Teva teaches Barney the Art of Anticipation: Pine cone style

Anticipation… ahhh, love that feeling.  It is what makes new love grand and new ventures worth pursuing.  I’d have to say that currently that isn’t necessarily how I  feel about that emotion. If given the choice I would pull anticipation from my bag of emotions and stick to facts and figures. My never ending hope is that Teva’s treatments are worth the struggle (for her) and in the end she comes out healthy and happy and around for a while.  I dream a lot about the outcome, sometimes good sometimes bad. An emotion I once thought created my sense of being alive became the bane of my existence in all things Teva.

What I do know is that if goosebumps cured cancer Teva would be healed.  The out pour of comments and love for Teva was overwhelming in the most positive of ways. Thank you everyone for your love and support.

The biggest question to date is “How did you know she had Lymphoma?”.  So, here is Teva’s story. How it all began and a little insight on what lie ahead.

Teva, an extremely active and healthy Golden Retriever had not a thing wrong with her. Most of her day consists of approximately 17 hours of slumber followed by a 3-7 mile hike, a little post meal football and a walk around the property. Hikes include but are not limited to chasing pine cones down the hillside at top speeds and relaxing swims in the Spokane River, Teva has always been in awesome physical shape.  Our ”discipline through exhaustion” plan when she was a puppy has actually made my husband and I more fit and her life more complete as our canine companion.

So, again, how did we know?  We didn’t. In an effort not to be too graphic I’ll attempt to make this kid friendly. Teva had a bout of diarrhea that lasted a day or two and the weeks to follow she spent a lot of time straining when doing her dog duties.  It was then that we noticed she was prolapsing with each strain which would resolve itself within a few hours post exercise. After phone consults with her vet team (yep, she has a team of peeps) we decided to just keep a watch on her and wait and see what happened.  Two weeks later no change so we opted for a surgical approach.  Dr. B would place a purse string suture (named that because of its similarity to how a round purse closure operates pulling both ends together to close) in her buttocks region, it sounded like a quick solution to something that we worried about more than Teva.

On an appointment the day before the procedure Dr. Coulson noted that Teva’s lymph nodes seemed a little enlarged.  Although peculiar we agreed we would wait to see what her pre-op surgical workup showed and go from there. Pre-op bloodwork came back clean as clean gets for a young pup.

Surgery Day: Dr. Janet observed the procedure as Teva’s Pet Advocate (one of her many titles) and took photographs for what we thought at the time was just an interesting case. During the surgical procedure the three veterinarians discussed and then decided to take a biopsy of her colon to see what they might find.  The following day Teva had some post-op complications that brought us back to the clinic to re-evaluate.  On this visit they took needle biopsies of her enlarged lymph nodes.

48 hours later the colon biopsy came back as cancer, followed 24 hrs later by the lymph node aspirate confirmation of the same.  So what now?

Well, as you read before we scrambled and Teva is now full on in chemo therapy. Currently in week four of Teva’s 24 week protocol (24 has always been my lucky number so I can only hope that at 6 months we are wild and clean of all things cancerous.)  her fourth visit will be back to WSU this Thursday. Due to the shortage of cancer drugs to most veterinary practices Teva’s therapy will land her in Pullman once monthly.   A blessing really as the Oncology department at WSU adds another pulse point of health checks to Teva’s team of excellent care in veterinary medicine.  We are lucky to be so close to such a fantastic resource.

There is a lot of information out there on the web about treating dogs with cancer.  Some good, some bad.  After this weeks treatment, week 4, I hope to have a better understanding of Teva’s prognosis.  Because of her age and how it was presented we are all a bit in the dark about what to expect, fingers and paws crossed.

Dr. V of pawcurious wrote some of the best stuff about her dog Emmet during their battle with cancer.  I read it when Teva was less then 6 months old and never did I imagine I would revisit it again for guidance before Teva reached ten years of age.  Dr. V makes me laugh and cry in all stories of her life as a vet and an owner of a golden retriever today and in the Emmet days.  I recommend it to all.

Janet said it best when she wrote her blog “When the News is Cancer”: Friends stick Together. That’s what has happened. All of Teva’s fans and friends have stuck together in words and in actions to help us get through.  We are so very blessed to have you all.  With Dr. Janet at the helm we plan another great adventure down to Pullman for treatment.  Dr. Choy, I’m sure,  is overly excited about our presence in his treatment room (ha!).

As for Teva and how she’s feeling: Well, currently she’s sleeping silently behind me with a belly full of chow and  my apple chicken sausage leftovers.  Yea, she’s not lacking much these days.  And to tell you the truth I think she may have even forgotten the most basic of commands.  Why bother? She gets whatever she wants and will continue to do so.

Thursday is our visit to WSU Vet Teaching hospital.  We promise to document our road trip, experience and hopefully good news of Teva’s visit.

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