Help Diego Beat Cancer!
Diego has been my best furry friend since he was about twelve weeks old. He is a loyal companion and friend who takes his duties of protecting "the herd" (also known as his parents and cats) very seriously. In true corgi fashion, he likes it best when the herd is together, and, when not actively herding me, is generally following right behind, even into the bathroom for protection. Our guests don't even blink an eye at it anymore, and arrive ready to be embraced by the super excited freight train of corgi love known as Diego.
When I started interacting with other corgi families online, I started to see people use the term "heartdog" to describe that dog that has a much deeper connection than any other they had experienced in life. A doggy soulmate. The little guy who has taken up a huge and permanent residence in your heart that is more intense than what you'd felt at any other time. And Diego absolutely is that for me, though it sounds weird to say when you certainly do love your other pets very much, too.
Diego loves to "hold hands" with me when he's resting. We sit outside together, nap together, watch TV together, sleep through the night together. I have played through the longest songs in Guitar Hero with Diego's entire body laying on my arm, and learned how to use my laptop while typing OVER the corgi that is wedged between my abdomen and the keyboard. He can't stand it when I need to go away for more than a normal workday, and I hate being away from him any longer than is necessary. We are so very bonded, and it may sound crazy to say, but my universe really does revolve around him. Diego is everything to me.
Earlier this year, we came home one night to find blood on the kitchen floor. Initially, we thought one of the dogs had hurt themselves, but then noticed the blood was coming from Diego's nose. He had no signs of injury, and he sneezed blood once, but seemed okay. When it happened again a few days later and he seemed to be sneezing more, we took him in to see our vet.
At our primary vet, Diego had his nose and health inspected and got way more blood work done than he liked. His mood, behavior, energy, and appetite were all normal, and all of the blood work came back looking good besides a high immunoglobulin count (which was expected if he had an infection), so we got some antibiotics and were on our moderately expensive way.
Diego appeared to be feeling better with the antibiotics. He would sneeze or snort occasionally, but we had done his run of medicine, purchased him a new humidifier, and he looked pretty good. We had our regular annual vet visit for both dogs the next month, and everything seemed to be okay. He did have some blood come out of his nose after a tech visit for vaccines, but it stopped nearly right away and it started to seem like his problem had mostly cleared up.
On the night of Easter, I came home from our family festivities and got ready for sleep time with Diego like normal. When I climbed into bed with him in my arms and was holding him, he rested his face against my cheek, and I noticed something different. He now sounded congested in his nose, like it was stuffy and he was trying to breathe through it. We were back to our vet the next morning.
At the vet the next day, we reviewed how things had gone, and were undecided on whether to move straight to a specialist or to give the antibiotics another shot at clearing it up. Our vet noticed that neither nostril seemed to be clear now, whereas at our first visit one was still going strong. We went home with another round of antibiotics and a probiotic, with the advice that if anything changed or we decided to go straight for the specialist, that they would forward his paperwork to the Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Hospital, where they could get a more detailed look at his problem and figure out what else may be going on. This was the point at which the c-word and the idea that it may be a tumor started to creep into our reality.
By Wednesday, with no real change from antibiotics and the threat of possible cancer looming over us, we packed up Diego and headed to the animal hospital for answers.
On our first visit to the hospital, we went over a list of the options that had been mentioned before but had previously seemed less likely: a foreign object, bacterial infection the antibiotics weren't successfully defeating, fungal infection, mass, tumor, etc. After looking at him, the hospital was leaning more towards the tumor possibility, and it was decided that our next step would be a CT scan of the chest and lungs and a rhinoscopy. We scheduled our procedure and went home furiously praying for a foreign object or something that was easy to cure.
On the appointed day, we took Diego for his procedure, still hoping as hard as we could for an easy resolution. Unfortunately, that was not to be our luck. Diego had tissue masses in both nasal cavities and destruction of the nasal turbinates, with a most likely cause being cancer and a far less likely cause being something fungal. Multiple biopsies were sent out to labs, and we were advised that, if it was cancer, it most likely wouldn't be treatable with chemotherapy or surgery, and would likely require at least a month of radiation treatments. The alternative to the treatments would most likely be that I only had a few weeks to a few months left with my precious baby boy.
We loaded into the car with Diego shooting blood everywhere every time he sneezed, me sobbing uncontrollably, a new worry of how we would afford the treatment Diego needed, and an absolutely crushing combination of panic, fear, heartbreak, and desperation.
Diego was still acting normal. He still scarfed down all his food. He still followed me everywhere and complained when he felt he wasn't getting enough attention. He still barked at the same things he'd always barked at, and begged for treats. His energy levels were normal. It was nearly impossible to reconcile with the idea that he could be gone so soon without the treatments we needed. I went home, held my dog, and cried and prayed for hours. When sleep finally came, I would wake up in the middle of sleep to cry more. Diego, as sweet as he is, cuddled up and he, the patient, tried to comfort me while I cried over the fear of losing him.
After we had some time to process this new knowledge, and while still waiting for results, we decided that, if it was cancer, we had to do whatever we needed to in order to get the radiation treatments for Diego. We had already cut way back on spending once we realized something was wrong on Easter, but now any unnecessary spending was halted almost completely. We waited, and prayed, and tried to squirrel away anything we could to save him.
Eventually the results did come back. Our specialist and the oncology doctors we will eventually be seeing in Norwalk, CT agreed that what is in Diego's nose is a cancerous process that would need radiation to treat, but before we could move forward with even setting up our first appointment, there was one more obstacle to clear. The part of Diego's chest CT scan that overlapped his kidneys showed something on his kidney, so we needed to go in for an ultrasound to check his kidneys before we could go forward with a plan for radiation. Back to the hospital we went.
The good news (possibly the first good news so far) is that Diego's ultrasound showed that what was on his kidney was just a fluid filled cyst, so we can move forward with radiation. The terrifying news is that we are moving forward to try to get radiation, but we are not sure how we are going to afford it. Diego is my world, and we have to get this for him somehow.
We have made our initial consultation appointment for Wednesday, 5/9, at The Veterinary Cancer Center in Norwalk, CT, which is about a two hour drive in each direction. We will get an official estimate of costs at that time, as what the cost is will depend on what kind of radiation and how many treatments he needs. Word of mouth from other vets and pet parents who have gone through it have the price range in in the $4,000 - $8,000 area.
So far, our other vet costs (almost all still owed on care credit and other credit cards) for Diego's nose-related visits have come to $4,296.66. When we add in Diego and his sister Betty Boop's regular check up and vaccinations, we are at $4,742.48 in vet bills for the year.
We are going to do everything we can to get this radiation treatment, but the reality is that we don't have the whole amount ready to go or in available credit at this time, which is why we are here. It is deeply humbling, but if I would humble myself for anyone, I would humble myself for my beloved Diego. And, in humbling myself for Diego, I put myself before you asking for any help that anyone can give to help me save my baby.
Any donation to Diego's medical costs would be so very deeply appreciated. Any shares would have my deepest gratitude, as well, and the gratitude of Diego's friends and extended family. You have never seen a dog with this much personality, and I am not willing to let mine go. We are going to fight for Diego with everything that we have, and your assistance in our fight touches us in a way I can't even fully describe.
I have uploaded images of Diego's vet invoices as a PDF here , and included photos below. I didn't include his regular visits with Betty, but can provide those, as well. I have set my initial goal at the top of the rumored treatment cost, and may change it once we've seen the oncologist on Wednesday.
If we do manage to get over our goal, anything above the current oncology treatment costs will go towards the charges we already owe for Diego on a variety of credit cards so that they will again have space on them ready for future doggy medical costs.
Thank you so much for reading, for any amount of donation, and for sharing Diego's story. To the people who have already been keeping Diego in their thoughts and in their prayers, thank you for your continuing support.
Let's get this baby cured!
