Bovver had his CBC's on Wednesday after his third round of chemo and is still doing great, but his lymph node seems to have grown in size. After his first round of chemo his lymph node almost went back to where it was before all of this. It gradually grew a little bigger, but after the second round it went back down quite a bit again. After this third round, unfortunately, it has grown larger than it ever has. His cancer is mutating so quickly that the chemo is no longer effective. Going in to this we thought that he would have no trouble with this treatment plan and would go into remission for a few months after he was done with the chemo. Sadly, that is not the case for our boy. His oncologist just told us that he's unlucky. It's already rare to have both Myasthenia Gravis and Lymphoma, its even more rare to have T-cell Lymphoma, and it's even more rare that he was not able to go in remission with the CCNU chemotherapy treatment plan. 

Eric and I have a pretty big decision to make.  Do we continue with another type of chemo (Doxorubicin), or do we stop his chemo all together?

The doxorubicin is considerably more expensive than his original treatment, but the chemotherapy has really kept his Myasthenia Gravis at bay, and I'm afraid that if we stop treatment it will come back and our boy won't be able to get around anymore. He has been doing so well lately and it's really hard to imagine him going down hill again. We saw how quickly it can happen and that is pretty terrifying. We really want to make the best decision for Bovver. He has been doing so well with chemo and has had very little side effects. We've spent so much time, money and love that I'm not sure I'm willing to stop fighting just yet. We are obviously just prolonging the inevitable, but when do we call it off? How many trips to the vet are too many for him? How many pills and IV's are too many for him? How much money is too much? I don't have any answers just yet. All I know is that we will get through this together. 


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It's hard to believe it is already November! It's finally starting to feel like fall around here and the boys are loving laying by the fire at night and snuggling up in bed with us. Bovver had his third round of chemo on Wednesday and again didn't have any side effects at all. In fact, he hasn't really had any side effects from the Myasthenia Gravis in about a month. We spoke with his Neurologist today about lowering his dose of Mestinon. We are going to try going down to half a pill 3 times daily instead of 3/4. Eventually we will have to do another Titer test, but we need the extra $250 for chemo right now. His Prednisone dose has gone down to half a pill every other day which has helped lower his appetite. He is still very excited to get food or snacks, but he isn't constantly crying for food or going through our trash. 

I haven't actually added up all of our expenses for Bovver Boy's treatment until right now and although it is more than I expected it is 100% worth it to have our boy back. Here is a little breakdown for you and for anyone who is going through something similar:

Aztec Animal Clinic - $1320.51
Initial examination/referral to neurologist, x rays/diagnosis of megaesophagus

Animal Neurology & Imaging Center - $1546.50
Consultation/Diagnosis of Myasthenia Gravis/Tensilon test, overnight stays, Titer test

VCA - $1731.63
Consultation, three rounds of Chemotherapy, CBCs, Prednisone

Mestinon - $70

Vitamins/Supplements - $132.18

Total: $4800.82

We were lucky enough to get $2810 of donations from our YouCaring fundraiser. Minus the 3% transaction fee that amounts to $2725.70. With all of your loving support so far we have brought our total down to: $2075.12. We still have three CBC's and two more rounds of chemo to go which will be roughly another $1000. So, all in all, we will probably spend just under $6000 to get our boy back for a limited amount of time. I really feel for the people who don't have a support system and who don't have the extra income to make this decision for their pet. Although this has definitely been a financial burden for us, it was all absolutely without a doubt worth it. After all, it's only money.

Towards the beginning of the year our local weekly newspaper, The Alibi, has an online entry form for the "Best of Burque". As I was filling mine out, I saw the "Best Pet" category and surprise, surprise I entered the cutest picture from the boy's birthday party. Well I never really thought about it again until I randomly stumbled upon it and saw that they won!! My boys are famous! Couldn't be a more proud dog mom right now. 


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