How do you put a price tag on a life?

This is my dog, Sebastian.
Poor guy had a paw injury and wouldn't stop licking it. I'll let you imagine all the damage he did to the house with this thing on.
Patiently letting me snap away with the camera.
Playtime with his sister.
A visit to a girl scout troop to teach them about dog manners and what therapy dogs do.


On Sunday morning I noticed my big ol' dog limping. Then I noticed he had a fever. Then I noticed a lump on his front leg, where what a human would call, the knee. There really wasn't much we could do, it didn't seem like an emergency, so we waited it out. He didn't seem in pain, but he's a tough and stubborn guy, so who knows.

I had class this morning, so DH took the morning off and took Sebastian into the vet. I may as well missed both classes, as I don't think I really heard the teachers. I called DH after my first class and he had just left the vets. My favorite vet had the day off, so he saw another one. She kept Sebastian to do blood work and x-rays.

The blood work was ok. The x-rays were inconclusive. There is something wrong, but they could not tell what. It may be an infection or it may be bone cancer.


He also has lost 12 pounds in the last 4 months. They actually weighed him 3 times and tested the scale with another dog.

He's a very big dog, with lots of hair, so it's hard to tell if he has a weight change.

This is a dog who used to be a therapy dog. He would go to schools and visit nursing homes and cancer patients. He is so sweet.

We rescued him from our local Humane Society. He was an adult, but nobody know how old he was. Everyone guessed around 3. That was 5 1/2 years ago. So, he's around 8 1/2, which is pretty old for a Great Pyrenees.

Gosh, I'm rambling.

Anyways, after spending all day googling Osteosarcoma, it really looks like it's very possible that he has it. Bone Cancer.

The treatment? You start by amputating the leg, then doing chemotherapy. You might get another year of life by doing this.

The question is, is that worth it? Chemo isn't exactly fun. Do we put him through all that, just to spend a few more months to a year with him????

Then we have to consider the cost. Obviously we are willing to spend money on him. And if there was a guarantee on the time we would get with him, it wouldn't be so hard. But we don't even know if it will work. Bone cancer spreads very quickly, it may be too late already. We can make the finances work, without using credit cards. Our cards won't get paid off in the time frame we have. We would use the money that we are currently using for extra credit card payments for his treatment. Our emergency fund will already be depleted by the end of this month. We bought the new TV, I sent $500 to my mom to help with medical expenses, today's vet trip was $272 and Fridays vet trip will be $360.

I will have more answers on Friday. They are doing the biopsy then. A bone biopsy. A very painful process with lots of healing time.
Of course we won't have the results yet, but I will have a huge list of questions for the vet. We weren't exactly prepared for cancer questions this morning.

I'm supposed to be doing homework right now. I don't think it's going to get done.