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Lancelot was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer today. Recently, he'd suddenly lost a lot of weight. On Sunday, I touched him and realized I could feel his skeleton; it felt like it happened overnight. We started observing him more closely, and he was not eating kibble, though he was happy to eat canned food. Bobby made him an appointment at the vet's office, and we started giving him canned food so he'd eat. Last night, however, he started turning down even the canned food, which told us how just how bad he gotten so fast.
As quickly as he'd lost weight, he would never have made it to his appointment if he wasn't eating at all. Bobby took off work today and called the vet, and she was able to see him first thing this morning. Based on his lab results, she diagnosed him with bone marrow cancer.
He'd lost about 16 lbs in a matter of a week or two. He's always been tiny and tended to be underweight (the vet generally wants Gwen to lose weight and Lance to gain!), so for a while, it slipped under our radar as him being both small and old, but Sunday really was extreme, and I knew something was wrong.
The good news is that it seems we caught it early. We were given several options for how to proceed; we've decided not to schlep him back and forth to Burlington for oncology treatments. His vet recommended a steroid that has very similar success rates to chemo and will preserve his quality of life, so we went with that. He's already past the life expectancy for a Golden (12 years), so we want comfort and quality at this point. He could have as long as two years, and we're planning to make the best of that.
I kept it together pretty well today. I told my students what was going on, both because I had my phone out/on in class (and I usually don't) and because I didn't want them to think if I was acting strangely, it was because of them. (I was trying hard not to, but of course, I was worrying like crazy!) After I found out the diagnosis and one of my 7th graders asked me if I had news about him, I told them, and I immediately found myself enveloped in 7th graders. Such sweet kids. I'm so lucky to have them. Of course, they all know Guinevere--she's in school at least once per week--but only a few of them have met Lancelot.
On their way back from the vet, Bobby and Lancelot went to Wendy's for lunch, and Lancelot had his first cheeseburger. We are careful about what we feed them (for both health and behavior reasons), but the vet's advice for him now is that, if he wants it, let him have it. Bobby used the cheeseburger to slip Lancelot his first round of meds, and he ate the whole thing. He's since had part of a can of food, a piece of ham, and a piece of bacon--the most he's eaten in a while--and his energy is back up a little, though right now, he is snoring on the floor of my study.
I don't know what's in store, of course. I hope we have a couple years left together, but whatever we do have, we'll make it the best it can be. We had just a month with Alex after his diagnosis, and it was a month I'll never forget.
As quickly as he'd lost weight, he would never have made it to his appointment if he wasn't eating at all. Bobby took off work today and called the vet, and she was able to see him first thing this morning. Based on his lab results, she diagnosed him with bone marrow cancer.
He'd lost about 16 lbs in a matter of a week or two. He's always been tiny and tended to be underweight (the vet generally wants Gwen to lose weight and Lance to gain!), so for a while, it slipped under our radar as him being both small and old, but Sunday really was extreme, and I knew something was wrong.
The good news is that it seems we caught it early. We were given several options for how to proceed; we've decided not to schlep him back and forth to Burlington for oncology treatments. His vet recommended a steroid that has very similar success rates to chemo and will preserve his quality of life, so we went with that. He's already past the life expectancy for a Golden (12 years), so we want comfort and quality at this point. He could have as long as two years, and we're planning to make the best of that.
I kept it together pretty well today. I told my students what was going on, both because I had my phone out/on in class (and I usually don't) and because I didn't want them to think if I was acting strangely, it was because of them. (I was trying hard not to, but of course, I was worrying like crazy!) After I found out the diagnosis and one of my 7th graders asked me if I had news about him, I told them, and I immediately found myself enveloped in 7th graders. Such sweet kids. I'm so lucky to have them. Of course, they all know Guinevere--she's in school at least once per week--but only a few of them have met Lancelot.
On their way back from the vet, Bobby and Lancelot went to Wendy's for lunch, and Lancelot had his first cheeseburger. We are careful about what we feed them (for both health and behavior reasons), but the vet's advice for him now is that, if he wants it, let him have it. Bobby used the cheeseburger to slip Lancelot his first round of meds, and he ate the whole thing. He's since had part of a can of food, a piece of ham, and a piece of bacon--the most he's eaten in a while--and his energy is back up a little, though right now, he is snoring on the floor of my study.
I don't know what's in store, of course. I hope we have a couple years left together, but whatever we do have, we'll make it the best it can be. We had just a month with Alex after his diagnosis, and it was a month I'll never forget.
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