Lili's Notes

Molly keeps fighting through adversity.

Below is an e-mail sent to us from Molly’s mom, Jennifer.

On September 28th, we received the sad news that Molly’s cancer had returned and went to her lung. We decided  not to seek any more chemo therapy and keep her comfortable and give her quality. About 2 weeks later we changed our minds due to some urging from our family members. Molly had her first adriamyacin treatment on October 11th. She was given cerenia for nausea and fortunately she did not vomit. 5 days later, she had episodes of bloody diarrhea(this is an expected side effect) Medication was prescribed and the diarrhea only lasted for 2 days. Ten days after Molly’s chemo, she had blood work done which showed her levels were quite low. On November 4th, we contacted Dr. Mason because Molly had some rapid breathing that concerned us. We made arrangements to bring Molly to UPenn the following day for a chest radio-graph. It revealed that the main tumor grew from 2 cm to 3 cm and the other two tumors shrank from 1.5 cm to 1.2 cm. Dr. Mason stated that she was surprised that Molly presented so healthy, she was not expecting that.  Molly had her 2nd chemo treatment last Tuesday and seemed to tolerate it well. This past Sunday, we noticed that Molly has begun to cough intermittently. Molly is scheduled for follow up blood work early next week. Molly’s appetite is still good and so is her energy. Molly is scheduled for a follow up appt. at UPenn at the end of November. My feeling is that the sicker your dog becomes as a response to the vaccine, the better. Molly’s symptoms were quite mild. We will keep you posted.

We are happy to hear that Molly continues to feel well with a good appetite and good energy.  Quality of life is the most important thing, and it seems that, though Molly has hit a rough patch in the road, she nonetheless is  happy.  We wish Jennifer, Mark, and Molly all the best.

Say Hi to Scooby!

Scooby is a handsome yellow lab who is participating in the Mason Bone Cancer Study at the University of Pennsylvania.  He lives with his mom and dad, Liz and John, his brother Linus (pictured below chewing on a stick), and the family cat, who Liz says, “rules the house”.  Scooby received his second vaccine on October 15^th, and has been doing great.  Be sure to come back and read more about Scooby’s journey.  In the meantime, read ‘Scooby’s story’ as written by his dad, John:

Scooby Doo– aka — Scooby, Scoobs, Scoobert, Skips, Skibs, Do, Doobert, Dope, Dopey, Dipsy, Dips, Dippy, Dipper, Goober, Goof-ball. One dog, one name, so many nick-names. This beloved member of our family responds to all with a loving disposition only a dog can have. And, he routinely responds with a smile that brightens us even on the darkest of days. He is a loyal friend, our protector, our entertainer, our athlete, our troublemaker, and our shining example of the importance of resilience in the face of adversity.

Scooby and Linus

Scooby came to us from a Pennsylvania farm. We brought our Golden Retriever, Woodstock, to help pick a puppy from the large litter. Woodstock took a liking to one particular “baby lab”. The soon to be multi-named puppy wasn’t at all afraid of the 90lb Golden towering over him, sniffing every inch of his tiny four-legged frame. And at that moment, Scooby Doo Roberts came to be.

Fast forward — Our friend is now nine years old and as fate would have it, Scoobs has bone cancer. Not long after he had successful ACL surgery on one of his rear legs, Scoobert started to limp on his front left leg. A couple of trips to our local vet yielded no explanation. A trip to a specialist followed by an incredibly anxious week-long wait for biopsy results and we had the dreaded news. At that moment, as a family, we agreed we would do everything in our means to help Skips battle the insidious disease with which he’d been stricken. The specialist presented us with the treatment options and the prognosis for survival for each.

We chose to amputate the cancerous leg, followed by chemotherapy. The sadness and anxiety of taking Doo’s leg nearly overwhelmed us. It was not until we watched Doobert, just a couple of weeks after the operation, chase down his soccer ball with the same zest as he always had (ok, minus a few MPH), that we realized the incredible ability of Dope to adapt to his “handicap”. His smile is still contagious, he demands attention with the same loud bark, he jumps up on the bed with little effort, he routinely hops into the living room with one of our shoes hanging from his mouth, he sniffs the garbage, licks the dishes when the dishwasher door is ajar, and he runs to our property line to announce to passersby that this is “our house”. Undoubtedly, Dopey is still the same Dipsy, save for his new gate.

Linus and Scoobs

In recent weeks Dips has been a participant in a University of Pennsylvania clinical trial for a bone cancer vaccination. Dr. Nicola Mason’s study hopes to find a way to prevent the cancer from returning following amputation and chemotherapy. Dippy has been wonderfully cared for there and he has adopted the staff as new friends. While there is no certainty to the outcome of Dipper’s participation in the study we are grateful for the added hope it provides us.