Hoping For Hope

Today we went to see the veterinary oncologist at the Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Center in Overland Park. We had hoped that this specialist would have good news for us with regards to Hope's tumor. I kind of assumed since she's probably seen a lot more mast cell tumors than our vet, she'd be a lot more confident about treating them. Unfortunately, we didn't exactly get the news we were wanting. After an exam, Dr. Heeb informed us that because of the location and size of Hope's tumor, she would not recommend surgically removing it right now. If the tumor were anywhere else on her body, they would simply excise it with a wide margin and she would be completely back to normal. However, because of the sensitive location of Hope's growth, removing it in its entirety could possibly result in damage to her urinary tract and glandular activity.

Her recommended course of action in Hope's case is a chemotherapy drug called Vinblastine, used in conjunction with a steroid called Prednisone. These drugs together could shrink the tumor enough that it could be surgically removed. Unfortunately, mast cell tumors only respond to this treatment about 50% of the time. If Hope's tumor doesn't respond to this treatment, there is one other chemo drug that they can try, but that drug has an even smaller chance of success. Sadly, we will have no other options if neither of these drugs work.

So Hope started her chemotherapy today, and thankfully, there are very few side effects associated with the chemo drug. She will have some side effects from the steroids, but nothing that will affect her quality of life too badly. Within the first few weeks of treatment, the vet said we should know if her tumor is responding positively or not. For now, the plan is to take her to chemo every Thursday for the next 3 weeks, and then every other Thursday for four more treatments.

All we can do at this point is pray that the chemo is effective, and that surgery will eventually be an option. So that's what we're doing. We hope you'll join us in hoping and praying for Hope.