Spiritdog’s cancer shows up again

30. May 2020 · Write a comment · Categories: 11 Life Practices, Dogs, dogs and cancer, Exploring Spirit, high blood pressure, Life lessons, Physcial and mental health · Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Post # 27 05302020

For the past few months, I have been noticing new tumor growth on Spiritdog’s lower jaw and right rear leg, the exact same locations of the original tumors treated with radiation in May, 2019. Subsequent biopsies of both locations confirmed the recurrence (or continuance) of sarcomas. So, sorry to say, the result of treating him with both radiation and fenbendazole has been quite disappointing.

And it is what it is.

I decided to do palliative radiation at the Michigan State University Small Animal Clinic consisting of five treatments, each one a week apart, beginning with last Thursday. The goal is to provide him with more pain free time at a cost of ~ $3000. Is it worth it? Today he acts like a normal healthy middle aged dog, so, for me, the hope of keeping him that way longer makes it a yes.

After the radiation treatments, I will also look into some form of additional treatment even including chemotherapy if I can find a modality that offers minimal side effects with extended quality of life. Maybe metronomic chemotherapy using either cytoxan or Palladia, perhaps alternating it with fenben, perhaps not, or ….. something else?

How am I dealing with this turn of events? Like any human being, I bounce back and forth. I try to follow Spiritdog’s example, living in the present, saturated with appreciation, gratitude and the joy of being with him. In this present, he is acting like a perfectly healthy dog. And sometimes I manufacture stress by sliding into my fear of him dying, even mourning his death, creating stories about the future that obliterate being present, evaporating joy.

As a quick reminder about how our body responds to our stories, from Premier Health, (www.premierhealth.com. Feb 5, 2017): As your body perceives stress, your adrenal glands make and release the hormone cortisol into your bloodstream. Often called the “stress hormone,” cortisol causes an increase in your heart rate and blood pressure.

Fortunately, I can objectively watch myself generating stress because I take my blood pressure daily with my home monitor (usually twice, in the AM and PM). I plot the data on a graph so I can see both how my BP changes daily and over time.

So, how has my concerns about Spiritdog affected my blood pressure? Bounced it up to a higher average it seems.

I confounded my own data however because during this same time I also stopped taking one pill/day of Mukta Vati, a stress reducing herbal mixture. My “before” BP was averaging ~110/65 and when I stopped taking it (and began stressing about spirit fueled by the latest diagnosis), my BP has drifted up to ~125/80, some days lower, some days higher, with morning readings almost always lower than evening readings.

One’s blood pressure matters.

From the American Heart Association: The Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial, known as SPRINT, studied more than 9,300 people older than age 50 who had high blood pressure and at least one other risk factor for heart disease. By using medicines to reduce systolic blood pressure to below 120, instead of below 140:

  • rates of heart attack, heart failure and stroke went down 30 percent; and
  • rates of death from those conditions dropped nearly 25 percent.

I could start taking MV again but am going to wait a couple more weeks to see if I can practice being more conscious of my stories and let go of those that do not serve my well being.

Everyone should have a home blood pressure monitor.

It is inexpensive, reliable and offers valuable data not only about the health of our body but also insight into the workings of our brain.

Adding Metatrol and Immpower to Spirit’s diet

09. December 2019 · Write a comment · Categories: Dogs, dogs and cancer · Tags: , , , , , , ,

Post #19 12092019

About two weeks ago, discovered another lump on Spirit’s left rear leg (he had a lump/soft tissue sarcoma on his right rear leg that was treated with surgery and radiation and so far, has not noticeably recurred). A needle biopsy showed this small lump to be non-cancerous, and consisting of inflamed tissue.

My suspicion/gut feeling is this is may be another location where cancer is attempting to get started.

Also, the lump in his jaw bone persists. Not getting bigger but not getting smaller either. This could be  a) residual dead tissue remaining from the radiation treatments he had to this location in May or b) persistent cancer in the bone of the jaw.

The veterinary oncologist recommended a wait and see approach about all of it and I basically agree – with the added provision I believe in hoping for the best but planning for the worst; which is to say, continue to treat him as if he has cancer.

So I have upped the dose of fenbendazole from 145 mg/day to 222 mg/day (the amount a 150 human would take for cancer treatment) and will do another liver health check in early January, 2020 to make sure he is handling the higher dose. If the liver is showing any signs of stress, I will drop back to the lower dose. There is no “correct dose” of course – all the uses reported in both humans and animals are anecdotal. No one knows. Given that the side effects seem to be so minimal (none noticeable in Spirit to date after three months of use), a higher dose seems worth the try.

I have also added Metatrol and Immpower, both products produced by American Biosciences to Spirit’s daily meal. I give him one capsule of each per day with his food.  (By the way, Metatrol and Metatrol Pro have identical ingredients – just a packaging/labeling difference). There is some science and quite a few scientific studies that support the supposition that the former helps fight cancer by strengthening the immune system detect and destroy cancer cells and the latter helps strengthen the immune system in general. Neither product claims to cure cancer.

American Biosciences also makes an Immpower for dogs called NK-9; it is the same product only provided in 250 mg capsules whereas Immunpower is packaged in 500 mg capsules. Since Spirit weighs 90 pounds, he would get 2 capsules of NK-9 anyway, which is the Immpower dosage – and is somewhat less expensive to buy this way.

As to Spirit, he is still doing extremely well in terms of appetite, energy and attitude – acts like a 2 year old when we are out walking.

The name of this game is to buck up, stick to the program and watch for ways to improve our game.

spiritdog’s status – an opportunity for bucking up

04. November 2019 · Write a comment · Categories: 11 Life Practices, Dogs, dogs and cancer, Exploring Spirit · Tags: , , , , ,

Post #18 11042019

Today marks a full two months Spiritdog has been on the fenben (fenbendazole) chemotherapy treatment. I have been charting the daily dose given (always between 600-650 mg of Panacur C, which contains 22% fenben, so delivers ~ 140-150 mg of fenben). I am also paying close attention to his behavior/response to treatment.

What I record on a monthly chart each day is his energy level, appetite, stool consistency as well as note anything else that is unusual.

So far, so good. His energy level is excellent, his appetite great and stools have been mostly firm. The only hiccup in this regard is I began adding turmeric (mixed in a coconut oil with a bit of black pepper, which is supposed to help with turmeric adsorption in the body) and began with too much – probably a full heaping tablespoon in his dog food and his stools became soft, ill formed. His body could not process the change that rapidly.

So, I stopped giving him turmeric all together to give him a breather. That was about a week ago and his stools are gradually becoming better formed. In another week, if all is well, I will give it another try but with maybe a ¼ teaspoon and slowly build up to perhaps a tablespoon each day. Will see how it goes.

Stepping back from all this, what I am engaged in here is what could be called “bucking up,” meaning staying in the game for the long haul, doing what needs to be done day in day out, doing the work that it takes to meet a challenge and see it through to its ultimate conclusion. Bucking up is one of the practices in my new book, 11 Life Practices/An Old Man’s Stories of Light, Love, Joy, headed for publication sometime around the end of this year.

This effort to support Spirit in healing his cancer is my current opportunity to practice “bucking up.”

Another, not so obvious optional quality of bucking up is cheerfulness. It is one thing to trudge along in a long term effort weighted down by a sense of obligation, or perhaps even resentment if one is feeling forced to do what needs to be done. It is quite another to buck up with a smile in our hearts and a capacity to have fun with it, even having a sense of humor about it all (which alludes to another life Practice I have called Lightening Up).

When we can adopt an attitude (another of the Life Practices I have termed, Choosing our Attitude, choosing one that best suits whatever situation we are facing) that includes cheerfulness, our staying power is magnified enormously. Instead of a feeling that we are trudging through Jell-O, we are, instead, engaged in doing what Love does (another one of the Life Practices). We feel joy in our hearts as we go about the work, which now feels like an opportunity rather than a burden.

This is how I feel about supporting Spirit through his journey with cancer, not unlike the journey I took while supporting Dianna in her 17 year struggle with cancer (what my first book, Dianna’s Way was about).

So, why am I getting to do this journey again?

My sense is to practice doing what Love does by supporting one I love as they go through a rough patch helping them create and experience the best life they can live. Unsurprisingly, this allows me to create and experience the best life I can live too. What could be better, more satisfying then helping those you love live their best life?

Joy.

What I can see now is the practice of bucking up provides us with the opportunity to practice all 11 practices I have identified in my book.

Stepping back even further, choosing to be in this reality (physical form) could be looked at as our ultimate opportunity to buck up!

What better way to live our lives than being immersed in a challenge that captures our attention and energy, one that brings us all that life has to offer? Life’s blessing.

 

Details of Spirit’s chemotherapy

27. September 2019 · Write a comment · Categories: Dogs, dogs and cancer · Tags: , , ,

Post #17

Post #17 09192019

Fenben (fenbendazole) is readily available without a prescription on Amazon or elsewhere because it is an ingredient in a deworming drug manufactured by Merck for treatment of animals. The product is called Panacur C, containing about 22% fenben. This drug has a long history of use, with no side effects, if human use is any measure. Human beings who have used it have experienced no side effects at the dosages described below.

The dose of fenben I am using is based on the dosage used by people who have successfully cured their own cancer – one gram of Panacur/day (so 220 mg of fenben.) Assuming the human user was a 150 pound man (I don’t really know this) and Spirit weighs 90 pounds, the dose I use is 90/150 X 1000 mg (1 gram) = 600 mg of Panacur C. It is a white powder that I sprinkle into his dog food. I am not exact about this when weighing it out – anywhere between 600-650 mg is OK with me.

I should say I bought a scale on Amazon that weighs in the mg range – the Diagtree Digital Milligram Pocket Scale for $17 and it works just great, simple to use and exactly what I needed and wanted. Very pleased with it so far.

I also created a daily chart where I record the dose given, scores for his appetite (poor to normal), energy level (score from low to high), character of his feces (runny, soft, firm, etc).

I will also have his liver function (called a chem. 12 blood panel) checked by my local vet each month just to be on the safe side. Checking the health of the liver is a measure of whether the body is eliminating the drug adequately. This is not cheap – $150 for a complete blood panel. But I will do this for 2-3 months and if it all looks good, likely reduce testing to once every 3-4 months.

So far, after two weeks of administering fenben, Spirit’s energy level, appetite and stools all look fine.

Is it working?

He appears to be in top notch health right now.

But, if he dies of cancer at any age, we would have to say no, or at least not good enough to be called a cure. If he lives the normal life of a Golden Retriever (10-12 years) and does not die of cancer, I would say yes.

Since about 2/3 of all GR’s die of cancer and he already has cancer, I am inclined to keep him on some dosage level of fenben for the rest of his life. Maybe after the initial 6 month chemo treatment period, I can go to some lower, as yet undetermined, dose (even up to the present dosage) – and maybe not every day – will have to think more about this.

As a sideways thought, if I was ever diagnosed with cancer myself, the way I feel now, I would take fenben rather than go through the whole surgery/conventional chemo/radiation routine. At my age (81) I am not up to that ordeal. I have lived a long and good life.