Coppers Chemo Visit --5/08/06

Copper had another good Chemo visit today. The blood work looked really good, and the oncologyst was very pleased with his progress. In fact, they gave him a reduced amount of the Chemo drug because of this. She is very encouraging about him staying in remission for a long time! Sometimes visiting this vet is sad though because there are so many dogs there for Chemo treatment or other cancer related problems. Not all are doing as well as Copper is.

Here are the costs for today's visit:

Recheck.........................................$59.00
QBC or CBC in Hospital........................$40.80
Regulatory Agency Compliance fee...........$ 4.23
Chemotherapy injectable handling fee......$16.30
Vincristine (Chemo Drug)......................$32.51
Chemotherapy Infusion.........................$23.30

Total: ..........................................$176.14

Grand Total: ................................$3191.25

Copper the Thief

Copper got up at 3am the other night so he could sneak outside and steal a rawhide stick that Max had buried. Here is a picture of him after he snuck back in with his treat! He has it hidden in his mouth so the other bassets cannot see it.

Copper is Doing Well

If you look close at the photo above, you can see where they shaved Copper's belly, and spray painted a green line. They did this on his back as well, and they also spray painted some X's on his legs. Copper has been tagged!

Copper is doing very well. He did not have any side effects from the last radiation session. Not being a professional, I cannot be sure, but I think two things helped prevent the side effects. First, I let Copper sleep all that he wanted. I put him on the dog bed, and left him alone. This way, he could gain his strength back. Second, I only gave him a couple of tablespoons of wet food when he came home from the vet (so he could take his pills), and I gave him a light breakfast the next day. This allowed his digestive system a chance to recover from the radiation. Did it help? I don't know, but it sure didn't hurt.

Copper was tired for a couple of days, and then returned to his old self.

Second Radiation 5/1/06

Today, Copper had the back half of his body radiated. I dropped him off at the vet at 3:30 pm, and I was able to take him home around 6:30 pm. I had to wait for him to wake up because they couldn't start the procedure right at 3:30 pm, and then they wanted to wait until he wanted to wait up. I finally told the vet that he is a basset hound, and given the choice, he'd want to sleep all day. They then made him get up.

They told me that he might have some side effects after this session because his digestive system was directly in the radiation field. Nausea, diarrhea, and not being hungry were the side-effects I was told to look for. He did not have any of these effects. He slept all night, waking when I gave him his seizure medication. he has been a little tired over the last couple of days, wanting to sleep more, but he did not have any digestive problems. He ate his breakfast the next day, and was begging for treats like always.

Here is the breakdown of today's session. I should mention that I got a good deal on the treatment. Because they are trying to get people to use this treatment, they charged me 1/3 of what it would have normally cost. Dr. Crow is hoping that if they can get more people to try it, they can gather more data on the treatment. He said that they have gone as far as they can with chemo, and would like to try and get more dogs in remission for longer than 1 year.

CTC Propofol/Isoflurane 1st 30...........$249.40
CTC Treatment Plan/Simulation.........$225.00
Regulatory Agency Compliance fee........ $ 4.23
CTC Treatment FX (Linac) 1-5 Per........ $21.37

Total: ............................................$500.00

Grand Total: .......................................$3015.11