June 10, 2023 Lymphoma treatment

Let us get caught up on Kudos cancer treatments to move on to better stories. Our first appointment with Ryegate was on December 20th. Just before this appointment, we found out the aspirated sample from Kudo’s first visit was ruined, and we could not determine the type of cancer we were dealing with. Rygate took a second sample to review in-house to provide Kudo with a referral to oncology. The sample confirmed it was lymphoma, and the referral was issued for Peaks. At this point, Kudo had not started any treatment as he was still feeling well except for his swollen lymph nodes.  

The following day we went to meet our holistic vet in Plymouth, NH. During this appointment, we went over many holistic approaches to treating cancer. We were planning to attack cancer with both holistic and Western medicine. It was time to start the holistic treatments. 

 I had been cooking food to supplement Kudo’s kibble for the last few years. The first assignment was to remove kibble from the diet completely and add many cancer-fighting supplements to Kudo’s diet. This was easier said than done; we started slowly adding the herbs to Kudos food. He began to get picky with his food which had never happened before.  During the first week, we struggled to ensure Kudo ate all his food during each meal. Something needed to change; during our next visit with the holistic vet, we mentioned the difficulty of Kudo being very selective with his food. We were recommended to try to remove the herbs from his food and mix it with something else. 

After a few trials, we discovered “cookie balls”… We started to mix Kudo’s herbs with his omega 3 oil and a little bit of natural no salt, added peanut butter, and topped with pills dipped in peanut butter. He was now excited to take his herbs and had no more issues with his meals. Cookie balls consist of the following ingredients 2x daily. Six months later, we still make cookie balls twice a day. 

Modified xue fu zhu tang(powder)

LSA formula (powder)

Renuvite for dogs with CBD(pill)

Coriolus Versicolor(pill)

Ion gut health

Nordic Naturals Omega 3 oil 

Seaweed Calcium

Kudo was already taking CDB and other supplements for his joints and probiotics, Royal CBD bacon flavored, Royal CBD cookies, Cosequin DS 

Kudo met his oncology team on the 3rd day of meeting our new vets. During this visit, they took another aspirate from Kudo’s lymph nodes to review in-house and send out to gain additional details about Kudo’s cancer. They wanted to confirm b-cell vs t-cell to confirm that we were doing the most effective treatment based on the type of cancer. We were hoping that Kudo results would come back as b-cell as it is less aggressive and tends to respond better to treatments. After speaking with the oncologist, we decided that we would try CHOP as our first treatment starting that day. 

CHOP consisted of 4 drugs rotated in a 5-week cycle, four weeks of chemotherapy followed by one rest week for four cycles or 20 weeks. During the first cycle, we traveled 2.5 hours one way to Burlington every week, then on the third week of treatment for the remaining three cycles, we did oral cyclophosphamide at home. 

Kudo’s lymphoma responded to treatment right away, and he was in remission by the time of his second treatment.  During the first month, Kudo was also on prednisone, starting at the highest dose and tapering the dosage off for the month until he was no longer taking any. Kudo had the most side effects from prednisone, drinking tons of water and needing to urinate frequently, including throughout the night, and finding it difficult to sleep throughout the night. We were all happy that prednisone was only one month and the dosage was cut in half each week for four weeks. 

Prednisone first four weeks

Vincristine weeks 1&3

Cyclophosphamide (oral, given at home) week 2

Doxorubicin week 4

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