Skip to content
Featuring Demian Dressler, DVM and Sue Ettinger, DVM, Dip. ACVIM (Oncology), authors of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide

Kindness in the Waiting Room

Updated: September 21st, 2018

Summary

It’s easy to lose hope when your dog has cancer. This heartwarming story can help you remember that beautiful things can happen, too.

kindness-dog-cancerA beautiful thing happened in my waiting room this week.

It’s pretty common for my oncology clients to chat in the waiting area during their pet’s chemotherapy treatment. This is helpful: new clients hear about the experiences of pets already undergoing treatment. They see happy wagging dogs coming back from treatment, and hear firsthand from the pet Guardian that there really are minimal side effects from chemo. The dog is enjoying his daily activities. The dog is doing so well, the Guardian forgets the pet has cancer.

This week Jack and Mickie were being treated on the same day. Jack is a bull dog with a high grade mast cell tumor (MCT) of this back leg that has metastasized to his sublumbar lymph node under his lower back spine. He was in only for his second vinblastine chemo treatment, and so far has had no side effects. Mickie is a kitty with a recently removed high grade injection site sarcoma. Mickie was also in for her second treatment.

(This blog is really dedicated to dogs, because cats are so physiologically different – but this story happens to be about a dog and a cat, and I have to share it with you, so bear with me.)

Mickie the cat came to me a few months back with a large infected and ulcerated tumor on her left flank. It was oozing pus. The tumor was so large, my surgeon and I knew we would not achieve margins with the surgery. There was no way to get a normal rim of tissue around the tumor, which is critical to prevent recurrence. Typically, four weeks of radiation is recommended for these connective tissue cancers after surgery, similar to the soft tissue sarcomas in dogs. But these tumors also have a higher spread rate, and so chemo is also recommended. As you can imagine, it’s very costly to treat these tumors in cats as they often need all three: surgery, radiation and chemo. Not only that, but I also diagnosed a urinary tract infection in Mickie.

Mickie’s mom could not afford all treatment options. She’s an elderly woman on a fixed income. But she explained to me that Mickie means the world: she belonged to her brother who had passed away.  She had to treat Mickie.

So she got the money together and our surgeon removed the tumor, which was good, because I was concerned the infected tumor could start to affect Mickie’s overall health.  No chemo, and no radiation, even though we all knew it was less than ideal to only do surgery. We didn’t get clean margins, as we feared … and these tumors typically recur in six months without clean margins.

Still, Mickie healed well after the surgery. And then, at the suture recheck appointment, Mickie’s mom surprised us by telling us she wanted to give chemotherapy after all. Paying for treatment would be challenging, but she had to do it for her brother. We reviewed the cost and side effects so she could be prepared. She scheduled the next treatment, but had to delay a week when she needed just a little more time to get the money together.

I love when pet moms want to treat cancer, of course, but I worry when to finances are such a burden.

But Mickie’s mother was determined, and this week found her at Mickie’s chemo appointment just as Jack’s mom came in to pick him up after his treatment. And of course, they chatted. I don’t think they were waiting for too long together, but it was enough time for them to get to know each other’s pet’s story.

This is the part that still brings tears to my eyes.

As Jack’s mom went over her bill with my nurse, she quietly asked to see Mickie’s bill, too. In addition to the chemo that day, and the routine complete blood count (CBC) we ran, there were also some charges for extra blood work and urine tests we ran for her early kidney disease. The bill was almost $700.

Jack’s mom paid for it on the spot. She left with Jack and said a warm goodbye to Mickie’s mom, but didn’t mention her kind deed. My nurse had a hard time keeping her emotions to herself, but she respected Jack’s mother’s wish to keep it quiet and tell Mickie’s mother only in private.

So, I had the privilege of telling Mickie’s mom. We both cried. That was a lot of money for her, and an amazing act of generosity.

Jack’s mother didn’t just help Mickie’s mother. She also helped me, by reminding me that in a world filled with random and inexplicable events like planes that disappear, horrific ferry disasters, devastating tornados, high school stabbings, and loved ones with cancer, there are still moments of generosity and hope.

Live Long, Live Well

Dr. Sue

Leave a Comment





  1. Beverly Travis on October 3, 2017 at 1:46 am

    That is a wonderful story, but sometimes I wonder if the vet practices could be more reasonable in what is being charged.

  2. Frank Davis on October 11, 2014 at 8:41 am

    Great story!

  3. EllenL on May 13, 2014 at 5:48 am

    What a wonderful, heartwarming story. Renews my faith in humanity. That elderly lady needs Mickie as much as Mickie needed that chemo treatment. God bless Jack’s mom for her act of kindness.

  4. Nancy on May 13, 2014 at 4:37 am

    Wonderful story Dr. Ettinger, thanks for sharing. Maybe your practice can start a fundraiser to help others who need treatment for their companion animal and cannot afford it.
    Also, is there a site for cats like as informative as this one?

  5. Giget on May 11, 2014 at 1:10 pm

    This past March during an ultrasound and CT scan, it was discovered our little girl (14 yr. old, female, Shih Tzu/bichon X) had an enlarged spleen. It was ironic how this was discovered because we had taken her to a specialist to find out why she was having gastrointestinal problems and weakness in her back legs. The doctor said these issues had nothing to do with the spleen because it was in the early stages. We chose to have the spleen removed. During the spleen removal, an intestinal biopsy was also done. The gastro problem went away and the biopsy confirmed all was well and no treatment required. Everyone, included the doctors, didn’t think for a second the spleen would end up becoming an issue. We were devastated when the first pathology report identified it as a “round cell” cancer. Further testing was then done to try and identify “what type” of round cell cancer. The results were confusing to the average person. The second report could not confirm it was lymphoma, at least not in the “classic” sense, but was considered “lymphoma-like”. The specialist has since sent the removed spleen to the US for further tests, but says it is not likely to give us a definitive answer either. We have been given some chemotherapy treatment opinions (based on it being lymphoma), if we chose to do so. In saying that, we are left wondering what to do next. It is so hard to chose chemotherapy with so many unanswered questions. I understand the cancer may, or may not, have been taken completely when the spleen was removed. No one is able to give me a prognosis because the cancer type has not been clearly identified. My little girl has improved so much since the surgery. She is so happy and healthy…acting like a puppy again! We are in a dilemma. Can anyone out there shed some light on our situation with a story like this. Please help us do the right thing for Amber. She is the only child we have.

Scroll To Top