Sadie Layne Longest

As many of you know Matt and I have had our sweet Sadie since she was 6 weeks old. Over the past seven years our oldest "child" has become such a huge part of our lives. She is the best dog we could have ever asked for. We were worried what would happen when we decided to bring children into the family and Sadie adapted so well. She changed her puppy kisses from great big slobbery ones to little tongue barely out of the mouth kisses. (She has since changed back to the slobbery ones since the girls are no longer babies!) We don't know what we would do without her.

Having said that, we recently learned that Sadie has Lymphoma. Lymphoma is a cancer that develops from cells in the immune system called the lymphocytes that circulate through the blood. Without treatment, dogs only last 1-2 months. With treatment, Chemotherapy, dogs survive anywhere from 6-18 months, in some case longer, in some cases shorter. This kind of cancer is NEVER cured, it only goes into remission, and that remission and only short term. Some dogs also go into a second remission, but that one last about half as long as the first.

So here is Sadie's story:

Matt found large lumps on both sides of her neck on a Sunday morning December 12. By Thursday, Dec 16, we had her in the vet and they took a sample and sent it to MSU. We received that results on Wed Dec 22. They showed that some cells had broken but the cells that remained looked like Lymphoma, however, due to the cells being broken they could not 100% say that that is indeed what it was. So, we prayed that they were wrong and a we opted to get another sample taken on Thursday Dec 23. Well, the results came back exactly the same, still unable to 100% say that it was lymphoma. After talking with Sadie's vet, Matt and I decided to have a consult with an oncologist, cancer doctor. Dr. Swanson, the oncologist, sat and talked with us about this horrible disease and ALL of our options for over an hour. She also did another needle aspirate of one of her lumps and she was able to read it right there in the office and we found out with 100% certainty that Sadie indeed has Lymphoma. After this appointment I felt sad but also relief. We finally know for sure that this is what it is and we can get on with the treatment. I am also happy that they had an affordable option for us instead of just putting her on prednisone, not saying that only doing prednisone is wrong, I just feel like, as Matt said "We can at least try to fight for her." We opted for a low cost Chemo drug in combination with prednisone. Traveling, cost, and Sadie's quality of life were our three factors. Sadie only has to go to the vet once every 3 weeks for 6 treatments. We are hoping that this gives us another 6-9 months. Dr. Swanson seems very hopeful due to the fact that we found the lumps so fast and acted on them so quickly, that Sadie should do good. She also said that if we are going to do the Chemo we shouldn't wait...so we started today.

Nora and Gretchen went with me to drop her off. The appointment was 1 1/2 hours long so we opted to go to my parents house to wait. Dr. Swanson said she did great. Her bloodwork prior to chemotherapy looked great and the vet was very happy with the fact that after just 2 doses of prednisone, Sadie's lumps have significantly decreased in size!!! The only problem today is that Sadie's UA, urinalysis, show that her urine is very dilute, which could be due to the prednisone, but it also showed that she has some bacteria in her urine which indicates a urinary tract infection. So, she is starting on antibiotics today! Thank goodness she takes pills so well!

As far as now, she is very tired, as we suspected she was going to be. I just hope that she continues to have a good appetite and doesn't get too sick. She was rather unhappy with me when I picked her up, she wouldn't even look at me in the car! Maybe next time I should make Matt take her, I hate being the "bad guy!"

Right now Sadie is still the same old Sadie. Happy, jumpy, and spunky! She doesn't even know she is sick. I hope she stays that way for a long, long, time! I am very hopeful that maybe we can at least get her through these winter months so she can go outside and enjoy the sunshine a little before it's her time to go! I want to take her to the cottage again, to the beach, to all of her favorite places, one last time. I want to play frisbee with her and watch her chase the kids around the backyard in the warm sunshine.

Ok, now that I am blubbering all over my computer, it's time for me to sign off. I will be updating this during Sadie's treatment. I realized it would be a lot easier for me to share her progress!!