Sneezy

Cancer is no longer a word we use daily and it’s hard to remember how scary it was when we started this journey. If you are looking for current information on canine nasal chondrosarcoma, there is an abundance of information online.

For general information from professional sites, try the del.icio.us links on the right hand side of this blog. Personal experiences abound; my favorite is  Lindsey Lou who shares the story of her dog Honey. The February and March 2007 entries include photos of Honey during various stages of treatment.

Yahoo groups has a community dedicated to all types of canine cancer. It’s a very supportive and active place.

Sophie continues to do quite well and shows very few signs of her cancer experience 18 months ago. In fact, she still hasn’t developed cataracts, which was the one side effect we expected to see by now. At ten years old, Sophie still looks and acts like a much younger dog.

The one daily reminder of her ordeal is that she suffers several bouts of sneezing every day. Anytime she wakes up from an extended nap, she sneezes repeatedly for several minutes.

Since we don’t have much to report, I don’t update this blog very often but I do read the comments. Leave a note if I can be of assistance.

Best of luck to you and your dog.

 

Bonus time.

It’s been nine months since our dog, Sophie, was diagnosed with canine chondrosarcoma. She’s doing great and I’m glad to see through the comments that folks have found this modest blog helpful. I hope you’ll consider creating your own blog and add to the resources available online. If you do, please send the link via the comments on this page.

A quick recap of our experience:

July 2007: Sophie begins to sneeze in a bizarre manner. Really, you can’t confuse this sneeze with a normal, everyday dog sneeze. Something is clearly wrong.

August 2007: Surgery to “debulk” the tumor; biopsy indicates chondrosarcoma, a cancer of the cartilage. The tumor has almost filled the right nostril, but has barely touched the left one; thankfully, the tumor has not pushed into her brain or eye.

September 2007: Full radiation– 21 sessions– each lasting 30 minutes. Sophie tolerates everything quite well. She does not seem bothered by the anesthesia and her side effects are very mild. Mostly, she suffers from fatigue, some hair loss, bleeding gums, sores on her mouth and lots of discharge from her nose and eyes.

January 2008: The sneezing returns, so Sophie has a CT scan. No cancer yet, but there is extensive scarring from the radiation.

April 2008: Sophie turns 10 years old. The hair she lost during radiation has grown in white. She has lots of energy and a hearty appetite.

Future: Sophie’s right eye will develop cataracts because it was in the radiation field. The cancer will return someday, but we hope it’s not for a very long time.

We know that we got very lucky, and we’re making the most of this extra time. I hope that you, too, are able to gain some quality time with your pet. Thanks for reading.

 

The new normal

Sophie went back to the vet this week. She had starting sneezing those abnormal sneezes again. They’re like potato chips– you can’t have just one; Sophie can easily sneeze 12 times in a row. I get tired just watching.

We had started to worry that the cancer had returned. There was the sneezing, an almost constant dripping from her nose and then an afternoon when she seemed off-balance and maybe dizzy.

The scan came back with good news; there’s lots of scar tissue in her nasal cavity but no signs of the cancer. The radiation has damaged the cartilage in her nose, making her less resistant to colds and other irritations. As the oncologist pointed out, this is the new normal. She can prescribe antibiotics if Sophie is truly sick but her energy level and appetite indicate that she feels fine.

There was just one worry: Sophie had a seizure before the scan. It’s possible that it was a reaction to the anesthesia but we can’t be sure.

I don’t know if you can see from the photograph, but the hair that she lost after radiation has grown back– and it’s white!

 

Moving past cancer

Sophie’s cancer has dominated our lives for the last two months. It was early August that her unusual sneezing sent us on this roller coaster– surgery, diagnosis, radiation, worrying.

We don’t know how much cancer remains– but we know it’s there. Sophie, however, only knows that she’s feeling better than ever. She’s got energy to spare– today, she practically dragged me all the way to the pet store. I’m just starting to realize how long she must have been affected by the tumor before we treated it. We had just assumed that her decreased endurance was due to age.

Cancer will eventually get our dog but for right now, life is really good.

I started this blog because I didn’t find much that captured the experience of having a dog with cancer. The blog stats show me that, sadly, lots of other people are looking for that kind of information, too. I hope this little blog provides some useful tidbits and a bit of hope.

Good luck to you and your pet.

 

20 + 1

We finished our 20th radiation session on Friday and met with the vet for our final consultation. She has a surprise for us: she recommended that Sophie have one more session of radiation.

Her reasoning is that they try to give the highest dose of radiation that a dog can handle without the side effects becoming unbearable. That is, the long-term gains have to be balanced against the quality of life right now. On average, that’s usually 15-20 doses of radiation.

Sophie has not suffered any significant side effects (except bad breath but that probably doesn’t count)  so she can easily tolerate one more session without problem. Our last, last, last appointment is Monday.

It’s one last chance for us to read magazines and work on that puzzle in the waiting room. And one more opportunity to shrink that tumor.

 

first side effect

We’re in our final week of radiation treatment for nasal chondrosarcoma and there’s one noticeable side effect: BAD BREATH!

Eating a whole litter box bad. Smell it ten feet away bad. Wake you up in the middle of the night bad. Even Sophie seems to notice and be distressed by it.

There are many reasons for this. We’ve stopped brushing her teeth to cut down on the risk of gum infection. Also, the vet feeds her canned food after radiation each day. But most of all, I blame the prednisone. One of the side effects of the drug is increased appetite; the vet warned that dogs will do bad things to get more food, like go through the trash or jump up on counters, even if they’ve never done it before.

Sophie’s bad behavior involves horses. She has been sneaking under the fence to eat the horse manure in the green space behind our house. We’ve lived here four years and she’s never shown the slightest interest in horses but now they produce such a delicious delicacy that she simply can’t resist.

I can’t wait until the prednisone bottle is empty.

 

Radiation: Day One

We spent a glorious weekend at the beach, trying to forget that Monday would bring the first day of radiation for Sophie’s nasal tumor. No food or water was allowed for eight hours prior to treatment, so I fed her at 5 AM and went back to bed (normal breakfast is at 7ish.)