Give Luna Bear a Chance: Urgent Cancer Treatment Fund

Hello there, I am raising money for my best friend, she doesn't have opposable thumbs and isn't much for writing but I can assure you she provides the kind of love and happiness everyone deserves at the beginning, middle, and end of every day.

My dog Luna Bear was enjoying a wonderful vacation this summer in my hometown of Wenatchee visiting my Sister and her family for a few days while I was out of town. Upon our return home near the end of August Luna leaned in for some ear scritches and yelped when I rubbed her ear. With closer inspection I found a lump on her ear. This began a several month nightmare journey. We initially assumed it was a hematoma (blood blister) due to its sudden appearance and rapid growth. We visited a friend whom is a semi-retired Veterinarian, who attempted to aspirate the hematoma which is standard procedure, however nothing went as planned. The Vet stated he had never seen anything like Luna's ear and had some concerns that it may not have been a hematoma, with this news he instructed me to keep an eye on Luna and should something happen again take her to the main Vet immediately. Luna had a mild recovery time from an incision as well as the needle aspiration sites of about a month. The swelling subsided a bit, but it appeared she would always have a slightly misshapen ear.

At the beginning of September Luna has finally gained independence from the cone of shame, snood, and all the restrictive wrappings she loathed when she shook off outside and slammed her bad ear into a trailer hitch of a truck. Within 3 days her ear swelled up nearly three times the size it had previous to the last procedure. Luna got a visit to an ER vet office, double ear infection medications to start, however they also had never seen anything like Luna's ear before and advised me to go to a main clinic where they could run more diagnostics. Later that same day we visited another office where the Vet attending stated, she had also never seen anything like this before, she stated that she would like to biopsy the ear to better understand what we were dealing with. Luna was placed on antibiotics, steroids to help with the inflammation, and benadryl to keep her sedated as she healed from the biopsy incisions, as well as some pain medications due to the severity of the inflammation causing her discomfort.

After nearly 1.5 weeks the results came back from the 3 biopsy sites, all 3 were different, one was infection, one was benign hair follicle tumor cells, and the other was Mast Cell Tumor cells (MCT) (cancer). With the initial findings being stated as low-grade, however the Vet informed me initial testings aren't always the most accurate of current or changing situations.

One week later we were able to get into the Vet Oncology office, after their initial examination of Luna they found that her lymph node closest to the affected ear was inflamed and warranted a needle aspiration biopsy to check for presence of MCT cells. Prognosis: MCT cells in abundance, the cancer was spreading already. The next step was to ultrasound Luna's internal organs which are typically the next to be affected by metastatic cancer spread. This examination showed that all of Luna's internal organs and lymph nodes were free of cancer cells at this time, however while ultrasounding her abdomen they found irregular lumps (5) the Vet needle aspirated 3 of the 5 and all showed MCT cells. This Oncology Vet also explained that she hadn't seen anything quite like this condition either and while the inital biopsy shows low-grade she fears it is reacting like a high-grade tumor. With the ear and lymph node being affected by the cancer the recommendation is surgery to excise as much of the Cancer from her body as possible followed by chemotherapy to give Luna the best shot at more time with us.

Luna celebrated her 6th birthday amidst the turmoil of finding a diagnosis. Luna is an English Cream Golden Retriever, a breed accredited with a lower percentage of cancer than the American Golden Retriever genes boasts. Luna's life expectancy should be closer to 12 years of life, it is crippling to think she is facing only half that now.

The timing of finding cancer will never be ideal, however at the start of September I broke my hand and was out on medical leave for nearly a month, with paperwork and logistics tying up my medical leave pay I am starting at a deficit in funds to help my best friend in the ways that she deserves. I am not one to ask for help, preferring to try and handle things on my own but time is a luxury that Luna does not have. I'm already paying nearly $3,000 in just diagnostics and vet visits to ascertain what was wrong. After nearly 9 days of waiting since the initial Vet Oncology visit I finally have a quote of what all of this treatment will cost.

Luna's surgery that is recommended would address the ear and affected lymph node, the smaller tumors on the abdomen would be targeted by Chemotherapy alone. The surgery is $5,600. One round of Chemotherapy IV is $1,000, the IV Chemotherapy is excellent at targeting remaining cancer cells in the body on a microscopic level. If oral Chemotherapy is needed in addition to all of that it is closer to $1,600 a visit with an undetermined amount of visits. However the extended time on Chemo comes with the usual side effects people associate with it, nausea, vomiting, weight loss, hair loss, diarrhea, lack of energy etc. I've been assured they can curtail the medication to be effective while also keeping Luna's quality of life in mind, but I'm looking for my best friend to enjoy what remains of her time with us, so I am not looking to do Oral Chemotherapy at this time.

I am asking for help covering her immediate need of surgery and the first round of Chemotherapy IV post surgery to give her the best chance at a year or more with us. I understand in this economy not many of us have extra funds to share however, if you are able Luna and I would greatly appreciate any and all help you can provide during this time.

Any funds that are not able to be used towards Surgery or Chemotherapy will be set aside for cremation services.