Jezebel's Summer Doo

I know this has been a lot of posts, today, but it has been a long day. I also realize that some of it is a repeat.

I left the house at 5:45 a.m. and drove in gridlock for right at an hour to reach the vet. Here is a picture of lovely Jezebel waiting with me for them to open the doors so I could drop her off for her CT scan.


After leaving my little darling, I managed to drive 30 minutes west in order to make it to court. I got a few cases taken care of but about mid morning I began to crash because I have only gotten about 8 hours of sleep in three days. Have I mentioned that I am glad I am not my lawyer?

Because this turned out to be melanoma instead of nasal cavity carcinoma, Jezebel’s treatment plan changed. My damned cell phone wouldn’t hold a charge and I couldn’t get reception in the courthouse, anyway. Accordingly, Husband spoke to the head of Oncology and part of the conversation about the change in the pathology report went something like, “How do we know the pathologists haven’t just stuck out their lip, stamped their foot and arbitrarily decided this is a melanoma instead of nasal cavity carcinoma?” The doctor assured him that, clinically, this makes much more sense. Husband suspects there has been quite a bit of behind closed doors conversations going on between the oncologists and the pathologists that we’ll never know about. Bottom line, the Oncology Head is satisfied this is the correct diagnosis AND she was interested enough to intervene.

So the GOOD news is that the radiation therapy for the melanoma is less traumatic than the radiation therapy for nasal cavity carcinoma. Jezebel will only have 4 radiation sessions (beginning this Thursday) instead of 14 – 18. They will be spaced a week apart and although the dosages are stronger, the damage the cause to the mucus lining and eyes is far less. So that is excellent.

I am her "Mom." I can't adequately express what that means to me. Any "Mom" would rather lose their child than have them suffer needlessly.

The second optimistic thing about this kind of cancer is that although it is more deadly (until about a year ago, only 10% lasted a year) they have just released to oncologists a vaccine that has shown remarkable results for melanoma. 70% of dogs respond favorably and what recently was a median life expectancy of up to 5 months has increased to 1.5 years for that 70% of dogs. This vaccine was released on the market early due to the astoundingly positive results. The actual median survival age may be even greater but we won’t know until they’ve have more time to test it over a period of years.

Jezebel will have to have a dose every two weeks (4 total) followed by a booster every 6 months. The young tech told me, today, that after that, they typically check their chest ex-rays every 6 months to check for metastasis. Occasionally, they will order blood work “if we haven’t seen the dog in awhile.” When you consider that just two years ago most dogs didn’t last 5 months, this is incredible. I so hope Jezebel is one of the ones that responds favorably. To make it better - no side effects.

I found a lucky penny today, too.

Here is poor Jezebel with her summer doo. They mark her muzzle so they know where to aim the radiation to attack the tumor.



She looks sort of silly but she is home and happy to be here and we are thrilled to have her.

The Oncology Head remarked at what a snuggler she is. She wanted to crawl in everyone’s lap, said she.

Try driving with THIS thing looking over your shoulder!


Life is good.