Last week a Tanzi was put through xrays , ultrasounds and aspirated of lymphs and spleen. The good news is that Tanzi is officially in clinical remission. Everything that was there back on Jan 9th is gone i.e. from lymphs , spleen, liver and lungs. Everything but one 6 cm x 6 cm mass. The diagnosis is that its  a hyperplastic nodule i.e. a benign growth. However, the doctors wanted the spleen removed. After much agony we decided not to. The operation would have meant setting back Tanzi a month on his chemo and we felt that would kills his odds to beat the lymphoma. It is also a major operation which can be risky and has its seto of pretty dire complications. To us its a game changer. Tanzi’s odds of beating cancer were on the line but frankly we felt that his general quality of life would have gone down hill from there. On the other hand any growth on the spleen can burst leading to internal bleeding which requires immediate surgery. We’ll take the chance. We are lucky that we currently can watch him 24×7 since my wife works from home.

Hope Veterinary Clinic

This past Saturday we paid a visit to Hope Veterinary Clinic near our old stomping grounds of Brooklyn Heights.  Tanzi was not feeling super great that morning and  the car ride must just had made things worse because the poor guy just threw up all over my wife Amira and the back seat of the car service. We were attended by Dr. Young who seemed very knowledgeable. It turns out that Dr. Young has known our oncologist Dr. Rocha for many years and thinks highly of him. Good to hear. As far as to a second holistic opinion Dr. Young recommended Smith Ridge. Not the first time that has happened either, so maybe a call is overdue. Dr. Young prescribed glandulars to us. Amira is particularly uncomfortable with them. True , I can’t seem to find as much positive material on them as there is on Western herbs. So for now we are going to stick to a Western herb supplementation strategy to help Tanzi through the chemo.

Tanzi threw up again that evening and started having diarreah.

Tanzi is a Rhodesian Rigdeback and  will turn 8 years old on June 12th. Click here for some pics of his puppy years. He has been diagnosed with lymphoma and has started a chemo therapy treatment that will last 26 weeks. This blog is a journal of our fight to give Tanzi his expected life average of 10 - 12 years. If you believe in stats that will be very difficult to do but I rather believe in exceptions and channel my energies into that possibility.

Before this evil struck him he was approximately 105 lbs and in great shape. He is now 94 lbs. The chemo has been so far okay except for this last week where he seemed particularly tired unlike the previous 2 weeks. He also had developed a couple infections but seems to be getting past them. Its an emotional rollercoaster. Today we feel good. It was a good day , we went for a 1 hr 40 minute walk in the NY cold but we realize that there will be hard days to come so that tempers our optimism. Our evenings are filled with research. We don’t have personal agendas anymore but realize that we need to be balanced and that what was important before cancer still is. Still that somewhat feels like a betrayal so I keep putting off trying to be normal.

The game plan is to go through the chemo but to provide him support through diet, holistic strategies such as supplements, exercise and a lot of love.

If anybody has any information that may help us with this battle please email: tanzi@amiracam.com or leave a comment.