August 3-7 Making the choice

(Obviously I started the this blog after the whole process began for us...and I will make the last two "old" entries today...and hopefully stay up to date after that)

So then we had to decide what to do. Before we knew more there was the concern that we would do it for the wrong reasons....that being so desperate to keep Millie around, we would put her through unnecessary pain. Our research and talks with veterinarians had put that to rest. Absent complications, chemotherapy is generally not anywhere near as unpleasant for dogs as it is for humans. And we knew that all we would be doing is buying time. Lymphoma doesn't get "cured"....you simply hold it at bay. Dogs who go into remission and remain cancer-free for 2 years are pretty rare. Anything better is almost unheard of. Realistically, we we contemplating an 18 month extension if everything went perfectly. Millie would still be dying....but then, aren't we all?

She was a very good candidate for chemotherapy: young, in good health, no major organs involved and we had caught it early. As for the money....it would be hard, no doubt. The thing I couldn't get out of my mind was that the amount we were talking about was what we had spent on trips and vacations. We had probably spent more for our trip to China. Millie means much more to us.

Kimberly has said that at this point she was pretty much 49% do chemotherapy and 51% make her comfortable and enjoy the time we have. I spent a  lot of time floating back and forth across that line. Kimberly felt we were in tune enough to let me choose...and she felt that I would carry a lot of the extra burden, not just financially, but time-wise as well...I would be taking her for treatments. Ultimately I chose a place...we would do it....one aggressive course and then accept what came.

For those of us who like God and the universe to let us know we're on the right path, after we had chosen, the sign we got came in the form of checks from my parents....which would pay for almost half of the cost.

So I made the appointment....it could have started sooner, but I did not want to leave Millie and have wait for hours in a cage at the VEC, I wanted to take her and have her leave with me as soon as it was done. So August 10th became the date for the first chemotherapy treatment.