One long year has gotten us to this spot. I'd like to think a lot of things have changed, but really a lot of things are still the same. Changes- Molly is one year older, and smarter every minute. She is about to start her second year of pre-school and the last few evenings has spent hours playing with the neighborhood kids and cried when she had to come inside. Mike has started his second semester at McDaniel, we are all very proud of him. How he manages to juggle work and school and keep time for Molly is amazing. Believe me, I am frequently jealous that his co-workers spend more time with him then we do. But he could probably say the same for me these days. And as for me. I feel like I am in the exact same spot I was a year ago. Emotionally speaking that is. I've already had an emotionally rough start to September. After a very successful August, fertility wise, September has come in like a boulder. My period was four days late, later then I thought it would be, four days that I spent in bliss thinking I was pregnant. I know, it was silly of me to get that excited so early, but after a year of this it is hard not to. And currently I am failing to see the positive in this situation, which is, each month I get a period around "normal" time is one more month that my body is getting back to normal. So please, if you see me within the next few days try as hard as possible not to bring up babies or pregnant people. Unless you would like to see me cry that is.
I wish I was done with the bad news... But unfortunately September brought bad news for Mickey also. We had family pictures planned for this last weekend, so I decided I was going to get the dog groomed about a week before them so he would look handsome. Normally I do his grooming as a way to save money, but I decided to drop him off somewhere this time. Of course as soon as I picked him up from the groomer I noticed the giant growth that his hair had been hiding. Mortified I called the vet immediately to schedule an appointment. He has a few smaller lumps on his rib cage that have previously been seen by the vet and diagnosed as lypomas, which are just a fatty tumor common in older dogs. This one however was different, not only was it not near the rest of them, it was attached to the upper back of his right thigh, sort of hidden under his tail(and all the hair previously there). It was also very hard, and seemed to have lumps inside of it also. I felt like a terrible pet owner at this point, how did I not notice this? It was practically the size of a peach by the time the vet was able to see him. She knew right away it was bad news, he was seen on a Tuesday and they scheduled his surgery for the following Thursday.
His surgery went mostly according to plan, the tumor was much deeper then originally believed. His surgery ended up taking longer then expected and they had to take much more tissue then originally planned. They also had to put in a drain because of how deep his incision was. Because of the drain they wanted him to stay over night for observations. I reluctantly agreed. (knowing I was probably listening to money flying out of my bank account). During his surgery his doctor was concerned about the depth in which the tumor had spread, she was also concerned because there was obvious previous surgery on the area that suggested this was a re-growth. Of course since we only rescued him in January we have no previous medical history. Fearing the worst and hoping for the best we waited for the biopsy results. Yesterday when I took him to get his drain out the vet was able to share the results. The tumor was cancer. I started feeling my fingers tingle the moment I heard to word. He continued to explain that the tumor was Mast Cell Cancer. The rest of what I will be explaining will be my own research as well as what I remember from the doctor, I blocked out most of that conversation due to initial shock. Mickey's tumor although it was considered low grade, they have three or four grades for Mast Cell, was very complicated in his tissue and the lab could not confirm that a large enough margin around the tumor was taken. The best treatment option for this kind of cancer is surgery to remove infected cells, however because the operating vet didn't know what kind of tumor it was when operating she didn't know how much to take and was concerned more about taking too much because of recovery and him being able to have full use of his leg. We of course do not fault any decision made by the vet at the time of surgery. Of course the best plan is a second surgery, go back in and try to clean out the remainder of the bad cells. If this is an option, and it is determined that all cells are gone, Mickey could live happily with no re-growth for 5 to 6 years, a very healthy life span for a dog his size. However, currently we aren't sure if a second surgery is even an option. They took so much tissue the first time they aren't sure if there is much left to remove, they are also concerned about having enough skin to close the wound. Because Mast Cell tumors are not picky about what kinds of cells they take over, very frequently they are in the skin more than muscle. If a second surgery isn't an option we probably have about a year or two left with Mickey. Mast Cell tumors, when not treated can metastasis to other organs. They move typically to the spleen and intestines. The dog eventually dies from complications to these smaller tumors.
I know lately I have been closing with a positive or a funny note. But today I don't really have as many. Maybe later this week or early next week I will update again with something more upbeat. But for today, this is all. Going to spend time with both my kids while they are both still here and healthy.
