We met Amanda Fulmer, the only board certified veterinary oncologist in Richmond, today. It was both as expected and not. The biggest surprise was also the most disheartening: my expectation was that she would want to do a biopsy...and she didn't.....didn't feel it was necessary. I was thrilled for Millie to not to have to go through the painful procedure....but...for the doctor to think it was unnecessary really hammered it home....she really did have it. Our sweet Millie had Lymphoma.
The options were almost as straightforward as we expected: we either did chemotherapy or we didn't, the only real modification was we could either do a full aggressive course of chemotherapy or a shorter, less aggressive one...this didn't really seem like much of an option to either of us....it was potentially less effective and the only upside was it would cost less.
Which brings us to cost.
The full aggressive course, which I feel that both Kimberly and I knew was the only way to go if we decided to do it, would cost around $5000. The VEC gave us very detailed breakdowns, showing what each treatment would cost as we rotated through Vincristine, Cyclophosphamide, and Doxorubicin in four week intervals with a rest week in between. It worked out to about $1227.00 a month. The individual treatments varied from a low of $242 and a high of $379.
There was also little doubt that Millie's eye issues were Lymphoma related....the glands around her eyes were swelling. This we did not have to make a decision about, at least. Whether we decide to do chemo or not, Prednisone would begin immediately. But this also started the clock....if we didn't start chemo quickly, the steroid had the potential to interfere with treatment later.
Amanda and her assistant were understanding and informative and that played a role in our later choice. But that was the big step ahead....a literal life or death choice.
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