Curly had his week 4 check up on Tuesday. It was confirmed that he was not in remission. All of his blood work was unremarkable (which we would want). So week 4 is suppose to be just blood work but the vet suggested giving him l-asparginase, which is another chemo drug that is not a part of the Wisconsin Madison protocol to see if he will be in full remission.
Next week, either way (if he hits remission or not), the next step is to change the protocol because the cancer cells have built a resistance to the Wisconsin Madison protocol. The second line of treatment is the Tenova protocol. This is a pricey one that is $1300 every other week.
The big issue for us is not the cost but the longevity of the remission. If curly was a part of the 80-90% of dogs whose lymphoma responded to the Wisconsin Madison protocol, his life expectancy would be 12-14 months. Dogs who don't respond to Wisconsin Madison and protocol needs to be changed, this lessens the life expectancy. Currently my husband and I have a laundry list of questions for the vet before we make the final decision to change the protocol or just let nature take its course. We are working on setting up a call with the vet, since my husband isn't here.
A lot of hard decisions will need to be made very soon. I'll keep everyone posted on what all happens.
