MILESTONE: Six Months Since Surgery!!!!

One happy beagle...Six months post op!

Exactly six months ago today Rilley underwent surgery at the University of Minnesota's Veterinary Medical Center to remove the meningioma that was growing in his brain and to begin his experimental treatment.  As we have been posting over the last half year, he is doing extremely well and has completely returned to his old, pre-tumour self.  (Much to my chagrin at times!)  We have not seen any signs of seizure activity and on our three month return trip to Minneapolis his MRI was completely clear of any tumour cells.  We also received word that tumour antibodies were found in Rilley's blood stream; on the hunt and ready to fight any tumour cells that may try to return.  All in all it has been an exciting adventure so far and our family couldn't be happier with the results of this clinical trial thus far.

Looking forward, we will be travelling back to the univeristy later this month for Rilley's six month follow up visit and MRI.  During this trip we will finally meet Dr. John Ohlfest, the man behind the vaccine.  We had hoped to meet him and tour the lab during our last visit, but some of his other responsibilities had him busy out of town.

We realize that as time goes on and Rilley continues to do well, there is nothing much to write about, but we really do appreciate everyone's continued interest in our blog.  As of this writing, the blog sits at 4744 visits and steadily heading towards 5000 hits!

Finally, one sad note to pass along, a few weeks back we posted that Jake the Warrior had run into some trouble with his fight against brain cancer. Ultimately, Jake lost his battle that very weekend and his owners Frank and Jenn lost their best friend. While his tumour and treatment protocols were vastly different from Rilley's it serves as a stark reminder of just how devastating this disease truly is. Let's hope that the work being done at the Ohlfest Brain Tumor Lab will find a way to stop brain cancer in its tracks for both dogs and people.