Gino's Story

It was Friday the 13^th, of August 2004 that is, and Hurricane Charley was on a path of destruction through Southwest Florida.  My husband, Richard and I were bunkered down in Sarasota waiting for this tremendous storm and with a sudden change in course, this storm would demolish parts of Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, barely to bring a heavy rain to the Sarasota,/Tampa areas.  My cousin, not nearly as prepared as we were, in Port Charlotte, suffered quite a bit of damage to her home. 

 Richard and I spent that weekend and the following week every available moment we had aiding my cousin with her recovery efforts.  Her home was unlivable. 

 We have three fur-kids: Gino – 7 yr old beautiful brindle male boxer (rescued at 9 weeks old), Lucy – 4 yr old gorgeous fawn female boxer (rescued at 10 months old) and Fantasia – 7 yr old boxer loving tabby cat (rescued at 7 months old).

 After spending so much time away from them helping my cousin, I had noticed that Gino was not acting himself.  He was not eating like usual, he would not jump on our bed at night, he was just plain mad that we were not home as much.  This was very typical of our very spoiled, attention hogging boxer boy.  Or so I had thought.

 Friday August 20^th, I was getting ready for work as usual, when I noticed that poor Gino must not be feeling well, it seems that his glands in his neck were swollen.  I thought to myself.. “Poor baby, that’s why you are not eating/playing as usual… you have a sore throat”.  I immediately called my vet, Dr. Bonda, to bring him in, to get started on some antibiotics so he would feel better.  I never realized how much that morning was going to take a turn for the worst.

 Once Dr. Bonda did the physical on Gino, he looked at me with fear in his eyes.  I asked the doctor “His glands are swollen aren’t they?  Is there an antibiotic that we can start immediately?”  He looked at me and said that we will need to run some tests first; he would like to aspirate the lump to narrow down the possibilities.  At that moment, it occurred to me that these were not swollen glands; these were Gino’s lymph nodes. 

 Lymphoma, cancer of the lymph nodes, could that be?  He is so young yet.  I knew that boxers were prone to cancer, but he is such a young 7 yrs old.  He plays as if he is two and everyone says that he is in such wonderful shape.  I have always fed him well, he is not overweight, and we have always vetted him yearly as recommended.  I was beside myself.  I did not know which way to turn, this was such a shock. 

 After all of the tests were run, it was confirmed, Lymphoma it was.  Dr. Bonda said that we did catch it early; it was concentrated in only his neck area.  He explained our options to us.  Chemotherapy could provide Gino with quality life of 12-18 months, prednisone would make him comfortable until the end, which could be as soon as 6-8 weeks or euthanasia… ”What kind of options were those?”, I thought, “Chemo can kill cancer in people, why couldn’t they do the same for dogs, more importantly, my Gino.”  Dr. Bonda explained to me that chemo treatments for dogs are nothing like chemo treatments for people.  People using chemo to kill their cancer are given the option, they will get very ill for months, but in the end, there is a strong possibility that they can be cured.  Pets can not make that choice.  If given such high doses of chemo, they will get so ill that they will begin to give up, not understanding that they will get better soon.

 After spending the entire weekend researching the disease and reading stories such as mine, we opted to give Gino the chemo treatments.  He started the treatments on that Friday. 

 Richard and I had expected that Gino would not be himself, rather sickly after his treatments, but we were delighted to learn that he was not ill at all due to the chemo, actually, he was feeling much better.

Since we were able to catch the cancer so early in the second stage, he responded quite well to the treatments.  Within 2 weeks, and 2 chemo treatments, Gino was back to his old self, like the 7 yr old puppy he was, never having any bad side effects to the chemo.  Richard and I knew that we made the right decision.  We had Gino back and we were going to cherish every extra moment that we had with him.  We began to go to the park more often, go for walks more often, stay home and cuddle more often and allow him take up the whole bed at night more often.  As if he wasn’t spoiled already, he sure knew how to run the house now.

 Gino went for chemo treatments almost once per week for about 3 months.  On November 19^th, Gino’s lymph nodes began swelling again.  I knew that his body had built up immunity to the chemo and we would have to discuss what other options were available.  Dr. Bonda was very discouraged to find out that he came out of remission so quickly.

 When the chemo options were provided to us, we were told that pets can receive 2-3 cycles of chemo.  Dr. Bonda did not recommend anything over 2 cycles, as he felt that the quality of life begins to diminish.  He explained that generally, the second round of chemo will put the cancer in remission for about half as long as the first round.  For example, if the first round of chemo provided 10 months of quality life for the pet, the second round would provide about 5 months, totaling 15 months of prolonged life.  Since Gino only made it 3 months on the first round, we did not feel that it would be fair to him to go through another, more intense round for maybe 6 weeks.  So Richard and I decided to cherish every moment that we had left with Gino, but to have the remainder of his life with us, not the vet’s office.  We opted for the prednisone to make him comfortable. 

 Gino was a very strong Boxer boy who refused to give up and fought the whole way.  He made it to Christmas, New Year’s and even my birthday in January.  We were so thankful that he was there to share those times with my husband and I.  We cherished ever passing moment that we had not knowing what tomorrow would bring.

 On February 11^th, 2005 we had to say our very last goodbye to our baby boy.   It was the hardest thing that we ever had to do, but it was best for Gino.  He was ready to say goodbye as his last 24 hours were the worst of his entire journey.  We do not believe that he was in any pain, just extremely exhausted from fighting so long.  We put him to rest in our home so that he would close his eyes knowing how much we loved him and that no matter what, no matter how hard it was for us, it was the right thing to do for him and we believe he was at peace with our decision.

 If I can lend any advice to anyone experiencing the similar emotional battle, I leave you with this in mind…  If you ever feel that you are making a decision because it is what you want, I beg you to reconsider.  As their human, you MUST to what’s best for them, even if it is the hardest thing for you.  They trust us with everything that they have and it is much scarier for them to not understand what is happening and not to have their human by their side.

In Memory of Gino

9/11/97-2/11/05

 You will be missed forever!!

 ~Lori and Richard Yarnall