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Jack's Journey

Golden Retriever ~ Osteosarcoma ~ Tripawd ~ Snugglebug ~ Tennis Ball Lover

Three hour ride – Exciting!

As we all know, life doesn’t stop for cancer; laundry needs to be done, alarm clocks still go off bright and early and bills still need to be paid.  First thing Monday December 29, I called Peak Veterinary Referral Center; a multi-speciality hospital about an hour north.  We set up an appointment for Wednesday with their oncologist.  I was feeling better, more in control; I had a game plan (it’s my OCD, type A, gotta be in charge personality)!

Later that day, PEAK calls me back and says that their oncologist had her baby (6 weeks early) and there wasn’t another oncologist to see.  I was then referred to NEVOG ( The New England Veterinary Oncology Group) in Waltham, MA.  Our appointment was set for Friday January 2nd.

My sister agreed to ride along with me to Mass.  It was kind of a big deal ~ she’s not animal person….at…all.  She is however, a physician assistant, so it was nice to have another person at the consult who understood all the medical lingo.

Jack was super excited to go for a ride that morning.  Every time I tell him that he can come with me, he turns inside out and flips out like a teenage girl at a Bieber concert.  Lauren came along as well.

We met with Dr. Gabrielle Angelo.  While we were in the room filling out paperwork, another Golden came in, then another, then another; that was eye opening to see.  Four Goldens, various ages, all being see at a Veterinary Oncology clinic.

Dr. Angelo was very knowledgeable and thorough.  We discussed fungal infection vs. cancer.  She discussed case with her fellow vets. She explained that the lesion was on his ulna, a non weight bearing bone.  This was a good thing and probably why he hadn’t broken his leg yet.  We decided to do some basic blood work – CBC and chemistry panel and have a Radiologist review his chest/abdomen x-rays to confirm it hadn’t metastasized.  I was most concerned about his alkaline phosphatase level.  I’m a medical technologist – labwork is what I do.  I knew that a high alk phos was not a good thing.

Labwork was NORMAL!!  That’s my boy!  Perfect!  They offered to do a punch biopsy to confirm cancer but I didn’t want to stay longer (we were two hours into our appointment).  While in the exam room, I called PEAK and talked with their surgeon, Dr. Shultz and he said there was a 10% chance that it was a fungal infection. 10% was enough of a chance to do a biopsy before amputation.  My new game plan was to go to Peak for the biopsy.

Three hours later, we left NEVOG overwhelmed with information and a $460 bill.  A quick stop at Costco and we started the three hour drive home.  Lauren watched movies in the backseat with her Ipad and headphones.  A few times I caught Jack watching the movies too and it melted my heart.

20150102_093234This  was Lauren in the backseat with her muffin for breakfast.

3 Responses to “Three hour ride – Exciting!”

  1.   jerry Says:

    Oooh you are really sharing so many helpful details, thanks, this is great info for those new to this journey.

    NEVOG is an awesome facility.

    Did you know that there are so many Goldens with cancer that the Morris ANimal Foundation has a special study just to try to determine why they do? See:

    http://caninelifetimehealth.org/

    If you know path report lingo, we could really use you in the Forms when you can be there. So many peeps (myself included) have no idea how to interpret the findings. Hint hint! 😉

    Thanks for the great blog, we’re looking forward to your next post.

  2.   benny55 Says:

    Whew! I’m exhausted just reading about that day!! And the emotions of getting my Happy Hannah’s diagnosis all come back!

    Youre a very good “storyteller” and Jack is a very loved boy!!

    Looking forward to next installment…….

    Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle too!

  3.   Paula Ehlers (Dobemom) Says:

    Hi, enjoyed your story…I am also a Med Tech, and have gone on a journey similar to yours. My Dobe Nitro had 4 biopsies before we had the amp surgery, because nothing came back definitive. He’s almost 8 mos post surgery and is doing great! (I also was obsessed with his ALKP result…which was normal). Good luck and I loo forward to your updates.

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