Hi Dawn,
I have a ton of info that I can share with you...it just depends on the extreme that you want to go with alternative treatments. I would also strongly recommend that you consider consulting with Carolann...she got me started with Pookie and held my hand the whole year and a half that we fought the cancer. Here is the link to her website:
Princess Healthy Canine Consulting
When Pookie was initially diagnosed, they told me she had eight to twelve weeks to have a good quality of life with the grade of the tumors (she had dirty margins because the tumor was biopsied, not removed, and they graded it at a 3). She lived a year and a half.
From personal exprience, the chemo wasn't bad, but I wasn't happy with it. The positive side of chemo was that Pookie didn't have ANY side effects and it did dissolve the mast cell tumors she had. The cons were that is was expensive (I drew from my retirement to pay for treatments), and she had to have treatments weekly to bi-weekly depending on her CBC's. I also began noticing that it would dissolve the tumors, but within a week, they would pop up somewhere else.
I'm not sure what the difference is with chemo and lymphoma though. The majority of the people at the cancer clinic where I took Pookie had pets with lymphoma, and they were all in very good spirits while going through their chemo also.
One of the most important things you can do for Brooks is to change her food if it contains ANY grains. Grains convert to sugar, and sugar feeds cancer cells, which you do not want. Just making that small change for Pookie resulted in her not developing any more mast cell tumors for well over a year. In fact, she didn't develop any more tumors until we had to get her mammary tumor removed...her system went crazy after that surgery, but it was unavoidable. I know you aren't an advocate of feeding raw, but it was the best way for me to control what went into Pookie, and the results were so amazing that it made a convert out of me. Plus I was so desperate that I was willing to try anything.
She was healthier the last year of her life than she ever was. If you don't want to go that route, I would look into preparing a home-cooked diet for Brooks. Carolann can formulate a diet that is nutritionally balanced specifically for Brooks, condition.
There are SO many alternative therapies you can try that it would be too much for me to list them here. If you let me know what you are interested in, I can let you know what my experience has been.
I also have a TON of supplements here that I had for Pookie...many of them haven't even been opened. I would be happy to send you a list of what I have and you can ask your holistic connection about them, or I can give you links to the information I have on them. If you want to try any of them, I can ship them to you.
When Pookie was diagnosed with cancer, I always said that I wouldn't do anything unrealistic or try to stretch her life out any more than it should be. Boy did I put my foot in my mouth...I tried any and everything to keep her with me, and if I had to do it over again, I'd do it the same way. I truly know how you feel. Take care of yourself and give Brooks a HUGE kiss from me. Let me know if you need anything.
~Millicent