I got 'the call' from the vet. Maxine's fucked. The lump on the outside of her ribs, which is the size of 2 rolls of dimes or so, is only 10% the size of the bulk inside her rib cage. It would cost a lot to find the academic cause of the cancer, but it's more than likely a tumor related to her blood vessels, since other cancers rarely bleed at all, and hers is.
This fucking sucks. My little scared buddy is going to die soon. I got her when she was really little, and brought her to work every day for 5 years where she laid under my desk and barked at my co-workers. Now she's helpless, after a lifetime of being scared of her own shadow.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Maxine's Sick
Real sick. We think it's cancer.
I felt a lump on her side, behind her left front leg, a couple weeks ago when she was laying on her right side. Then, after we got back from Charlie's wedding, she was puking more than normal. The two sets of symptoms are likely unrelated, but they prompted us to make a trip to the vet. We took her this morning.
The vet was immediately concerned. First he checked her out and noticed that the lump has a heartbeat, and that the lump was stuck to her rib cage. No-worry lumps are typically stuck to a dog's skin or floating somewhere in the fat layer, I've since read. Then he took a prick of the lump and noticed under a microscope that the cells he isolated had 2 nuclei, meaning that they're dividing in front of his face. Cancer!
He kept her to put her under anesthesia and get some x-rays. When he reported back, the x-rays showed that the lump is swelling on both sides of M's rib cage, right alongside her heart. Luck be a lady, the transient animal cardiologist was scheduled to make an appointment to their office today, so they kept her to get an ultrasound and a diagnosis from an expert. We're waiting on that report.
She's gonna die. Even if it's the kind of thing where Maxine can stay doped up forever, she's not going to live much longer without pointless surgery. I've prepared for this ever since I fell in love with her, but I thought we'd have a baby to worry about before my little M started showing her age. Not so.
Elissa is all torn up, and I can't talk about it without getting misty. I'll update this post if we hear news today.
I felt a lump on her side, behind her left front leg, a couple weeks ago when she was laying on her right side. Then, after we got back from Charlie's wedding, she was puking more than normal. The two sets of symptoms are likely unrelated, but they prompted us to make a trip to the vet. We took her this morning.
The vet was immediately concerned. First he checked her out and noticed that the lump has a heartbeat, and that the lump was stuck to her rib cage. No-worry lumps are typically stuck to a dog's skin or floating somewhere in the fat layer, I've since read. Then he took a prick of the lump and noticed under a microscope that the cells he isolated had 2 nuclei, meaning that they're dividing in front of his face. Cancer!
He kept her to put her under anesthesia and get some x-rays. When he reported back, the x-rays showed that the lump is swelling on both sides of M's rib cage, right alongside her heart. Luck be a lady, the transient animal cardiologist was scheduled to make an appointment to their office today, so they kept her to get an ultrasound and a diagnosis from an expert. We're waiting on that report.
She's gonna die. Even if it's the kind of thing where Maxine can stay doped up forever, she's not going to live much longer without pointless surgery. I've prepared for this ever since I fell in love with her, but I thought we'd have a baby to worry about before my little M started showing her age. Not so.
Elissa is all torn up, and I can't talk about it without getting misty. I'll update this post if we hear news today.
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