The battle of the bulge... and cancer

Today I am posting a guest blog written by my friend Debbie Miles, whose pug Lucy has been fighting cancer for the past few months. In addition to being great friends to Linus and me, Debbie and Lucy are models of perseverance and hope through an extremely daunting task of battling Lucy's cancer. They have learned to appreciate every moment they have together and smile during times of turmoil. Please keep them in your prayers!

It started with a simple trip to the vet. We were only going for a nail trim. And within ten minutes, it became so much more.

First, let me introduce Lucy, The Fat Pug. She is nine years old - funny, personable, the life of the party, in your face, demands your attention, cute, loveable 35-pound pug! I got Lucy when she was barely six weeks old. It was love at first sight! She has always been a great dog - she slept through the night from the first day I brought her home, never tore anything up as a puppy, potty trained very quickly and was a true lap dog. Her favorite activities are eating and sleeping.

Nine months ago, I took Lucy to the vet to have her nails trimmed (we always go to a pet store to have it done, but I didn’t feel like going across town that day and waiting so I made an appointment with the vet). I don’t know if it was laziness, gut check or fate, but this appointment changed our lives.

The vet came out to talk to me. She asked if I had noticed the bump on Lucy’s hind leg. I had - it looked like a wart, flesh colored bump. I thought it was just part of the weird skin thingies that pugs and other dogs get as they get older. She seemed concerned and suggested we have it removed immediately. The next 15 minutes are in slow motion - they take Lucy back for pre-op blood work. I am trying to get a hold of my parents on the phone. The vet is explaining to me the possibilities of what this could be. All I heard was "cancer."

Lucy was scheduled for surgery the next day. While in surgery, the vet called to tell me they had found a second bump on the same leg and they were going to remove both and send to pathology. I was so anxious to pick Lucy up later that day. She came hobbling out, her leg bandaged and she was still doped up from anesthesia. I got her home, made her comfortable and she slept through the night. By the next day, she was back to her old self and nothing seemed to slow her down.

It would take five to seven days to get the results from pathology. I never let myself go to the dark side, never once considering the possibility this was going to come back as cancer. I knew it was just going to be a benign tumor and everything would be ok. And life would go on. On day seven, the vet called. The tumor was cancer. Both tumors were cancer.

So now what? The vet explained they were low-grade tumors and her prognosis was good. As long as no new tumors returned within six months, she would be good to go and considered in remission. I was just so thankful we had caught it early enough and felt confident this would be the end of it.

Until three weeks later. Another tumor. This time on her chest. I thought I was overreacting, but I made an appointment to see the vet. Just to be sure. And sure enough, she was concerned enough that she wanted to remove it. Immediately. Less than 30 days later from her first surgery, Lucy was back in surgery again two days later. And again, I got a call from the vet while Lucy was on the table - they had found two more tumors and were going to remove all of them for pathology. This time it was harder not to go to the dark side. I wanted to be prepared this time. And again, seven days later the pathology comes back - two of the three tumors are cancer.

So now what? Tumors are coming faster than we can remove them. She had three new tumors that were inoperable because of their location. Lucy has scars all over her body. And the last surgery was really tough for her. I had decided I was not going to keep putting her through that. The recommended treatment at this point was high doses of prednisone or chemotherapy. And unfortunately, because of her weight, the prednisone was not an option at that time. Instead of jumping immediately into chemo, we decided to put Lucy on a diet and see if we could lose 10 pounds in order for her to do the prednisone treatment.

And then I got a call. I was asked if Lucy would like to participate in a new clinical drug trial. After several phone calls, thorough explanations of the drug, talking to our vet and really nothing else to lose at this point, Lucy’s team of vets set up the protocol and we started the treatment. Lucy would spend every day, all day for a week at the vet’s office. She would receive the drug via I.V. The first few days we had absolutely no issues. She would come home with her IV port in her leg, covered in vetwrap but it never seemed to bother her. Lucy was doing great, seemed to feel good and showed no side effects.

On day three we had to stop the treatment. The pre-treatment consisted of prednisone. And it caused Lucy’s blood sugar to skyrocket. And her other blood levels were abnormal. The vet was concerned if we continued the treatment we would put her in permanent diabetes. So we stopped the treatment and we were back to square one.

The good news is Lucy is very fortunate and very blessed to have a wonderful team of vets. They adjusted the protocol and her treatment plan so she would receive the chemo drug without any pre-treatments of prednisone. She has had three treatments in the past few weeks and has three more to go. Within two weeks, the tumors were barely visible. And as of today, she appears to be tumor-free. She has suffered no side effects, comes running out of the vet’s office as if she has been at doggy day care all day! She gets excited the morning of her appointment, jumps in the car and is eager to see her friends at the vet’s office.


As for me… Lucy is the love of my life. We are taking this one day at a time. But she is a fighter. And I will continue to do anything to keep her cancer-free. As for her diet? Well, let's just say she enjoys a Happy Meal after every chemo treatment!