Intro Surgery Day October 17th 2011

Princess and Buck

Princess on the Run

Relaxing at Home

Princess is our 5 1/2 year old Rottweiler.  She had a tough life in her first one and a half years - two owners and two kennels.  She was thin and kind of funny looking when we met. She needed a break and a home.  We loved her beautiful kind spirit and adopted her immediately.   Her name was always Princess, named by the daughter of her first owner. It sounded strange to us at first and we thought about changing it, but soon it  grew on us. Funny how that always happens. Since then, she's earned plenty of other nick names; Best Dog Ever, Big Headed Kisser, Woofallo, Best Girl, and others.  One thing about Rotties, they love their people - and we love her.  She loves our family, friends, walks, and car rides.  Princess knows every trail in the state park near our home.  A few years ago, she tore her ACL on the left side. Our primary vet surgically repaired it and Princess recovered better than ever.

About three weeks ago, she starting limping favoring the other non-repaired right leg.  About one week later we took Princess to the vet who examined her and found the knee joint to be unstable. Suspecting another ACL tear, we scheduled surgery about a week later on Monday October 17th 2011.  A couple of days before the surgery Princess stopped eating and had very little energy. I figured that it was due to the pain and looked forward to her recovery.  Monday morning Princess and I made the trip to the vets about an hour from our home. Princess was limping heavily and appeared thin. I mentioned that Princess had not eaten in two days.  At her weigh in, Princess had dropped from 79 to 75 pounds in about a week and a half.

As I left the vet, I saw Best Girl walking away politely with the vet tech. It was 8:15am. At 10am that morning my wife called crying. Our primary vet had called and told her that Princess had cancer in her right leg. We were in disbelief! How could it be? Was it a mistake? We cried driving all the way back to the vet. Once there, the news was grim, Osteosarcoma, Princess had a few months a best.  After the consultation, our vet recommended we get a second opinion. We scheduled it for that same day and drove straight there. At the veterinary referral clinic, opinion two sunk in. The diagnosis was unchanged and Princess was doomed. As I recall, our second opinion vet very clinically outlined the following options:

• Do nothing and Princess would suffer and die shortly. 
• Give Princess pain medication to keep her comfortable for a while and euthanize her shortly 
• Amputate the leg and Princess would die in about 3 months
• Amputate the leg and start chemotherapy and Princess could live one to three years longer. 

 He noted that at this stage, Princess will soon begin to be in considerable pain without narcotic pain medication. I asked him. "If this were your dog what would you do?" He said: "she seems like a nice dog. I'd try everything. But I do not have to be concerned with price." The vet then sent an "administrative person" in next to discuss price. The amputation and chemo option would cost around $13,000 and the chemo was a long arduous process.

We left heartbroken with Best Girl Ever

We had told a few close friends earlier and on the way home our friend Gene, a research scientist by trade had emailed us a pdf of a research paper on Navy Protocol. Navy was the name of a dog who survived cancer and the Protocol was a mix of commonly prescribed drugs; Doxycycline Hyclate, Tamoxifen and  Celebrex, that had powerful cancer fighting properties. Together they were used in an experimental canine cancer treatment. Gene had been trying to reach us all day, worried that we had decided to put Princess down on the grim news and in a hope that she would not suffer. Of course we hadn't and still had Best Girl with us. My wife drove while I read the paper. We had hope! Next day, and under the supervision of our primary vet, Princess started the Navy Protocol.  Thank you Gene. No matter what the outcome, you have given us hope.

This is a Blog about our journey to hopefully cure Princess of cancer and continue our lovely journey together and to give hope to others in the same situation.

For more information on Navy Protocol go to:
http://www.angio.org

http://27ground.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/navyprotocolfinal.pdf