On January 6, when Penelope was at the vet school getting chemo, the oncologist aspirated her enlarged lymph nodes, but only found fat. They said they'll retest it in two weeks or sooner if I find them to be getting bigger.
January 20, 2004
The oncologist called to say that Penelope's lymph nodes has been enlarged for the past two visits, but today they found some tumor cells in her lymph nodes. So right now they are going to give her the drug that they gave her the first time, and also we have to go back to once a week treatment. Hopefully that'll get the cancer back to remission. If not, then we are going to try another drug. The oncologist said (and I feel too) that the relapse is not unexpected. She said that usually patients go through two relapses.
The oncologist today said Penelope's cancer is back in remission.
When I came back to the apartment for lunch (Penelope was still at the vet school), I found Anastasia sleeping under my bedcovers. Usually she doesn't sleep on my bed until I turn off the lights at night and after I get under the cover, so she can make sure Penelope wouldn't step on her. But I guess she realized the weekly routine now, and when I take Penelope to the vet school on Tuesdays, if it's a cold day, Anastasia would sleep under the cover until Penelope comes home in the afternoon.
February 10, 2004
I asked the oncology tech today about Penelope's vaccines coming up in March, and she said that usually they do not recommend vaccines to chemo patients, they'll just do titer to see if she has enough antibodies in her system.
February 17, 2004
They just called me from the vet school to say that Penelope�s cancer relapsed again. So today they are going to give her a new drug called doxorubicin instead of the usual vincristine. They will give her the new drug every three weeks instead of once a week with the vincristine. The oncologist said 90% of the dogs have no side effects when on doxorubicin, but some have diarrhea and vomiting. They are going to give Penelope some antiemetic (anti vomiting drugs) to take home, but if it becomes too much, then they can try another drug. They said she might not want to eat tomorrow morning. So they are not going to give her any drugs next week, but we still have to go back next week so they can do a blood work next week, and in three weeks when she go back for her second dose of doxorubicin, they'll do an echocardiogram (ultrasound on the heart) to check her heart, because they do not give the drug to dogs with bad heart. They are not going to do the echocardiogram today because the ultrasound machine is all booked up today, but the oncologist said they�ll go ahead with the first dose. But I assured her that Penelope had an echocardiogram one and half years ago at another vet school and it looked fine, so it�s probably safe to give Penelope doxorubicin today even without the echocardiogram.