Help with Dexter's Cancer Treatment

Hello all,

I never really thought about making one of these but a friend suggested it and we thought what the hell it couldn't hurt? So because I hate to ask for money or help, let's tell you Dexter's story from the last 4 months instead. (TLDR: Dexter had ACL surgery in December and now we found he has cancer)

On November 22nd, We arrived home to find Dexter not using his right back leg. In the past when he has tweaked it, he would get a good night's rest and things would be better. We even called Animal Urgent care and they suggested the same thing. However, the next morning things had not improved. We took him in that morning and the doctor knew immediately that he had torn his ACL. We got another confirmation the day after Thanksgiving from his regular vet. Eventually, we ended up at a veterinary surgeon and got a TPLO surgery set up. So to make this part short, he got the surgery done on December 22nd and we paid a whopping $4400. He has been a champ and throughout the visits every 2-weeks, he is showing that he is healing amazingly well.

Let's now fast forward to January 28th. I (Alex) woke up in the very early hours and just had this urge to give him 'the good scratches' on my way back to bed (he wakes up when I leave the room and waits until I get back before going back to sleep). This is when I noticed his lymph nodes were swollen just below his jaw and, after further inspection, behind the backs of his knees. Of course, me being the anxiety-riddled person I am, I begin to research causes at 2 AM to find an answer. I thought it could have been from his surgery, maybe a trauma from when he caught the end of the leash trying to run at a passing dog, or maybe he got an infection. Despite all the things it could be, not once did I want to think it was cancer. We called the surgeon that same morning (when they opened) and his team said that if he is acting normal then we could wait to have it checked at our appointment on that upcoming Thursday; so we waited. Thursday came and we did our 1-month post-surgery check. We were told that if it was not for his semi-naked 'drummy', the doctor would never have known he had major surgery just 6 weeks ago. However, as soon as he checked his lymph nodes, the air in the room became heavy and the tone changed to being more serious. He told us that 75% of the time swollen lymph nodes indicate cancer called Lymphoma but he wanted to test it and be sure. They took a sample from the nodes and sent them to a lab. For 5 days, we hoped to be one of the lucky ones that ended up in the 25%. We were not.

Monday, the 6th of February, our lives were changed. Early that morning, after already receiving news that Jessica's childhood pup had passed, we got the call we were dreading. The results came back as Lymphoma. . . Dexter has been in our lives since he was 8 weeks old and in our eyes is our child, so devastated is a good word to describe the feeling after getting that news. After all the pain we endured and the money we spent to get our little boy better from his ACL accident, it crushed us to be told our dog is now dying from something we have no control over and that there is no forever fix. It is safe to say that day was not productive except for us setting up an appointment with an oncologist.

That appointment was on the 8th of February and we were given a lot of information and presented with some options for treatment. Some of the facts we were given are there are 5 stages of Lymphoma in dogs. Most dogs come in somewhere around stage 4 (lymph nodes and liver/spleen) and stage 5 (blood and bone marrow). The earlier in the stages that lymphoma is caught, the better chance the treatments would be effective. We also were given 3 (out of many) treatment options ranging from super aggressive to mildly aggressive to minimal treatment and mainly masking symptoms. Of course the more aggressive you go the more expensive it is. With our heads still spinning from the info, we did not decide at the hospital on any of the options, plus the oncologist also wanted to check his blood work for some things that could determine how effective treatments would be. So we went home and again waited, but this time we finally got good news. Because this cancer develops rather quickly, we determined that it had to have appeared between a vet visit on Jan 19th and the 28th when we found it. We are fortunate that we caught it early. The blood work showed that it was actually at stage 3 (only in his lymph nodes) and because he is not showing any other symptoms, it is a great sign that treatments will be effective. Because of that, we decided that our second option, the mildly aggressive option, would be the best. This is a single chemo drug given every 3 weeks for 5 doses. This is also more reasonably priced at $5000 (the top tier was $10,000). Dogs handle chemo much better than humans so 85% of the time they have no side effects and 10% are mild symptoms. With our chosen treatment plan, there is a median life expectancy of 7-8 months (from when lymphoma is discovered) so 50% of dogs will live longer but there is also that chance it's less; it just depends on how the treatment is going. With how well Dexter handled and has been healing from the surgery, we are optimistic that he will fight this hard and be in the top 50%.

Not knowing how he will respond to the treatment, our goal is to make every day great for him knowing he will eventually pass from it whether it is in a couple of months or even a year or two. We are planning on making him a bucket list and trying to make the rest of his time with us his best days ever.

This journey that we have been on for the last few months has been long and both emotionally and financially draining. We love Dexter and know that his life is being cut too short. We wanted to make this GoFundMe to help us with the cost of the treatment so Dexter could get the most out of his now shortened time. Please know he is going to receive treatment no matter the outcome of this effort, it is more to reduce the financial burden that the surgery and now chemo treatments have been on our family. To be honest, the surgery was a hit on our savings and now with chemo, it is going to get pretty rough.

If donating is not something that you are able to do, we would love it if you could help us with Colorado-based 'doggie-bucket-list' ideas for short-legged dogs.

-Alex, Jess, and Dexter