Casey's Tale
Casey gets his first post-amp X-Rays today. We’re hoping for good news, but a little nervous in that 12 days passed between his diagnosis and amputation. With clear X-rays, it will be off to the oncologist for chemo round 4 tomorrow.
Otherwise, he’s doing great, and gets really irritated when we try to coddle him. He says c’mon . . . let me be a dog. Hard to argue with that.
Oh Yeah! Just back from the vet. Lungs are clear!
We’re off to the oncologist today for Casey’s third round of Carboplatin. He is tolerating it well with no significant side effects noted. We did a CBC Friday, two weeks after his second round, and that was normal (I understand Neutrophils bottom out at 13 to 14 days, so that’s why we tested then). Today we will discuss increasing his dosage. After some research, we’ve learned that there is a dosage range calculated as a function of body area as estimated by weight. Casey is a tripawd Golden Retriever at 55 pounds, or 0.85 sq. meters of body area. His first two rounds were at 200 mg/sq. meter. The oncology center where we hope to pursue the osteosarcoma vaccine prefers 300 mg/sq. meter, or 50% more. In that Casey tolerated his first two rounds so well, we hope to increase the dosage and stretch the frequency from every other to every three weeks. That will lead right into the vaccine study in mid to late April.
At diagnosis, almost eight weeks ago now, his vet gave Casey two months on the outside (without amputation). When we stopped in for the blood draw, she watched his roundhouse tail wags and said “I smile every time I think of how well Casey is doing.” So do we.