Help Chevy Fight Cancer & With His Bucket List!

I have always been a prideful person who believed in NEVER troubling others with my burdens. Yet, here I am humbling myself as I type these words in an attempt to grasp at any glimmer of hope for my boy who has just been diagnosed with “medium cell” " intestinal/alimentary lymphoma. The journey of diagnosing Chevy has been everything but smooth. From ultrasounds, x-rays, blood work, exploratory surgery, bad specialists, good specialists, and medications Chevy has racked up $11,000.00 worth of vet bills so far. Since he will now require specific PEG tube feedings, that number will only grow more.

I can sit here and explain a million reasons why I believe you should donate to our cause, but I am afraid it will just sound like everyone else's story. In reality, every pet in need deserves the best chance at getting past illnesses or coping through their terminal diseases. Their owner's financial status should not be a reason to have their remaining quality of life be taken away from them so suddenly. I'm just a simple gal taking a leap of faith and praying that someone out there understands how I would gladly clear out the little money I have left in order to provide my boy with the best fight possible for as long as he can go. The reason is simply because he is my best buddy.

We thank anyone who is willing to donate to Chevy's cause. If anyone has ever experienced this type of cancer with their pet and has any tips on how we can improve his current status, or help add ideas to our Chevy bucket list, we would appreciate that from the bottom of our hearts.

With Love,

Chevy and his family

For those interested in reading further into Chevy's story and who he is, I have posted his story below these pictures:

Chevy came to our home 7 years ago. The only information we were given by the rescue was that he was surrendered from someone who no longer wished to breed black and white dalmatians anymore. We took a risk despite not knowing anything about his past. Chevy was a timid boy who didn’t understand how to be a dog. He never played, never barked, and never showed any type of excitement other than perking his ears up for food. It made him an ideal candidate for apartment and city life. It was his love of food that made us understand who Chevy was and helped us form that special bond with him. With food, he mastered the basics such as sit, stay, and down, but showed us how smart he truly was by mastering more than just the basics. He knows how to yawn on command (we ask him if someone is exciting), open doors, sit on a skateboard, and the crowd favorite: “bang- bang” and limping on command. We quickly learned that Chevy was not like other dogs. He was special. Almost human-like. He understands what you are asking him and he has so much to say without ever saying anything at all. He is calm, kind, and gentle. Everyone who meets him not only falls in love with the breed, but falls in love Chevy himself. He is truly a special and one-of-a- kind dog. Among all of the wonderful traits he has, the thing that makes Chevy different from the rest and makes him loved by all, is his ability to always know when you need him the most and his ability to bring out the best in both people and animals. He will watch you from a distance until you are ready for some love. No animal or person that has met him has ever hated him. Chevy has become more than just a pet to us. He is our family. Wanting more than just a small 1 bedroom apartment and city life for him, we bought a house in the country side where he has been happily enjoying his life for the last 6 years. Amongst treats and basking in the sun, Chevy enjoys playing with his sister Nova, canoe rides, sniffing the morning air, balls and melting into anyone’s lap

When Chevy came into our lives all those years ago, we learned that he was a stone former. Wanting him to live the best life possible he began to eat home cooked meals developed by a nutritionist which has kept the stones from reforming. Despite being on a healthier diet, we continued to notice that something was not right with our boy. He developed issues with weight-loss, weight-gain, hair-loss, and anemia. My husband and I changed vets countless times until we found one who was able to diagnose Chevy with Thyroid Disease. Once we were able to get that under control, we noticed a fast improvement.

It wasn’t until a few short months ago that we noticed Chevy beginning to refuse his meals. Knowing his love of food has no boundaries, we knew that something was again not right with our boy. We immediately went to our primary vet, where countless bloodwork, x-rays, ultrasounds, and medications provided us with no clue as to what was happening and were referred to a local center for internal medicine and surgery. An appointment for both internal medicine and surgery were scheduled a week apart of each other. While waiting for his consult, his health continued to decline at the rapid rate. He was experiencing vomiting, diarrhea, and an inability to keep liquids down. After meeting with the specialist at internal medicine, they decided to do further testing with him despite our primary vet’s recommendation to go straight into exploratory surgery. Although we had a fresh set of lab work results and imaging from our primary vet, internal medicine also insisted that they needed to run their own labs and imaging. We authorized the estimate we were given and prayed that something might have been missed initially. We were slammed with a very costly bill of $2,000.00 that led to no further indication as to what exactly was going on with our boy. We were informed by internal medicine that they could do nothing further for him and that he would, without a doubt need to be seen by their surgical department for full thickness biopsies.

As we had already scheduled the consult with surgery, we were relieved that we would not have to wait much longer for him to be seen. Having his dire need for surgery re-confirmed, we attempted be proactive by scheduling Chevy’s surgery. The staff informed us that plenty of surgical slots were still available and although we were informed by internal medicine that he needed surgery, Chevy would still need to complete his consult with the surgical unit to confirm whether or not he actually needed surgery. Not understanding why we could not schedule his surgery despite the recommendation of internal medicine, we asked if we could still schedule his operation while still keeping and completing his surgical consult. We were then informed that the two departments to not communicate with each other so the recommendation of internal medicine would not matter. We were told again to not worry as plenty of surgical slots were still available within days of our upcoming consult.

When it was time for our surgical consult, we were given an estimate for “Exploratory Surgery/ Biopsies” that ranged anywhere between $4,000.00-$6,000.00. We were then informed that our boy would need to wait another week as he was too unstable for surgery and because being off of prednisone for only a week might prohibit proper healing post-op. Although we had major concerns that that his heath would only decline further within that week, the surgeon urged us to postpone surgery. We advocated on Chevy’s behalf and pushed for surgery to occur within 24hrs of his consult to which we were informed that no more surgical slots were available. A sense of anger came over us as we felt as though the real reason for the push to postpone surgery was not actually relevant to his health but because of their scheduling. We brought this concern to the facility director and availability for surgery became available the very next day. We were then informed that as Chevy would need to remain in their care 2-3 days after surgery and since it was a holiday weekend, Chevy would be admitted into the emergency room post-op where he would not receive the same level of care due to the surgeon and surgeon’s staff being off. Feeling like we were backed into a corner, fearing the lack of quality care he would receive would not be in his favor, and because no other specialists had sooner availability, we decided to postpone surgery. As the week went on Chevy continued to decline further, where fecal incontinence set it. He was on the brink of death, but luckily made it to his surgery date. Instead of postponing his surgery another week, the surgeon instructed us to admit him into their hospital a day prior to his scheduled surgical date in an attempt to stabilize him before putting him under. Upon admitting him, staff members continuously mentioned that he was the wrong sex and that they would be operating on Chevy by 10 am that same day. An already stressful situation was made worse due to the staff’s misinformation. After clarifying that Chevy was only being admitted for pre-operative care, we learned that he was not only in need of IV fluids but also in dire need of several albumin transfusions due to his health declining so rapidly within that week Not only were we hit financially with this pre-operative care, but we were also affected by this emotionally as his decline was heart shattering to watch.

Upon Chevy’s completed surgery to obtain biopsies, internal medicine contacted us claiming that we owed them an additional $400 on top of the $6000.00 surgical fee in order pay them for the biopsies they mailed out to be testing. Confusion set in and we began to question this hidden charge. What we didn’t understand was how was it that we were told that we could not initially schedule surgery because the departments did not communicate with each other but here they were charging us for something that another department completed. On top of that, the estimate we received clearly stated that the description of the type of surgery was “exploratory surgery/biopsies”. We also never received an estimate to authorize this additional cost. After voicing the concern, we had with this extra fee to the supervisor, we were threatened and told that if we did not pay they would be more than happy to ask the lab to return the samples so they could throw them out. We not only felt extorted by this but we were appalled by the way we were being treated. After multiple phone calls leading to no resolution, the supervisor refused to continue to speak to us over the phone and required that we speak to them in person once Chevy was ready for pick up. Feeling uncomfortable with that, we attempted to come to a middle ground over the phone to where our request was denied. We had no choice but to speak of this matter in person. We picked Chevy up and received his post- op instructions which included feeding him Hills canned i/d via his PEG tube (something that he has not been on for several years as his food has always been home cooked). As Chevy is prone to forming bladder stones, the food that was prescribed to him was not ideal because it contained several purines (something a Dalmatian cannot process). Our concerns were yet again ignored and we were billed for the food.

We were then confronted by the supervisor where they proceeded to mock us and act childish. They accused us of calling the in person meeting so that we could intimidate the department into dropping the charges. Stuck between a rock and a hard place we paid the balance because ultimately Chevy who would be the one to suffer if we didn't. Feeling angered and deceived, we awaited his results. It wasn’t until the following Monday where internal medicine called us to discuss the results of Chevy’s biopsies. Our fears were confirmed. It was determined by the pathologist that he has mid- cell alimentary lymphoma. Although Chevy was diagnosed with mid-cell lymphoma internal medicine instructed us that oncology will be treating him as if he were to have large cell lymphoma due to his rapid decline. Knowing that starting treatment harshly without truly knowing what cells are predominant, we began to ask clarification on how that would affect Chevy’s overall health. If we focus on the large cell when we should have been focusing on the small cell does that mean that the small cell lymphoma cells will run rampant? Do we have to go straight into harsh treatment if there is no need? These questions were only answered by the supervisor telling us that they would no longer be providing Chevy with any kind of care and that we are to look elsewhere because we had “lost faith in their staff”. We were floored and although they stated it was because we lost faith in them, I know deep down in my heart it is because of the concerns that were voiced regarding the extra payments and lack of communication associated with it.

As we don’t have the time or energy to focus any attention on their unprofessionalism, we shifted gears and found a new oncologist 2 hours away from home. Despite the long trip we hope that he will provide us with a more natural and less abrasive form of chemo. Unfortunately, the previous specialist is not providing the new specialists records needed in order to move forward with Chevy’s treatment fast enough. In the mean time, since Chevy continues refusing food, we have found a nutritionist who has heard our concerns over the i/d caned food and has suggested that we use Hills Derm Complete with Peptamen AF in an attempt to keep him as comfortable as possible. The food that is required to help him gain weight and to help keep him alive will only add to his increasing number of vet bills, but we will continue to do whatever it takes to keep him comfortable. Although he still has more bad days than good, he remains in high spirits which is all that matters to us.