Indy's Chemo Update

Indy continued with Plan C today.  She was given Meclorethamine and Vinblastine.  We will continue with her Procarbazine at home as well.  Lots of medicines, but the hope is that we can at least get these lymph nodes to stop growing and maybe even decrease.  So we'll see what happens.  Indy seems to be tolerating it so far.  Fingers crossed!

Indy Chemo Update

Indy had a quick appointment today at the Oncologist.  They just wanted to measure her lymph nodes to make sure she was holding steady and not getting any worse...and she was.  Our directions were to stay the course and comeback on the 29th.

Sounds good to us!

MOPP - Cycle #1 -- Week 2

Last week we mentioned that we started Plan C -- which is MOPP.  Just to catch everyone up...M stands for Meclorethamine (Mustargen -- yes, it is a derivative of Mustard Gas), O stands for Vinblastine (usually Vincristine, but we have already established that she is resistant to it), P stands for Prednisone, and the other P stands for Procarbazine.  Each cycle is 4 weeks, 2 weeks on and then 2 weeks off.  Last week was her 1st week of cycle 1 and today was her checkup from that.

The good news is that it seems to be working because some of her lymph nodes have shrunk in size where the other ones seem to have stabilized.  We were relieved to have some good news.  That being said, it seems like we are on the right path and are continuing with the 2nd week.

She went in today and go the M and the O via fast injection IV, and then we continue to give her the Prednisone and Procarbazine at home.  The Procarbazine is a compounded drug -- that oddly enough comes from Scottsdale, AZ.  We have to wear gloves when we give it to her (it is a capsule) and dispose of everything responsibly. It is a little bit different of a routine, but one that we are happy to do.

Dr. Choy continues to be impressive with her blood work (no toxicity) and her activity level.

Go Indy! 

Nighttime Visitor

As many of you know, Kristina feeds her squirrels peanuts. She has a special affinity for the Douglas Squirrels, but the grey squirrels are ok too.  That being said, she didn't expect this visitor to be eating all of the peanuts as well!

Indy Chemo Update -- Plan C

We had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Choy and Indy's cancer continues to progress and get increasingly worse; however looking at her you would never know it.  She continues to be a troubleshooting problem for Dr. Choy -- although you can tell he loves her.

The lymph nodes in her throat continue to enlarge as well as the one on her left back leg.  It seems that everything we are throwing at it, does absolutely nothing anymore.  She definitely has some stubborn cancer cells in there -- that's for sure!

So, we had a long meeting with Dr. Choy today to re-group.  Our options were as follows:

• Do nothing and let it continue to get worse; she would most likely have 1-2 months left.
• MOPP -- another round of chemo with different drugs
• Clinical Trial (www.woof4thecure.com)

In talking with him and listening to answers to all of our questions, we all agreed that MOPP would be the next choice, or in our case, Plan C.  The MOPP is similar to the CHOP protocol, but with slightly different drugs.  Any of the drugs that we have already determined that her cancer is resistant to will be substituted with another drug.  Today she started her first round.  She has another visit on the 8th and then she will be off for two weeks.  We continue with the drugs we are already giving her (Denamarin, Prednisone, Prilosec) and now we are adding a compounded chemotherapy drug called Procarbozine.  The Procarbozine can sometimes cause problems between weeks 2 and 3 because it builds up in the system.  As usual, we will watch her closely.  Dr. Choy has been impressed with how well she has tolerated all of the drugs -- she hasn't missed a beat.

So until things change again -- normal diet, normal exercise, and no restrictions!

She went on a good 5-6 mile walk/hike last weekend and we did plenty of swimming in the river, and she never skipped a beat!

May Rain

May was drier than most months...we only registered 2.24" of rain.  We had some sunny days, but we had a lot of overcast and no rain days as well.  In total, for us, we had 9 different days that registered rain -- and nothing ever more than a 1/2".

As usual, it should be an interesting summer.  We never know what to expect!