Help Drake fight Insulinoma
Hi friends! So over the past two weeks I have felt pain like I have never experienced before. I was at work last Monday, November 16th and my husband called me. I was getting ready to walk out the door, it was 6:10 PM (isn’t it funny how some things just stay with you?) and Drew asked if the doctors were still in because something was wrong with Drake. Drake fell off the bed, peed on himself, was struggling to stand, and very disoriented. The doctors I work for checked his vitals, we did X-rays and bloodwork. Everything looked great...except his diagnostic bloodwork. His blood glucose was low. Showing 50. An adult dogs blood glucose levels should be anywhere from 70 to around 130. So that was strange. His sugar dropped and he went into a seizure. But why would a healthy 8 year old, 56 pound, athletic Vizsla have a BG that low when he has been eating and acting fine? So we sent the bloodwork off to confirm that our machine read it right. It was right. Dr Vance consulted with a specialist at antech. They recommended 3 things it could possibly be: 1) Insulinoma 2)atypical Addison’s disease 3) liver issues. The cortisone test for addisons came back first, he did not have that. We waited until Friday to hear back about the second test, the insulin:glucose test. I can remember reading it and my heart just dropped. It said “high probability for an Insulinoma”. What now? What do I do? This type of cancer is EXTREMELY RARE. There are hardly any case studies, and the one support group I found (the only one) has less that 600 people worldwide in it. So, before we got that test back, I checked his blood glucose multiple times a day. It was lucky to read normal once a day. On Wednesday it has dropped to 28...which is terrifying. Most dogs would be super lethargic and almost in a comatose state by then. Drake wasn’t though. He was walking around like he was perfectly fine. And that’s the thing with this terrible cancer. A dogs body adapts to living with low BG and they act completely normal, until it drops so low that they start seizing. I started feeding him 4-6 times a day. When I could...he doesn’t like having to eat so often. He is also on steroids twice daily to help slow the insulin secretion in his body. So we got an appointment at Blue Pearl Westside in Atlanta. We saw Dr Evans on Monday November 23rd. Drake had an oncology work up and also a CT scan done. Dr Evans said he would wait for the official report from the radiologist before we proceeded, but Drake looked to have a 1 cm mass on his pancreas and also possibly lymph node involvement. We got a call today, November 25th, saying that what Dr Evans saw was correct. His recommendation is to proceed with surgery so Drake can have as much as a normal life as possible. The estimated time I will have with him after surgery is 14 months, but during those months hopefully we can do all the things he loves to do. Right now he has to take it easy, we can’t go on long walks or go hiking or play too much and if you know Drake, or any typical Vizsla, they do not have a slow down button so this is beyond difficult for him and why we are proceeding with surgery. Two weeks after surgery Drake will start on a chemo drug that we can give at home called Palladia. I’m not sure the amount of time he will have to be on that yet. Our visit for this past Monday was $1,300 and our surgery estimate is $5,500. That doesn’t include chemo or follow ups after. We really appreciate any support we can get, even if it’s good vibes and prayers. Drake is our world and I’m just not sure how to live without him. He’s my best friend, my everything. One thing I do know, is no matter what happens, he has has the best life possible and there is nothing I regret. Thank you ❤️
I will also include additional links and pictures of Drake and his oncology report from Monday.
https://vetgirlontherun.com/canine-insulinoma-when-the-bg-is-lo-and-the-dog-doesnt-know-vetgirl-veterinary-continuing-education-blog/
https://vsso.org/pancreatic-insulinoma#general_considerations
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c2e3/6851cbe0c4429eec0c86bf62b3ac4c882432.pdf
