Yogi’s Chemotherapy Treatment for B-cell Lymphoma

You never expect it to happen to your family. You never expect it to happen to your pet. Especially me. Hi my name is Devyn. I’m an ICU veterinary nurse at a large scale specialty veterinary hospital in southern Louisiana. In other words, I see the worst of the worst when it comes to injured and sick animals. I care for your fur babies when they become critically ill. I comfort your dog who just had major life saving surgery. I’m there to love them for you when they’re in my care. I’m even there to cheer them on when they get diagnosed with terminal cancer as they fight for their lives undergoing expensive chemotherapy. I never thought I would have to comfort myself for these exact same reasons. The dog in the pictures is my family dog named Yogi. And of course he’s got a million nicknames just like i’m sure the rest of you call your dogs the most ridiculous things when you’re alone with them. We all do it, don’t worry. Yogi is 5 years old. We adopted him at a local rescue event at petsmart on a whim. My mother and I walked the isle of puppies jumping in cages waiting for new homes, but i saw the red pup sleeping soundly amongst the buzzing of screaming children and barking dogs. And behind him stood some of the sweetest people I have had the pleasure of meeting. His foster parents. As i scooped Yogi up into my arms he opened his beautiful eyes and looked up at me and i cradled him and my heart immediately grew 5 sizes. His foster parents told us that if he didn’t get adopted today that they would adopt him themselves. My mother and I glanced at each other simultaneously. You can guess what happened next. Years went on and Yogi became a staple of our family pack. In the first 2 years he grew to a massive size. Today he sits at 105 pounds. Despite that size he proves to be the most gentle soul. Taking on every puppy i brought home. Every bottle fed kitten i raised to be adopted, he never faltered. We trusted him no matter the size animal he approached. He couldn’t hurt a fly. To get to know him better i’ll explain some silly quirks he displays to compliment his goofy personality. Yogi is the best fetcher out there. But he hates the green ball. He’ll only pick up the red and spit it at you while you’re on the couch. He learned how to give high five and started switching feet over and over again. The most we’ve gotten in a row is 27. He expected 27 treats after that one. Yogi only likes to go outside when he has to. He potties outside and then wants straight back in. What large dog do you know that hates the outdoors? Yogi that’s who. And finally this boy is LACTOSE INTOLERANT. Giving him cheese as a treat is a mistake you only make once. He farts up the house and boy does it linger. My mother always described it as a rotting sewer smell. it’s eye watering. The devastation hit us last week. Yogi woke up and every single lymph node he has was 5-10x its normal size. My mom called me while I was at work and told me what was going on. I felt my stomach flip upside down and dang near fall out. I’ve seen this before. Too many times. And almost always it’s a terrible outcome. I told her to get Yogi to me right away. Yogi came and I rushed upstairs to our oncologist. She aspirated his lymph node and left the room to read the cells on the microscope. I brought Yogi downstairs. He didn’t need to hear me when this news was delivered. I sat down on the floor and waited for what felt like hours but in reality was about 5 minutes. I was lost in spinning thought. I was spiraling. His doctor came back in with pursed lips. I slammed my knees into my chest and wailed. “No! No! No!” Was all i could squeeze out. I felt hot tears streaming down my face. How? why? he’s 5 years old. I thought we had so much time…years. His oncologist sat in front of me on the floor. I could feel her sadness. I squeezed my chest trying to hold my heart together. My boy. My boy has cancer. And not the type of cancer we can cut off. His body is full of it. It’s poisoning his lymphatic system. It’s running through him. Yogi has lymphoma. I caught my breath. As much as I could. She explained that there is 2 types of lymphoma. B-cell and T-cell. B-cell lymphoma is the better of the 2. With an average survival time of 12-14 months with aggressive chemo therapy. expensive chemotherapy. T-cell lymphoma had about half that survival time with chemo. We had to send of a flow test to colorado state to find out which one he had. I called my mother. I’ll remember hearing her choking up when I told her. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to say to her. Yogi is her everything. Her heart living outside her body. She said “We’re going to lose Yogi?”. “Yes mama.” was all i could say. By Saturday Yogis results returned. B-cell was the answer. “Okay.” I thought. “the better of 2 evils. And now we’re here. Within the next 2 weeks Yogi has to start aggressive chemotherapy for the next 6 months called the TCHOUP protocol. For a normal client that isn’t an employee this could be upwards of $10,000. I’m grateful for the discount I receive. But over $5,000-$6000 is still impossible to come up with in the short time frame we have. If Yogi doesn’t receive this chemo, he will be taken from us in the next 6-8 WEEKS. My family and I beg and plead for your help. Yogi could go into remission and possibly but not definitely stay that way for a very long time. Even though average is 12 months, there’s always the outliers. And we’re praying that Yogi is tough and fights hard to be an outlier. Anything helps. 0.50 cents, a dollar, anything. If you’re unable to donate we beg for you to share. Yogi is not ready to leave. We aren’t ready to let him go. Not yet. He’s our special boy. Anything you can do helps us tremendously. Yogi deserves the world. And we’re prepared to give it to him with your help. If you donate thank you so much for helping our family. We cannot even begin to explain our gratitude. Our boy thanks you too. We got this Yogi Bear. Be our outlier.