Today we went in to see the oncologist, Dr, Kevin Choy. It was all Kristina could do to keep from sobbing, but when the oncologist comes in he starts explaining everything as if he can treat Indy. We stop and ask him, "She can be treated?" -- and he says YES! We can't believe it! For a dog that has Stage IV lymphoma, we thought there no hope -- we now have hope!
Basically, he believes he can return Indy to a normal life for some time (maybe even a year), depending on the treatment option. He goes on to explain that there are 4 options: no treatment, steroid only treatment, 1 chemo drug, or the gold standard, "CHOP", which is a mix of 4 chemo druges. He went on to explain all of the treatment options and the life expectancies with each option, along with cost. When all was said and done, we decided on CHOP, and we can start next week.
In the course of 30 minutes, we went from having no hope to having hope again -- which is what we needed. He then said that he would need to keep Indy overnight again -- she had made good progress, but he wanted to watch her and try to get the lymph nodes smaller. However, we could go see her and that she was doing well.
We walked into the ICU and our Indy was back! Her eyes were brighter (and less yellow), her energy was back (she tried to jump out of the cage), and she had eaten well for the last 24 hours. We were so happy to see her improvement in just 24 hours. And she was happy to see us and definitely wanted to go home, but she couldn't. They needed to watch her, so we left...as we were leaving, we heard Indy's bark -- as if she was saying, "Hey, don't forget me!". We would never forget her!
Hope is a wonderful thing!
