So doggo has started on a rescue chemo protocol. She seems relatively comfortable clinically, still loves food and walkies. But I can hear her slight snore-y breathing, likely because her hilar lymph nodes have enlarged again, and every time I pet her belly and can feel her big spleen I wince. There is a 50% or thereabouts response rate with the rescue protocol, and it would buy her maybe 2-3 months on average.
Maybe I'm just selfish for wanting to get her through the holidays, but she seems ok for now at least. I'm willing to go MOPP if need be to buy her that time since she was a bust with CHOP (surprising, since 80% + of dogs with B cell LSA go into full remission for an average of a year or so . We -including oncologists - were all like aw, ****, WTF dog, wat are you doing?!).
There's now way we could afford a full MOPP ($1000-$2000 per treatment so with 2 wks on 2 off, that's 2-4k a month for 6-12 months, and given that I've already wiped out my savings (~$7,000+) on her, I just can't do it anymore) - but I could at least give her one round to help her be comfy into the new year.
I mean, this dog is seriously my heart dog. Had her for 12+ years through all my ****.
For those of you who remember devyn, Roc was to devyn as Ginny is to me (and no, she was not named after Harry Potter stuff, she was named after West Virginia where Animal Control picked her up, alone in an abandoned house - theory is she was abandoned because she's a hunting breed but she is horribly afraid of gunshots.).
I know we're no different than anyone else who has lost a pet, but I feel distinctly unprepared for it. Being in path, we see a lot of death, but we are spared the actual process of death. We only see the aftermath. So I'm really not sure how I'm going to handle it
Have any of you ever done the whole at-home euthanasia thing?
I'm considering it for when her times comes. The hubs isn't really a fan and thinks it would be awkward/make bad memories for the house, but I'm trying to win him over. I would much prefer to have her pass here.