Chemo consultation tomorrow (March 18th) – what do I ask?
Tomorrow (Thursday, March 18th) Sophie and I are entering uncharted territory – for us – a consultation for chemotherapy treatment. Many of you have walked through this valley ahead of us and, therefore, I am writing to ask for your advice.
What questions should I be asking the vet tomorrow?
What does chemotherapy entail?
How many treatments? How far apart? What form does it take?
How much does it cost?
How do we know how far the cancer has spread away from the amputated limb?
Are there any tests that I should be asking for at this point?
I will be on my own for this appointment – so I will have to take a list of questions, and take good notes – or I will forget everything I’m supposed to ask – and everything the vet tells me.
Thanks everyone (in anticipation of questions/suggestions/etc)….
Tana and Sophie
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March 17th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Hi Tana
I know some of the questions we asked were:
1) side effects
2) survival outcome (worse case/best case)
3) Catie is scheduled for 6 treatments (if all goes well), one every three weeks. Each treatment for her has cost between five and six hundred dollars. Depends on the protocol; Catie was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. Can’t recall what Sophie’s was but it seemed different.
Catie’s next one is supposed to be on Monday. Blech.
With Catie the vet gave us a letter outlining the protocol, medications, time between, etc.
Good luck, Tana. Take notes. I’m sure the doc will cover everything for you.
Carmen
March 17th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Thank you, Carmen. I appreciate the input. I hope that Catie is doing ok. I hope that YOU are doing ok, too !
Hi ho hi ho …. it’s off to the vet we go (again). Does Pet insurance cover stuff like this? It would have been worth it to have taken out Pet Insurance when we got the dogs as puppies … Holy cow it has been an expensive couple of years between Keaton and Sophie. But … what’s money when you look at those beautiful faces … priceless … right??
Thanks,
Tana (and Sophie)
March 18th, 2010 at 7:07 am
Hi Tana,
Good questions Carmen has listed. Additionally, I would inquire about doing an anti-nausea injection before her treatment starts (there’s two that are commonly used – cerrenia and ondastreston. And make sure that they do give you anti-nausea medication so you can give it to her as a preventative at least for the first couple of days maybe up to 5 days vs. waiting until she needs it. Given Sophie’s age, I might also ask if she should have a lower dosage than the normal dosage of chemo just so that it’s not so hard on her. In Mackenzie’s case, they did lower her dosage because of the side effects she experienced. And like Carmen said, this will all depend on what type of cancer and chemo they use. (Mackenzie is on carboplatin ) They will do a white blood cell count before giving her the chemo so you might want to find out what that is. Good luck! Will be keeping our paws crossed that Sophie does well today. Keep us posted. We know this can be very stressful – especially the first time. Kami
March 18th, 2010 at 7:25 am
Thank you, Kami. I’m off to the vet now. I’ll keep you all posted.
Tana