gretel is 14 months past her osteosarcoma diagnosis and the oncologist gave her 4 to 8 months last april, writing the long survivor post i wish i had read when we were sitting in the parking lot of the vet hospital trying to figure out if we should even start treatment

Gretel is a 7 year old harlequin great dane, 142 pounds at diagnosis, was limping intermittently on her right front for about three weeks in march 2024 before we took her in. The x-ray showed a lesion on the distal radius and the biopsy two weeks later confirmed appendicular osteosarcoma. The oncologist at our regional referral hospital sat us down in april and said the median survival with amputation plus chemotherapy is around 10 to 12 months, the median with palliative care alone is 2 to 4 months, and that giant breeds tend to fall on the shorter end of those ranges because the disease is often more aggressive. We left that appointment, sat in the parking lot for an hour, and i remember telling my husband "i dont know how to make this decision."

We chose amputation plus chemo. The amputation was april 17 2024. Six rounds of carboplatin starting may 8. She tolerated the amputation better than anyone expected, was walking on three legs within 36 hours, was off pain meds at day 12. The chemo was harder, she had two rounds where she was nauseous for 5 days afterward and we had to slow the schedule down. Final round was august 22. The oncologist did restaging scans in october, three months out, and said no evidence of metastatic disease at that point. We celebrated. We knew the median was 10 to 12 months and that mets usually show up by month 8 to 14 but at least we had clean scans.

December restaging. Still no evidence of metastatic disease. The oncologist said this is unusual and good. February restaging. Still clean. The oncologist said "i dont want to use the word remission with osteosarcoma but this is the closest we get to it." April restaging, exactly one year from her amputation. Still clean. And now we are at 14 months and gretel is asleep on the kitchen floor on her three legs as i type this, 132 pounds (lost some muscle but is healthy weight for her frame), running short distances in the yard, climbing onto the couch with help, sleeping through the night, eating like a great dane (which is to say constantly).

I want to share what we did because the giant breed osteosarcoma community is full of "we lost him at month 6" posts which are real and important, but they are not the only outcome and people deciding right now whether to start treatment deserve to see the other end of the distribution too. We did amputation plus chemo (the standard protocol). We added a holistic component (turkey tail mushroom supplement, joint support, omega 3 fatty acids) which our oncologist said was probably neutral but unlikely to hurt. We did monthly low impact exercise with a canine physical therapist for the first 8 months to maintain the muscle mass on her three remaining legs, which i think mattered more than any supplement. We kept her at a healthy weight bordering on slightly lean, because every extra pound on three legs is a problem. We did the scans on schedule and we caught nothing because there has been nothing to catch.

What i want to say to anyone reading this in the parking lot of the vet hospital trying to make this decision. the median is the median, half of dogs do better than the median, and you have no way to know if your dog is going to be on the long end or the short end. The decision is not "is my dog going to survive 12 months." The decision is "what kind of months do we want to give her either way." We chose amputation because the limping was painful and removing the cancer source removed her pain, not because we knew she would beat the odds. We chose chemo because the protocol is well tolerated and the downside was manageable. We did not choose treatment because we thought she would be a 14 month survivor. We chose treatment because we wanted her remaining months to be comfortable, and the bonus was that those months kept happening.

Gretel will not live forever. She is 7 years old and even without cancer her giant breed life expectancy was probably another year or two at best. But she has had 14 good months past a diagnosis that should have ended her last summer, and those have been the best months of our lives with her. If you are in the parking lot right now, i am rooting for you. The long survivor post exists. Sometimes you are the long survivor