Really Need Good Thoughts And Prayers For Bonnie Twist

[Guest Vinnie]

Woohoo - a gathering of hounds always makes a girlie feel sassy - and to top it off, a round of attack the hedgamahog! What a greyt day Miss Bonnie Twist! Continued prayers for many more wonderful days and memories ahead. Sending hugs and scritches.

[Guest KRKWMU]

Just got an email from our vet-

 

Kristin,

Dr. Couto just e-mailed with the new protocol. We will give Bonnie 50 mg of Lomustine tomorrow. I have the drug in the hospital and it is given by mouth every 3 weeks. We will not give vincristine tomorrow but will give it every 7 days except when we give lomustine. I will check a CBC every 3 weeks 1 week after lomustine. We will discontinue Leukeran and continue prednisolone every other day.

Please keep the appointment and I will do my best to answer your questions. I am sure that we can do this on an outpatient basis. I may dispense the lomustine so that she does not go for a car ride right after getting it.

Marty

 

I didn't think we'd continue with the vincristine along with the lomustine (CCNU). We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Bonnie says, "Wish us luck, my fan club friends!"

 

 

Her angel kiss reminds us that all of you are looking out for us, and all of the bridge hounds are looking down on her too.

 

And, look at this...I found this picture the other day. It was taken last year at our big fundraiser for Dr. Couto. So many people fell in love with Bonnie, but we had already "claimed" our girl. Who knew that a year later, Dr. Couto would be our hero and advisor through all of this.

 

I'll post after we get back from the vet's tomorrow. Thanks everyone!

[patricia]

If you do her CCNU at home...be sure to get yourself some gloves~you will need them when you give her the pills. Kiss Miss Bonnie for me...She has an Angel in her corner.

[CaliforniaGreys]

We will be praying very hard and there are so many angels watching over you

[Guest vahoundlover]

Lots of prayers from here too.

[Guest silverjen]

Kristin, let me know if you need any local help. Chin up, Miss Bonnie!

[TheFullHouse]

Fingers crossed for lots of good luck. She's such a pretty girl.

[DaisyDoodle]

My CoCo (Cosmo Comet) had five cycles of a modified Wisconsin protocol over the course of a year. It was a very conservative version of this regimen (lower doses than are considered curative), so we had lots of ups and downs of her nodes (the vet said it was to control, rather than cure, the lymphoma).

 

After a year, the full protocol had to be discontinued because one of the agents can be cardio-toxic. We tried a couple of salvage protocols with subsets of the chemo agents that were still available from the original protocol, but that didn't seem to work. So we tried CCNU. It worked!

 

Even though Cosmo only got the CCNU once every three weeks (instead of every week at the specialty oncologist originally suggested), she got three treatments, and her nodes never enlarged again.

 

We lost her at age 14 y 5m to a combination of old age, degenerative myelopathy (doggie MS) and my insistence on the everyday use of prednisone because I didn't understand why I should give it every other day and she couldn't walk without it because of the DM.

 

Long story short, I think that CCNU is a remarkable drug and combined with proper use of prednisone should work very, very well.

 

Hang in there, and remember to breathe!

 

Hugs,

DD

[HopeForHounds]

Okay Miss Bonnie time to dig deep inside yourself and fight . I know you can do it, and we are all here for you.

[CaliforniaGreys]

Okay Miss Bonnie time to dig deep inside yourself and fight . I know you can do it, and we are all here for you.

[Guest jettcricket]

Continued prayers for your sweet girl....I can't wait to meet her in Dewey.

[Hawthorn]

Sending you and Bonnie lots of good thoughts

[Guest KRKWMU]

We're back from the vet's office. Bonnie was crazy giving hugs to the girls and bouncing around the office saying hello to everyone.

 

Dr. Betts thought her lymph nodes were certainly bigger, but wasn't shocked or really worried about the size. He wants to make the medication switch now though, so things don't get out of control. Dr. Betts did say that every time her lymph nodes come up when she's on a chemo medication, it's harder to control with the next medication. We'll just take each day as it comes.

 

So, she got the first dose of CCNU today. It's 5 capsules given at home, every 3 weeks. Then, on the "off" weeks, she'll still get the vincristine injection at the vet's office.

 

We'll let you know how things go...

[CaliforniaGreys]

Thanks for the update! It's so good to hear that she's in such rare form Tell her we're jealous with all those hugs being given out

[carronstar]

Sending lots of prayers and good thoughts.

[patricia]

We're back from the vet's office. Bonnie was crazy giving hugs to the girls and bouncing around the office saying hello to everyone.

 

Dr. Betts thought her lymph nodes were certainly bigger, but wasn't shocked or really worried about the size. He wants to make the medication switch now though, so things don't get out of control. Dr. Betts did say that every time her lymph nodes come up when she's on a chemo medication, it's harder to control with the next medication. We'll just take each day as it comes.

 

So, she got the first dose of CCNU today. It's 5 capsules given at home, every 3 weeks. Then, on the "off" weeks, she'll still get the vincristine injection at the vet's office.

 

We'll let you know how things go...

That's the exact same protocol we did with Lacers. My heart and prayers are with you and Miss Bonnie Twist! The fact that she feels SO GOOD...is a great sign!

[lflaherty45]

Hugs to Miss Bonnie, she looks like my Isis. May God bless her and watch over her.

 

Linda

[Guest KRKWMU]

I edited the 1st post to take away the crying "tears" emoticon. We don't need that now. We're going to suck it up and keep fighting. I like it when we have a plan!

 

CANCER----> <----BONNIE!!!

 

[Guest paulamariez]

Sending loads of prayers, love and light to your precious Miss Bonnie, such a beautiful girl! I just love her pictures. May she have tons more quality time to spend with her beloved family. Tiger, Bueller and Domino are sending Bonnie lots of healing doggie kisses as well.

[CaliforniaGreys]

And how is the beautiful Miss Bonnie doing today?

[Guest CyndiW]

Keep fighting Bonnie - we all love you!!!

 

CCNU is the one that dropped Alex's white count down into the septic range and he got that massive UTI that almost did him in. That is the worst case scenario but it is of course possible. I think you already mentioned that she will be getting a CBC done one week out. It was his first dose of that and the onco didn't think it would effect him so quickly so we didn't check the first round unfortunately.

 

Hampton also had CCNU (5 rounds total) and he did not have any problems. We kept a close check on the white count and only once he needed antibiotics. He never lost his appetite or energy.

 

Sending prayers and lots of positive thoughts! She will do great.

[Guest jettcricket]

I edited the 1st post to take away the crying "tears" emoticon. We don't need that now. We're going to suck it up and keep fighting. I like it when we have a plan!

 

CANCER----> <----BONNIE!!!

You go Bonnie girl!!!

[Guest KRKWMU]

Thanks for these stories, guys. All of them give us lots of hope! Bonnie is doing just fine today. She ate great and has been sprinting down the deck stairs and into the yard non-stop all evening. I'm concerned about the white cell count side effect. Here's Dr. Couto's most recent email-

 

Thanks, Marty; I would do a CBC 7 days after the lomustine. She is likely going to be too neutropenic for the vinc. I usually use the vinc 10 days after each lomustine. Let me know

 

A quick search for the word definition of "neutropenic" gave me this...

--An abnormal decrease in the number of neutrophils in the blood. (That's useful )

--Neutropenia is an abnormally low level of neutrophils in the blood. Neutrophils are white blood cells (WBCs) produced in the bone marrow that ingest bacteria. Neutropenia is sometimes called agranulocytosis or granulocytopenia because neutrophils make up about 60% of WBCs and have granules inside their cell walls. Neutropenia is a serious disorder because it makes the body vulnerable to bacterial and fungal infections.

 

So, I guess I shouldn't be too disappointed if we can't do the next vincristine injection as scheduled. She's never had trouble with her bloodwork though. We'll see what happens.

[Xan]

Bonnie! Keep up all that twisting and shouting, and generally loving life, young lady!! We're roo000000ooooting for you over here in Blackburnia!

[robinw]

so glad Bonnie is feeling so active. that's GOT to be good news!