Facing the Storm
We are finally getting some much needed rain. Today the sky turned black and, with little warning at all, heavy rain pounded down on us. In so many ways it echoed my mood. Today we had to make the chose for Fozzy. We finally got the call on Tuesday, sitting in the parking lot of the wedding I had actually, that both biopsies were inconclusive. More than that, the pathology lab thought the suspected plasma cell tumor. This was something we were completely unprepared for… hope.
Plasma cell tumor (or plamsacytoma) is a rare condition in dogs, accounting for less than 8% of hematopoietic tumors. The diagnosis can sometimes be made by looking for elevated proteins in the blood work. Unfortunately, these proteins only become elevated once the cancer is in the bone marrow meaning the test is not conclusive. We opted to do the test anyway because it was cheap and relatively quick. We took him in on Wednesday to have his blood drawn and knew it would be two or more days before we heard back.
Late Friday afternoon we got the call that the blood test was also inconclusive. At this point, her suggestion was that we remove the spleen and have it biopsied. This was extremely difficult news to hear. We’ve already spent a ton of money for nothing and now we have to choose a course of treatment with no information. Our biggest issue was that he seemed fine except that he can’t use his leg.
As the weekend went on he seemed to deteriorate. He became lethargic and had difficulty getting comfortable. His appetite never suffered and he seemed to want to participate but didn’t feel comfortable moving around. We are obviously worried about his spleen, but if he does have the plasmacytoma, the spleen tumor should react well to the chemo. I don’t think he will ever use his leg again.
Monday we called the doctor with our decision. We were going to hedge our bets and amputate, using the leg for the biopsy instead of the spleen. The original plan was to do both, remove the spleen and biopsy the leg (without amputation). Knowing that he will likely never use his leg again, we knew we had to amputate. We also decided it was too probably that the tumors were related to justify removing his spleen as well. These were all very difficult decisions!
The final decision to pull the trigger came when we got the quote for the amputation. It was more than we’d hoped. Not as much as the splenectomy, but more than we’d hoped. By the time we got the quote we only had 4-hours left to make a decision. We got the quote today and he has to have the surgery tomorrow or wait until Monday. He’s in so much pain; I didn’t feel we could wait. Plus, Brian will be in Dallas all next week. So the decision is made, for better or worse.
We take him to the vet first thing in the morning. The weather forecast is for very severe storms. Part of me feels like it’s an omen. I keep telling myself I’m not doing this for me. I don’t know if that’s true. There have been so many times that I’ve thought death would be peace for my baby. It will be true someday but not today. I still see the fight in his eyes. We pick him up Friday. More to come.