Holly’s visit to the oncologist

Wednesday I talked to Holly’s vet, and still had some questions so I decided to make an appointment with the consulting oncologist (who happens to be Timber’s oncologist, too).  So yesterday, armed with a notebook and a page of questions, Holly and I went to meet with the oncologist.  She was wonderful – she sat on the floor to meet / greet Holly, and carefully explained everything from what the pathology report and x-rays mean to why she recommends chemo in Holly’s case, to the role of nutrition and supplements, to what to expect after chemo.  She said Holly is an unusual case because of Holly’s size (she’s 29 pounds, and this is most usually a large dog disease) to where the disease presented (in the head of the femur, near the hip joint – she said it’s more usual to see it near the knee joint when the femur is involved).  I asked her about what I’ve read on the tripawds blogs and forums about low grain diets and various supplements and she agreed that a low grain diet is the best way to go – and that something like brown rice is much better than white rice because it doesn’t convert as quickly to sugars.  After talking with our vet on Wednesday, and the oncologist on Thursday we have decided that Holly will go through chemo – her first treatment is on Tuesday.  If she tolerates it well, she’ll get 6 treatments.  If she doesn’t tolerate it then she’ll try scaling back the dosage before exploring other options like metronomic therapy.  She would like to consider metronomic therapy after chemo… we’ll talk more about that once we get through chemo and see how Holly’s doing.  We’ll do the chemo treatments at our local vet, since Holly knows all the people and is comfortable there.

From Holly’s point of view, the visit yesterday was exciting because all these nice people came and talked to her and petter her, and there were so many cool smells!  Plus there were a few barking dogs to listen to, and a car ride on either end of the visit.  When the doctor first sat on the floor, Holly wasn’t sure what to make of it.  But eventually she came around and let the doctor listen to her heart.  And shortly after that came the kisses for the doctor.  Wheaten Terriers love to bestow kisses on those that they like, so this was a good sign!  All that excitement meant a really long nap all afternoon… 🙂  And when we took our walk, Holly asked to turn back after just a few blocks because she was just plain tired. But her tail was up, which is always a good barometer for how this little girl is doing.

We’ll continue to take this one day at a time… for now we’re thankful that we now have a plan.  And a wagging tail and wheaten kisses in our house!