Survivors and Celebrations

Abby's Story

I lost my beloved friend to Cancer a little over five weeks ago. About 1 1/2 years ago we found a tumor on her spleen during a routine ultrasound. We instantly took her to surgery and had her spleen removed. It came back as fibrosarcoma, the Oncologist gave us nine months w/ chemo. We then started chemo in September of 08'. She did great through chemo, we completed it in December of 2008. In June of 2009 we did a 6 month follow up ultrasound and we found that the cancer had spread to her liver. The Oncologist told us that we could do no more chemo, because she would be at her toxic level. She suggested to us trying a new drug called Palladia, which is only available under the supervision of board cert. oncologist, and it was labeled for mass cell tumors. They are still doing experiments w/ the drug for other type's of cancers. We decided to give it a try, Abby was doing great, we believe that the drug even slowed the cancer down. Then in August she crashed, and i almost lost her. The Doctor believed that her Liver was not functioning properly and it was holding onto the drug to long, so she became toxic. We then stopped treatment, and she gave me 60 days. Abby continued to do great, i thought that she would beat all odds, she was such a strong girl. Then late October we noticed that her abdomen was descended and she was showing discomfort. We took her into the hospital and the Doctor pulled over a liter of fluid from her abdomen ( she was in liver failure) and the cancer had spread all over in her inner stomach. I was devastated, I knew this day was coming, but I hoped and prayed that she would be with us longer. The next day I took off of work and made the hardest decision of my life. I decided to put her to rest. I didn't want to, but I knew she would continue to fight for us, and she was in such discomfort and pain. She gave us so many wonderful gifts, the one gift that i could give to her was to not let her suffer. She still had dignity and that's what i wanted to remember. I miss my strong hearted shadow. She will always have my heart. I believe that she is watching over us, and she has definitely earned her Angel Wing's.