Today was quite an interesting day (both good and bad). Once again we headed up to CSU. Our appointment was for 11 am. Once we got there, our vet student (at least that is who I thought she was) helped me get Newton out of the car. She then took Newton to the back room. About a half hour later, Dr. Perry came out. He said that the Pathologist did finally find osteosarcoma in Newton's limp. Although the quantity was very minute. He indicated that the gene therapy has had the best effect (in terms of killing the cancer) on Newton then on any dog so far in the study. He said that they were removing the staples but would be leaving the sutures in. They would also be starting Round 1 of Chemotherapy.

Carboplatin is the chemotherapy we are moving forward with. It is a clear agent that is painlessly administered directly into the vein over 15-20 minutes. Since CSU was quite busy on Thursday, Dr. Perry indicated that it would take a couple of hours for the nurses to get to Newton. I said that was fine since I had a bunch of work to do and that I would grab lunch and come back and work.

I was back from lunch around 12:30 and got to work on a sizing I had to do for one of my customers. After several hours of waiting, Lisa Hunter of the Argus Institute said that she would go check on Newton to see how he was doing. Based on my past experiences, I have found that things take a lot longer at CSU. Part of this I think is because it is a teaching hospital where students are learning. Therefore, I just tack on another 2 hours to any time I am told...I call it CSU time :-). Lisa said that he was in Ward but that she was not sure if he had had his Chemotherapy yet or not so she would track down Dr. Perry or the Oncology nurses. After another half hour, Newton came hoping out. One of the gals (not sure if she was a student or a nurse) said that next time I needed to check back in with the front desk or business office when I return from lunch. I wish somebody would have told me that protocol earlier. That is one of the biggest frustrations I have had with my experience at CSU. While I think that what they do is amazing and the care that we have received is top notch, as a newbie, I am not aware of the procedures and protocols. Granted I will know better for next time, but it did kill a big portion of my day (at least I had a ton of work to do). The kicker was when I got home, I found a message on my home phone indicated that he was ready to be picked up at 2 pm. Funny...I was sitting in the waiting area when they were making the call. Another lesson learned!

I will say that I am very lucky to have met Lisa. She has helped me out a lot. For anybody who is taking their animal up to CSU, I would highly recommend reaching out to the Argus Institute.