Save Jeter

In the last few weeks since Jeter’s cancer has returned, I’ve had a few people ask if there will be another GoFundMe to help him. I’ve said no.  
 
In Nov. 2015 when we first found out my boy had cancer, the GoFundMe page was a huge surprise. I cried when a lady I work with told me they were doing it. I cried a lot more as the donations poured in. It meant more to me than people just giving their hard earned dollars to try and make surgery possible for my Jete. I will never be able to put into words the feeling during those trying weeks of console and immense love from so many friends, family, coworkers, neighbors and even strangers.

I often think of that time and am incredibly grateful not just for the funds that were donated, but for the words of encouragement and support I felt from so many. I know some people will never experience that type of selflessness and pure benevolence in their lifetime. If that is my one time, then so be it. That was enough. 

However, here we are again up against the C word. Have I mentioned I HATE CANCER? The biopsies have confirmed regression. At first, I thought (because I am wildly ridiculous & over paranoid) that I caught this super early as I am constantly on the lookout for any signs/symptoms. (Of which, I might add, he’s had NONE.) I thought because of this, the disease would be contained within the small tumors I saw pop up (these things grew within only a few weeks’ time, folks) and that it’d be easily treatable. But after a visit to his oncologist yesterday, the ultrasound shows one of Jeter’s lymph nodes is sitting at 8cm (it’s supposed to less than 1cm) and is starting to press on his colon.

What this means, is that my seemingly healthy boy - always happy, always tail-wagging, always eating, always playing, always with a toy in mouth and wanting car rides & runs – is going to die because he won’t be able to go to the bathroom.

Because he’s already had one surgery, the tissue they’d need to remove in that area would leave him incontinent. So, the equivalent of a new surgery is radiation. This type of cancer responds best to radiation, which I was well aware of our first go-round but couldn’t afford to tack on to our already endless bill at the time. Radiation can target that area super specifically and shrink the lymph node PLUS the tumors down. The oncologist said radiation would probably put him back into remission for at least another year. With chemo added in on top of that, he could live years more. His oncologist actually said another dog with this same kind of cancer has been 4 years in remission after radiation and continued chemo. One things for sure, Jeter will now be on chemo the rest of his life. 

If chemo was the only thing he needed, I could figure out how to afford it on my own. But the radiation is just not in my budget. So, I now have to try and come up with $4,000 to cover that expense.  At first I thought, no way. I’m not going to ask. People have been generous enough. But, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that people are bighearted. And that people love little dogs. That people want to help.  And I’ve had a few ask, so here it goes again…

If you’ve already donated to help Jeter, thank you for a year of remission. Thank you for helping save my baby’s life once. Don’t feel like you have to again. If you think I’m crazy…keep thinking it! I am crazy. I am a dog person. I have no kids. No husband. Nothing else I can home to but this guy…no one else snuggles me on weekends or hops in the car for long road trips or drives around running errands or is even just there for me after a long day at work. I know I’m crazy...and if nothing else, I’m crazy about my Jete.

So if you don’t want to/can’t do it/won’t do it/are rolling your eyes, scroll on and just shoot up a prayer for us instead. But if you want to help, we appreciate it. And we love you either way. <3