My puppy, Cassanova, was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer on February 4th of this year. In immediate fear and torment, as you would imagine, I lost it. What would life be like without him? He eats with us, sleeps with us, goes everywhere with us. He is not just a “pet” but part of our family. Initial research showed once a dog is diagnosed with this – he/she is normally at a stage 3 of 5 stages. According to research, after stage 3, if you choose for the “cancer treatment” which is high doses of steroids and chemo a dog’s life can be prolonged by at least 12-14 months on average. If you don’t choose for the “cancer treatment” then the dog normally only has 4-6 weeks to live. The reason for this is (especially in a small breed like ours) is the lymph nodes are already taken over and it begins to affect the liver and kidney and can seep into the blood stream.
- He’s more than a dog, he’s a member of our family.
Needless to say, it has been 9 weeks since he was diagnosed! He does take a small dose of prednisone to keep swelling down in his throat so he can eat and breathe but no chemo and no high dose steroids. God created antibiotics and medication – He can choose to use them in healing processes if He chooses to!
Going through this process and seeing his “good” days and his “bad” days just made me realize (more than what I already knew) that none of us are promised tomorrow. God could take us home at anytime. I make every moment count with Cassanova because I don’t know when his time will be up. At only 4 years old, he is my pride and joy as if he were my actual son.
Spend time with the people around you. They could be walking around with cancer and not know it. When they find out – they could only have 4-6 weeks to live. Would you have regrets? Would you have finally told them what you have been holding in? Would you argue all the time? Would you put them first instead of last? Would you do whatever it took for them to be happy? You should always treat people as if it were their last days. Then you would have no regrets.
Just appreciate those in your life for who they are and what they are. You are not always going to get along with people – so agree to disagree. Doesn’t mean a huge knock down drag out has to occur. People are different on purpose, many times to compliment each other. One person’s weakness is another person’s strength. We are all a puzzle piece and God is putting the puzzle together. WE are the ones being difficult and many times making it to where God can’t put us in our respectable places… and we wonder why we aren’t happy in life? Why we aren’t where we know we should be? Lighten your heart up and you will see that your puzzle piece begins to fit perfectly 🙂
- No one is promised tomorrow.
James 4:13-17
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Confession Letters 