Clean Run - June 2011 - 23

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Washington, DC June 2011 Check barkandbowl.com for other cities & dates

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June 11 | Clean Run

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I get excited every time I read one of our survivor stories. They are filled with such hope and gratitude. This month Mary-Anne Gross tells a wonderful story about Bryce. We know this story, as well as our previous stories, will bring you a reason for hope. “When I brought Bryce in for routine bloodwork in March 2008 the last thing I expected was a cancer diagnosis. Unusually high globulins and low albumin in the results led to further testing and a diagnosis of multiple myeloma, an uncommon cancer of the plasma cells. MM is a slow-moving but nasty disease that can punch holes in bones, destroy the immune system, and damage virtually every organ of the body. Bryce had no bone lesions, but the cancer was in his spleen and his liver. Doug DuKane/Spot Shots On the awful day I was given his survival prognosis (540 days with the chemo drug Melphalan and prednisone, a.k.a. the MP protocol, 220 days on prednisone alone) I remember standing there dumbstruck, looking at my outwardly healthy dog thinking, ‘This just can’t be!’ Having previously lost a dog to side effects of chemo within days of starting treatment, I was terrified to take that route and opted to try holistic treatments first. I wish I could say they were a great success, but they were not. Bryce was getting noticeably ill, and at the end of that year I knew I had to take a leap of faith and try chemo. Initially, Bryce showed no improvement at all, which was very unsettling, since most dogs have a significant reduction in disease in the first two weeks. But we kept trying, and after that nerve-wracking first month, he finally showed a small but measurable response. Throughout the next year the meds steadily chipped away at his disease. Other than some bad hair days, he had no side effects from the chemo. Barry Rosen Bryce loves agility, so from the beginning I decided I would let him run as much as he wanted, since he felt well enough to do it. If we were going to be cheated out of time, I was determined to squeeze as much living as possible into whatever time we had left. A year after we started chemo, Bryce was declared to be in clinical remission. A week after that, he earned his CPE C-ATCH. March 2011 marks three years since his diagnosis. In that time he has earned multiple titles and awards in AKC, CPE, and NADAC agility, most recently his CPE CH-JU (Jumpers Champion) and his NADAC 1000 Lifetime Points award. Bryce is almost 13 now, semi-retired due to some back problems and aging vision, but he still pulls me to the start line with great enthusiasm and runs with pure joy. He’s not cured, but a maintenance dosage of his medications has managed to keep the disease under control. Most important, Bryce is becoming something I never thought he’d be back in 2008, a well-loved and very spoiled old man!” Thank you Mary-Anne for sharing Bryce’s story. You can see this story and other survivor stories on our website at www.wearethecure.org/survivors. If you have a survivor, please let us hear about them! We encourage you to read this article each and every month, as we bring you a reason for hope. Gary D. Nice President and co-founder

A Reason for Hope

Together, We Are the Cure
National Canine Cancer Foundation

http://www.barkandbowl.com http://www.barkandbowl.com http://www.wearethecure.org/survivors http://www.wearethecure.org http://www.wearethecure.org http://www.wearethecure.org

Clean Run - June 2011

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