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#dpg bone cancer As some of you know our beloved family member, Alfred the German Shepherd is experiencing a life-threatening health crisis. A small lesion developed on his right front leg. He started licking and scratching it non-stop. It reached the point that we took him to an emergency veterinary clinic yesterday. An initial physical examination and series of X-Rays indicated that Alfred had a malignant tumor in the bone of his right leg. It would be a terminal event for him. We were shocked and heartbroken. Later in the day, the doctors reversed their original diagnosis and were not sure that Alfred's tumor was malignant. We go tomorrow to get a biopsy,
Some years ago, I had gone to the funerals of two incredible professional women (the mayor of Millbrae, California, and one of Elena's doctor colleagues) who had never smoked but both died of lung cancer in their mid-50s. I got a shocking diagnosis. A small growth was detected in the lower part of one of my lungs. A Pulmonologist made the diagnosis that there was a 90%+ chance that it was malignant. I was face to face with my mortality. I was going to die in my mid-60s. I would follow in my father's footsteps. I would die due to lung problems.
Elena spent 16 years as a cancer doctor in Argentina. She looked at my CT scans of the growth on my lung. She saw no sparkling speckles around the growth. She told me that most likely the growth was not malignant.
A treatment regime was initiated. Every six months I would go in for a CT scan of the growth. The goal was to see if the growth got larger. In two years, the growth did not get larger. My life was not going to end due to lung cancer.
With Alfred, Elena came up with the idea of using radiation therapy to lengthen Alfred's life while providing a good quality of life for him. There is some hope!