Chemo Begins

Simone had her first chemo treatment today.

We initially thought that we didn't want to put her through it, but were convinced by her doctors that it would be her best shot for a longer survival and overall remaining better quality of life. Gary met with Dr. Helfand, a veterinary oncologist at OSU, for several hours this morning. He said that in cases like Simone's, average survival time after amputation is around 3-5 months, while adding chemo can potentially raise that survival time to an average of 12 months. Dogs tend to tolerate chemotherapy better than humans. Simone does not have obvious signs of metastasis, her incision has nearly healed, and her bloodwork looked good, so Dr. Helfand said if we were going to start this treatment, today was the day. So, we decided to go ahead and give it a try. We've already gone further than we thought we would, so we decided to not stop now.


Gary left Simone at the hospital for the rest of the afternoon while they administered the IV. They used a drug called Carboplatin for her first treatment. Assuming all goes well, she will receive a total of five treatments over 15 weeks, one every third Friday. When Gary brought her home tonight, she ate her dinner like usual and had her same amount of energy and zip. We're told she may be a little lethargic or have less appetite tomorrow, but any possible side effects should dissipate within a day or two.


We'll just continue to take things one day at a time.