Bella's Story

On the morning of July 5th, 2019, my beloved 8 year old Pitbull Terrier, Bella, let me know that something was not quite right with her.  She had been a very healthy dog ever since I rescued her at 6 months of age.  The only thing that ever seemed to bother her was grass and pollen allergies, which were easily controlled with benadryl, and the occasional ear infection.  When I awoke that morning, Bella had thrown up several times in the backyard, as well as had diarrhea.  Having worked at a specialty vet hospital for 8 years, I had a good understanding of canine health and knew that sometimes dogs will throw up and have diarrhea to rid toxins from their bodies.  It occurred to me that on our walk the evening before, I had seen her possibly eat something out of  a bush, but did not see what it was.  The whole day, Bella did not seem to be her usual self and when she refused her dinner, I knew that something was definitely out of whack.  Now, I am not the type of person that takes my dog to the vet at the first sign of illness, so for the next couple of days, Bella was offered a bland diet and allowed to rest.  She would eat the food with reservations for the next few days, but still was not quite right and I noticed that her gums were quite pale.  I knew that I had to figure out what was going on with her so that she would not continue to decline.

On July 10th, 2019, just 5 days later, Bella was evaluated by a board certified internal medicine specialist and had several tests administered, as well as having an abdominal ultrasound.  I was told that everything looked okay and we were sent home after Bella was given an anti-nausea injection.  Bella ate her dinner that evening and seemed to be feeling a little better, however, the next morning she had thrown up again and was still having diarrhea.  I let the vet know what was going on and picked up some anti-nausea tablets that afternoon to give with her dinner.  For the next 5 days, Bella continued to decline.  She did not want to eat or drink, she was lethargic, anemic, and she would still throw up bile and have bouts of diarrhea.  At this point, we headed back to the vet hospital for more testing.  Upon doing another abdominal ultrasound, the vet detected that the liver and spleen were two times the normal size.  The vet then performed a fine needle aspirate of these organs’ cells to look at under the microscope.  She let me know that she detected quite a few clusters of irregular cells and that I had some choices to make.  1) I could elect to have a biopsy of Bella’s liver and spleen done and sent out to a lab.  2) I could have the fine needle aspirate slides sent to a specific University and tested and receive results in about a week.  3) I could start Bella on steroids.  Having worked with this vet for 8 years, she was willing to call in a favor and have the head cytologist at the lab evaluate Bella’s slides and give his honest opinion.  She let me know that in her opinion, it looked to be lymphoma, but she could not be 100% sure.  At this time, I had to make a critical decision about administering steroids to Bella.  By giving them, I would be forgoing the chance to have a biopsy done and sent out to the lab for analysis, as they would alter the test results. I decided to go ahead with administering them, knowing that I was not going to subject Bella to a biopsy in her current condition. 

The next day I received a call from the vet asking me to come in with Bella to recheck her red blood cells and to discuss the results from the cytologist.  As you can imagine, I was a nervous wreck and knew from experience that most vets do not like to give results over the phone unless they are good ones.  Later that morning, Bella and I checked in at the front desk and promptly thereafter, a nurse brought Bella and I into an exam room.  The nurse took Bella in the back to administer a quick blood test and brought her back soon after.  My mind was racing as we sat in the room waiting for the vet to speak with us.  Little did I know that I was about to become the client that I had become all too familiar with, trying to gather myself and check out at the front desk after receiving bad news.  The vet entered the exam room and gave Bella some head pats and put her hand on my shoulder.  “I have some bad news,” she said.  “The cytologist agrees with my opinion that Bella has lymphoma,” and being that it was in her organs, it was considered stage iv.  I managed to pull myself together enough to ask what to expect as far as life expectancy and she let me know that it would probably be between 8-12 weeks.  I dropped to the floor and held Bella in my arms crying uncontrollably.  All I could think of at that time was what I had gone through with my last dog, Milo.  He had several forms of heart disease that we managed with medication and fluid taps for the last few months of his life before we chose to end his suffering at the age of 12.  Bella was only 8 years old and I was not ready to lose her yet, but I already knew that I was not going to subject her to the stress of conventional veterinary treatments.  The vet kindly offered for an Oncologist to come and speak with me about starting a chemotherapy treatment, but she already knew, as did I, that was just not going to be an option. 

I thanked the vet and nurse for all they had done and told them that I was going to take Bella home where she could rest in a stress-free environment and treat her with the use of cannabis oil.  The vet let me know that she would have done the same thing if put in the same situation with her own dog.  This made me feel a little better and I then gathered myself and Bella and managed to check out at the front desk.  We walked into the parking lot and I lifted Bella into the hatch of my car and then I just sat there with her and cried.  I eventually made it into the driver’s seat, but I couldn’t compose myself enough to even start the car and drive, so we just sat there for what felt like hours.  I felt sad, confused, and hopeless.  I finally gathered up the strength to drive us home and begin our journey of holistic healing.

For the next couple of days, I was an emotional rollercoaster.  I was spending all of my free time researching canine cancer supplements, success stories, clinical trials, etc.  It wasn’t until I started reading a book, “The Dog Cancer Survival Guide” by Dr. Damien Dressler, that I became aware of the effect I was having on Bella. In the first section of the book, it stated “Your first priority is not to find the right treatment for your dog. Your first priority is to clear your mind and heart of emotional upset.”  Think of the last time that you were on an airplane and listened to the flight attendant give her pre-flight announcement, specifically the part about the oxygen mask...If we are unable to take care of ourselves first, how are we going to be able to help anyone else? Like it or not, I realized that I was the “X factor” in treating Bella’s cancer and my mind and heart would be my best advisors or my worst enemies.  I chose to listen to the book's recommendation and gave myself permission to grieve for one week in order to get it out of my system.  This allowed me to then concentrate on obtaining the necessary information and tools I would need to embark on Bella’s road to recovery.

Over the next few months, Bella had her share of good and bad days, but I knew that I had to remain strong and focused on allowing Bella’s body to heal itself.  One of the first things that I did was to change her diet from kibble to a fresh, home-cooked diet.  By removing simple carbohydrates from her diet, we were able to remove the fuel that cancer cells needed to thrive.  A home-cooked diet also has many more nutrients than kibble and way less toxins, allowing the body’s immune system to start repairing itself.  Some other things that were crucial to healing Bella were drinking only filtered water, removing as many environmental toxins as possible, taking supplements that helped with detoxification and immune support and cannabis oil in order to restore homeostasis.