccine created using Ophelia’s tumor. It would be injected into her and, if her body responds, it will attack the invading cancer cells. This could extend her life up to 2 years. Or even longer if she doesn’t just get too old. The last study done using this treatment found that 50% of dogs lived past 1 year after amputation, and 30% of dogs lived past 2 years.

Her pet insurance will pay 90% of everything except for the immunotherapy. It is really expensive but i feel that i have to do it for her if it’s the right decision for her health.

She cannot do immunotherapy and chemotherapy together because the chemo would kill the cells being used in the vaccine. We can do 2 rounds of chemo before the vaccine is ready. That would be half of the normal course.

The oncologist told me that if money is not a consideration then she would recommend the immunotherapy with the 2 rounds of chemo. It’s what I’m leaning towards, but these are very difficult decisions. What I’m asking myself is whether or not I should go with the tried and true chemotherapy treatment, or go for the immunotherapy.

I wish that i could ask her what she would want me to do.