Luke's Page
Weight: 60
Breed: German Shepherd
Age when diagnosed: 8
Tumors:
- Chondrosarcoma in the
Front limb
I adopted Luke when he was about 3 months old from the Nike Animal Rescue Foundation (narf.org). He was the runt of his litter. His foster mom had just helped him survive Parvo disease. She said "He's a survivor!" Boy, oh boy, was she right!
Luke was diagnosed with Chondrosarcoma on October 24, 2008. After biopsies, x-rays, CT Scans, etc., and due to the location of the tumor, removal was just not feasible. Removal would have included removing several ribs causing his lungs to collapse and amputating his right front leg. The tumor was more than likely to come back, so we opted and the surgeon agreed, not to perform surgery. Instead, we did palliative radiation treatments in January 2009. Best $2000.00 and time spent. His tumor shrank, he felt better...oh happy day(s)!
After meds and clinical trials, in May we noticed that his tumor was starting to grow again. He started to have a major limp and had trouble getting up and laying down. The Tramadol was no longer making him comfortable. After more xrays, our oncologist suggested, again as a palliative measure only, amputating his right front leg and removing the tumor. The difference this time, is that the goal is not to "kill" the cancer, but to eliminate his pain. He has such a will to live that our Oncologist thinks he may possibly live 6 months to a year after his surgery tomorrow. Please send Luke lots of good thoughts and energy tomorrow (7/23/09) at 8am PST. He's been such an angel sent from above. Thank you!
Pictures
Smiling Lukie.
At the beach. His favorite activity.
