Hope’s Story

Amanda W. abwhite8@gmail.com Hope Hope was diagnosed with a Mast Cell Tumor in August 2012. After discovering three masses, one of which had become very red and irritated, our veterinarian recommended surgery. Hope had her first surgery on August 13, 2012. Two weeks later, on August 28, 2012, we got the call from our veterinarian that the red and irritated mass on Hope right hind leg was a Mast Cell Tumor. Hope was immediately scheduled to go back to the veterinarian on September 4, 2012 to check for any additional masses. Four additional masses were found and Hope underwent surgery that same day to have them removed. Fortunately all were benign, but Hope’s story doesn’t end there. After a few days of recovery from the second surgery, Hope was ready to get back to her daily walks. On September 11, 2012, Hope, my boyfriend, and I set out for our usual evening walk, but Hope decided to go off trail for an adventure through the woods, as she love doing. As we got to a fallen tree that she normally jump right over, she stopped and would not move. I reached down and patted her on the side and told her “let’s go”, but instead of moving, she bent to smell of something and that’s when it happen…a copperhead that had been camouflaged from my boyfriend and I, struck Hope just behind the nose. We rushed Hope to the veterinarian and after a few days, she made a full recovery from the snake bite. Not long after the snake bite, Hope had another mass to come up, so it was back to the veterinarian. A fine needle aspiration was performed and the mass was diagnosed as a benign Lymphoma. We decided against surgery to remove it and inquired about naturopathic and holistic approaches for Hope. After contacting an acupuncturist and a holistic veterinarian, we began Hope on a daily regimen of Resvantage, probiotics, omega-3s, turmeric, and Nature’s Sunshine Immune Stimulator. It has been almost six months since Hope’s cancer diagnosis and she is doing great. Since starting her on the supplements, the mass on her chest that was diagnosed as the benign Lymphoma has gone from about the size of a baseball to about the size of a fifty cent piece. Hope will celebrate her 8th birthday on April 11, 2013, but she doesn’t seem to know it. She is walking 1.5 to 2 miles a day, playing with her toys, which she has done in years, and she has a great doggie sense of humor. UPDATE – October 10, 2014 Just wanted to give you an update on Hope. We had a big scare in August as we came up on her two year cancer free anniversary. We found three tumors in her chest area. Took her to our vet on Monday, August 25 and she was schedule for surgery that Friday. Our vet was worried after getting her opened when she found the three tumors were connected and one was very close to the jugular vein, she feared liposarcoma. After two days at the vet we were able to bring Hope home and she was not doing good…very weak and could barely stand and was very bruised because the surgery was so extensive. However, after a few more days Hope was back to her silly lab ways, as we continued to wait for biopsy results. Finally the call from or vet came the day before Hope went back to have her stitches removed, Hope was still cancer free 🙂 all three tumors were lipomas. It has been just over a month since Hope’s surgery and she is back out there saving the world from those vicious squirrels 🙂