The Trip to Colorado State University – Ft. Collins
Today Mary, Buddy and I took a trip up to Ft. Collins to visit the folks at the Flint Animal Cancer Center. We met with Dr. Karen Beckwith and a plethora of others.
We brought with us the X-Rays that Dr. Pyne had taken, and of course discussed all of the events leading up to our visit.
After looking through all of the images, Dr. Beckwith decided that she wanted to do some additional investigation, because she frankly couldn’t tell from the X-Rays if we were dealing with cancer or not. Mary and I left to get some lunch, and Buddy stayed behind to endure more poking and prodding. (He didn’t like this part)
Once we got back, Dr. Beckwith and her student assistant, Aslang, sat us down and talked about the fact that they really can’t be sure that we’re dealing with Cancer. They’ve taken some samples, and will send it to the lab to determine exactly what the problem is. It’s quite possible that we’re dealing with a fungus, and if that’s the case, we’ll be able to knock it down with relative ease. If not, and it does turn out to be cancer, they’ve determined that Buddy is a perfect candidate for one of the limb-sparing palliative studies that they have going on at the moment, which uses targeted radiation and a cancer-inhibiting drug so either way, it appears that we’re only going to have one Tripawd in the family. (I think this is a win, even though technically that means Buddy doesn’t fit in here….)
We’ll know much more once the lab results are in, and assuming the worst, Buddy will get his first radiation treatment next week (The regimen here is a high-dose treatment to start, then 2 more doses at 7 and 21 days. If he responds to the treatment well, this will be repeated at 2-3 month intervals). This means that basically Buddy will keep his leg *and* have a good quality life. Not sure what else you could ask for. (Keep in mind this is the worst case, in the best case, it turns out to be a fungal infection and we just have to fight that)
As you can see, Buddy enjoyed his day out (It’s a 3 hour drive up to Ft. Collins, 3 hours back, and we ended up spending 4 hours there)
April 13th, 2010 at 7:28 pm
Buddy, we are keeping all fingers and paws crossed that this comes back a fungal infection. But either way, it sounds like you’re in good hands with both your doctors at home and the doctors at CSU, and what great news that you’re a good candidate for the limb sparing study! Keep smiling that great, big smile of yours!
Sending lots of hugs,
Holly and Holly’s mom
April 14th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
That would be great news if it was only a fungal infection. I remember when we did the first biopsy on Mackenzie and hoped that it would be just that. Unfortunately it wasn’t in our case (apparently in our area (LA) it’s pretty rare to find this as I was told but they do check this anyway just to make sure.) You just never know.
If it does turn out to be cancer, that’s great that Buddy is a good candidate for the limb sparing surgery. When we checked into this surgery when Mackenzie was first diagnosed, in our case the odds weren’t good that it would work. They gave us less than a 50% chance so our doctors discouraged us from taking this path. Sounds like you’re in very good hands tho and your doctors wouldn’t be encouraging you to take this path if they had concerns about Buddy qualifying. Hopefully you won’t have to worry about any of this anyway.
We’ll be keeping our paws crossed that this is nothing more than a fungal infection.
Good luck and we hope you get some good news.
Kami (Mackenzie’s Mom)
April 14th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Don’t be silly … of course Buddy fits in here! 🙂
April 15th, 2010 at 10:59 am
Hey Buddy,
I’m over here rooting for fungus! I’ve never rooted for fungus but there is always a first!
Give me an F, Give me a U, Give me a G, Give me another U, Give me an S – What’s that Spell? “No Cancer”! Come on Fungus!!!!
Buddy the Bruiser, I muscled my way into the Tripawds and I’m a little thing! You should have no problems being a part of the tripawd community! Look at me, no amputation and no cancer! So, I say you fit in! Plus, each official tripawd gets a guest pass, you can always have Nikki use her guest pass. Just sayin’.
Commy Com Comet