Pearson took his first treatment cycle like a boss.  He’s doing well and continues to be his awesomely annoying self (howling, stealing food and counter surfing).  I think we should change his breed to “f_ucker spaniel!” 😉

All of his lymph nodes have returned to a normal size except for one that is only slightly enlarged and we have this week off for treatment… he goes back in next Thursday for the second cycle.

We also just found out about a clinical trial for a vaccine that might either double his remission time(to 2+ years) or potentially cure it entirely(slim chance but it’s there).  It’s based out of Philly and would be a bit of a drive for 4 shots over 2 months.  But I’m seriously thinking about it.

This week marks the end of his original 4-6 week life expectancy prognosis, without treatment.

*UPDATE – June 3rd, 2016:  His lymph nodes didn’t shrink at all after the doxrubicin and week off.  :/  This means he didn’t reach remission in the first cycle, and this is generally a bad thing for survival projections.  But, the nodes shrunk again after vincristine last week, so we proceeded with cytoxan yesterday and will continue the front line CHOP protocol until he stops responding.  This complicates things for the vaccine, but we’ll find out soon if he meets the requirements.