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July 18, 2001
It was still dark when Alan woke me up. He never does that, since Cheyenne and I are usually up first. He said we were going on a big trip to a place called Santa Cruz and put my bed cushion in the back of the Jeep. I jumped in as usual thinking we were going to the park a little early. But Cheyenne didn’t come with us, and we drove right past the park and onto the freeway. That was unusual.
We drove for a very long time and I watched all kinds of trees and birds and hills go by out the window. Finally, we pulled up to a building with the words “Pacific Vet Specialists & Emergency” over the door. Actually, Alan told me the name on the sign, because I can’t read. He also said the people here were going to help me with my lymphoma. So I guess I really have it after all.
First, I met a nice young lady named Melanie. She got down on the floor and played with me, so I liked her right away. She put me on a scale, checked my glands and wrote some stuff down. Then another young lady came in the room wearing a long white coat. She said her name was Dr. Linda Fineman and she came over and hugged me and said I was very handsome. I have to admit, I did like all the attention.
Dr. Fineman talked to Alan for quite a while about something called chemotherapy. It sounded really complicated and she mentioned funny words like Elspar, Vincristine, and Adriamycin. I was thinking those were other dog’s names. But it turns out they’re different medicines she planned to give me. She said I would need chemotherapy every week for a while, then every two weeks. She also said the one year survival rate is 80%. I guess that’s pretty good, because Alan nodded and said “let’s do it.”
I tried to be calm about all this. But to tell you the truth, I was very nervous and headed for the door. Melanie stopped me, led me into another room and had me lie down. She strapped something on my front leg that she called a butterfly. I thought those were things that flew around the backyard. But I knew she was trying to help me, so I decided not to make a fuss. It pinched a little when she put the needle in my vein, but it wasn’t too bad. I licked her hand to let her know.
Next, Melanie attached a tube to the needle and some liquid started flowing right into my leg. Very unusual. She said it would take about 15 minutes. It seemed much longer. After the liquid stopped, she pulled out the needle, wrapped a bandage on my leg and gave me a nice biscuit. She also let me eat some of her tomato soup. Boy that really tasted good. Maybe chemotherapy won’t be so bad.
Alan made an appointment for next week and we headed home. I slept most of the way.
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