[Dailydrool] Lymphoma & Chemo

[Lisa Lucas]

I am a long time drooler who doesn't post much anymore.

In April of this year, we lost Adrianne to lymphoma. I just wanted to share
a little bit of her story.
She was diagnosed a year ago this week. I remember petting her and feeling
those lumps under her chin. Hoping
it was an abscessed tooth...knowing in my heart it was worse.

Adrianne, at best guess, was probably 8-11. She was from BHRG. But she still
had a lot of life yet. We decided as
long as she wanted to fight, we would to. A week after her diagnosis, we
started chemotherapy.

Had we not done chemo, Adrianne would have been gone within the week.
Without chemotherapy, we would have not had a last
summer together, the RV trip to Wisconsin to Nationals in the fall, another
Christmas... We lived each day with her doing our best to ensure it was
better than the last. Although Adrianne lost her battle in April,
chemotherapy gave us an additional 9 wonderful months with her.

Dogs tolerate chemo must better than people, and we were fortunate that
Adrianne only had 1 really bad day in the 9 months she was on chemo.
Chemo is not for every person, or every dog. Nor is it for the faint of
heart. It's a lot of trips to the vet, and a lot of money. We easily spent
around $8,000 on
her treatments. In the beginning, she went to the vet every week for
treatment, then every other week. We were lucky because she was a social
butterfly...she loved visiting "the girls" and being admired while she
recieved her treatment.

Even had I known going in what the outcome would be, I would do it again in
a heartbeat, without question.

Whenever I think of Adrianne now, I think of the phrase

"Don't cry because it's over, Smile because it happened" ~ Dr. Seuss

If you have any questions about my experience with lymphoma and chemo,
please do not hesitate to email me.

-- 
--
Lisa M. Lucas
CT-ATCH Lucas's Definitely a Diva (Princess) NAC TG-N MXP MJP2 NFP NA NAJ NF
HIT Hound 2009 CPE Nationals
2011 AKC Agility Invitational Qualifier
C-ATCH3 CT-ATCH Buford CGC RE NAJ AXP AJP OFP NJC O-TN-N O-NAC O-TG-N ChWC
ChCL ChST ChFH ChSN ChJP ChJU TChWC
#1 Ranked Basset Hound Novice Preferred 2007  (AKC)
#1 Ranked Basset Hound Novice Jumpers Preferred 2007 (AKC)
Lucas's Living on the Edge (Hobbes) CTL1-F CTL1-R CTL1-H CTL1-S
Alkemi Austin Healey ST (Austin) SV and resident pointy eared dog :)
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