Helmut's Chemo and Holistic Therapy
Helmut is my 9 year old heart dog. He has t-cell lymphoma, an unfortunate curse of his breed. His testing and diagnosis began in November of last year. He has had three ultrasounds to aspirate the spleen and his diagnosis came after 2 PARR tests with CSU. 1st January, the cells were suspicious and likely t-cell lymphoma. He was feeling great until the end of March. He started prednisone and got the second ultrasound and the official diagnosis came on April 18th. He was two treatments from completing the CHOP protocol when he came out of remission last week, 6 days after I was laid off. We have three other chemo options, MOPP, LOPP and Lomustine and are going to take the less invasive protocol, a combo of lomustine and part LOPP so he can live his life to the fullest as there is no promise he has more time with the more agressive approaches.
He feels great right now. You can't tell he is sick whatsoever.
To date, Helmut's medical costs for his lymphoma has been $8281.21.
$6083.77 for the chemotherapy, medications and 2 ultrasounds with oncology. Our Veterinarian Bill, for original diagnosing, first ultrasound, blood screenings during chemo and other cancer related costs was $2197.44.
Our female Violet needed a TPLO for a completely ruptured CCL on April 20th. We had postponed to help us with Helmut a long as possible but between April and June, her medical costs were $3024.10.
The lomustine/LOPP protocol will be between $1400 and $1800 and I am working on some holistic therapies including changing his diet, CBD/FECO, acupuncture for pain (he has "bionic" knees) and others.
I am embarrassed to ask for help but Helmut is my baby and he feels good as far as I can tell. If I hadn't been laid off and waiting 4-6 weeks for unemployment, we would have made it work.
He eats, jumps, plays and snuggles. He is the alpha to two sisters and I want to complete his Bucket List and get him through the holidays, If we can meet a quarter of this goal, I would be over the moon.
Thank you for reading our story and helping out baby boy, Senor Puppy Waggles, Helmut.