Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love

I apologize for the lack of update on Maggie.  As you can imagine, it's been a very emotional issue for both me and the Scottish Lass.  

We saw the oncologist last Tuesday and the prognosis is extremely guarded.  They did an ultrasound and saw what looked like some evidence of the re-emergence of the fibrosarcoma on the heart.  There is a small chance that what they saw was merely fibrosis and scarring from the surgery, but they think that is unlikely.  Unfortunately, if this comes back again, surgery is not an option because the heart would now be involved directly.

Maggie had her first course of chemotherapy that day.  There is literally no record of a fibrosarcoma in the heart sac in the literature, so the doctor has no way of giving odds of success.  Maggie is doing combination therapy of doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide, two drugs that have shown efficacy in fighting fibrosarcomas, albeit in other parts of the body.  In typical Maggie fashion, she showed no side effects from the doxorubicin.  She slept for a while after the infusion and the next day she was right as rain.  She's one seriously tough little bitch.

We have a follow up in two weeks to see if the drugs have had any effect and if there is any evidence of the disease growing.  One thing that must be borne in mind is that chemo for dogs is not given at the same dosage (adjusted for weight) as for humans.  When doctors first started treating dogs with drugs, the owners were appalled at how sick the dogs were getting from the chemo.  As a result, veterinary oncology is more focused on providing as much quality time with the animal than on attempting to cure.

So, it is difficult.  But Scottish Lass and I have taken the attitude that we are going to be as positive as possible and hope for the best.  If the news is bad, at least we will not have wasted our remaining time with the MagDog in sadness.  I've taken to holding her for long stretches an imagining my love for her cleaning her heart of the disease.  Silly, perhaps, but it can't hurt.

For now, though, it's kind of a bizarre situation because Maggie is 100% normal.  There is no evidence at all that she is sick in the least.  She is jolly and active and happy and shows no signs at all of discomfort.  So, at the least, I view that as a positive.

5 comments:

Tony Alva said...

Not silly, it helps.

Let her quality of life continue to guide your decisions. We'll continue to pray for the best.

Dave Cavalier said...

Thanks. I will post soon about a crazy spiritual experience I had recently involving Maggie, a swimming pool and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. It's bizarre, but it was very powerful and has been guiding me in how to handle the situation. Also, it seems to have prodded me into songwriting for the first time in years. I mean proper (for me) songwriting, where I am just walking or running or something and a song appears, nearly fully formed, in my head. It's been quite amazing.

Anonymous said...

Poor beagly-beagly. I'm so sorry that this is happening to Maggie and to you. She is a very lucky dog to have someone who recipricates her unconditional love. I will continue to keep her in my thoughts and prayers.

Mrs. Alva

Jackson said...

I'm still banking on Maggs.

Chrispy said...

Catching up on my blog reading and I just saw this. I'll just say I think you're doing the right thing. Whatever happens (and whenever it does) Maggie will let you know what she wants.