Good news, bad news.
Bad news first: Dreyfus has Lymphoma. This is not a surprise.
Good news: Lymphoma responds well to chemo, and Dr. Kirmayer started Dreyfus on a chemo protocol during our Thursday vist. Also, Dreyfus' kindey numbers are (mostly) back in line, so he can stay at home instead of at the emergency vet... No more non-stop IVs for Dreyfus.
My father and I picked up Dreyfus from the emergency vet at 6:30AM, and Dreyfus was glad to be leaving. The emergency vet was happy to report that the kidney numbers were down. During the normal layover between vets, Dreyfus pooped some of the nastiest poop I've ever seen, then promply stepped in it with two paws. I know, I know... more info than you need, but if my father and I had to deal with cleaning up that mess, the rest of world can share our pain a bit :-). I'll give Dreyfus a pass on stepping in his own poop, but only because of what he's going through. He's not gonna be able to play the "I'm sick" card forever!
We finally got to see Dr. Crawford again. Dr. Crawford is Dreyfus' normal vet, but the last time we saw him was last Monday. We saw Dr. Vukovich (same practice as Dr. Crawford) last Thursday AM, then Dr. Kirmayer (local cancer doc) last Thursday PM, then Dr. Lee (emergency vet) during the evenings and over the weekend. Dr. Crawford was very pleased with the care that Dreyfus has been getting. He said that Dr. Vukovich's check for calcium was an inspired move, and Dr. Kirmayer was totally on top of things to start Dreyfus on chemo after the ultrasound. Dr. Crawford mentioned that he talked to Dr. Kirmayer on Friday, and Dr. Kirmayer was surprised that Dreyfus had survived Thursday night. Everyone was surprised again when the kidney numbers stopped going in the wrong direction on Friday.
The plan for today is to pick up some Vincristine from Dr. Kirmayer, and bring it over to Dr. Crawford (where Dreyfus is currently staying, having what we hope is his last IV for a little while.) Dreyfus will also be taking reduced amounts of steroids. At the end of this week, we'll check his blood levels with Dr. Crawford, and next week we'll go back to Dr. Kirmayer.
Update @ 1:20PM EST: Got the Vincristine from Dr. Kirmayer, but didn't get a chance to talk to him. Another dog with suspected cancer was there. I saw how nervous his parents were, and I really wish I could say something to them to make them feel better :-\. Dr. Crawford gave Dreyfus the Vincristine, and we were able to chat for a while. He cleared up some confusion I had about what happened over the weekend. I thought that Dreyfus' calcium and BUN/Creat (kindey) numbers were basically supposed to move in the same direction. As it turns out, what they did to bring the calcium down was expected to be hard on the kidneys, so it wasn't a surprise that the kidney numbers went bad when the calcium went good. Once they got the calcium down, they then refocused to get the kidneys back before too much damage was done. I didn't realize that this was the gameplan. In any case, Dr. Crawford once again expressed his amazement that things went as well as they did. He didn't think we would get to this point. We are now scheduled for rechecks at Dr. Crawford in a few days, and Dr. Kirmayer next week. I asked Dr. Crawford when we would know if Dreyfus is responding to the chemo, and his answer was a clear "we think he already is, that's why the calcium came down." I feel a lot better after hearing that.