Today was another very long day. Arri needed to be at MSU Vet Hospital between 8 and 8:30 am so we hit the road before 6 am. Today he is supposed to be having a chest x-ray, maybe an ultrasound and a chemo treatment.
We arrive on time and Arri gets called back fairly quickly. We review his new lumps and bumps as well as his current breathing issues. I am told they might not do chemo if the lumps and bumps turn out to have metastasized from his internal tumors. This... I was not expecting. I was thinking more drugs or different drugs. I take a second to digest that thought and decide I'll roll with it and see what happens. The technician lets me know the Dr will talk to me around noon and see how we proceed - based on the test results. Well, I was wondering how long this appointment would last. At least 4 hours.
Arri goes in the back and I settle in for a long winters nap.
It has only been an hour and I am restless. Since I know they will not be in touch for awhile, there is no point in planting myself in a chair. I was excited to look online and find a yarn shop just 2 miles away. I pack up and check out this college town. The shop had not opened yet so I parked and wandered up and down the 'strip'. It was not yet 10am and it was pretty lifeless. Guess they don't do early classes. I finally wandered to the yarn shop only to see a sign on the door for new hours - Closed on Monday. Nice....update your website please.
I drove around a bit more, found a strip mall with craft stores and a Panera and amused myself for a little while. Eventually I found myself back at the hospital waiting area and planted myself with a book.
The Doctor called around 12:15 to let me know what was going on. I guess they forgot I said I would be sticking around. Easier to call than walk down to the waiting area. That is one thing I noticed with the oncology side of the hospital; they don't do talks in rooms or offices. They just talk to you out in the lobby, regardless of how many people are around. Odd. I certainly hope if they have bad/unexpected news, they do move it elsewhere.
So much information was thrown out there. The BB's do appear to be sarcoma. This is curious because they were working on the idea that the internal cancer was carsinoma. It would be highly unusual for a dog to have two different kinds of cancer. So now the thought is that he has disseminated histiocytic sarcoma which has no 'typical' presentation. If I understood correctly, it can show under microscope as anything it wants. Arri's slides did show multiple kinds of cells. They did not consider histiocytic sarcoma previously because Labs rarely get it. It is more common in Bernese Mountain dogs and Flat coated retrievers. She also said the internal cancer has progressed so they want to change the chemo drug. I was surprised by this because he was doing so much better. I guess how he feels/behaves has nothing to do with what the cancer is doing. So instead of Carboplatin he would be getting Adriamycin. This drug tends to cause heart damage over time so we can only have 6 treatments using it. Once every 3 weeks.
They also wanted to get better samples of the BB's that have grown. The reason being, if they get better samples they can test specifically for the histiocytic sarcoma. If they confirm that diagnosis, then they would change to a different chemo drug that is effective for that type of cancer. She started out with saying removing the tumors = surgery. I was not keen on this and she must have sensed it over the phone. In early January, they made a big deal of the growths in his lungs and not wanting to sedate and compromise his breathing. So no, if he is getting worse, I really don't want surgery. I am offered another option - he is already under mild sedation from the x-ray/ultrasound. They would give him a little more with a local anesthetic and do a 'punch' biopsy. They don't remove the whole tumor - just take a part of it. It meant a slight incision and a few stitches. As well as another shaved body section. The poor boy will never have a full body of fur again. It never gets a chance to grow all the way back.
He did have some fluid in his chest. We considered having it drained but decided against it. She did not think it was a sizable amount. I decided to monitor his breathing and if need be, our home vet can drain it.
He finally comes out around 3:45. LONG day. He is still drugged and is having a hard time focusing and standing. We just make it outside to toilet. Poor boy couldn't even stand for that - he sat down before he was done. Glad I travel with paper towel in the car. I could clean up his tush. Back inside to get some final information from the Dr - and to finally talk to her face to face. It will be 3 - 5 days before the biopsy tests come back. He will have blood work in a week and if all is well, we will do this again in 3 weeks. Hopefully, only an x-ray and chemo then.
Before we left, I offered him half of his dinner. He ate just fine. Arri cried on the way home. I hate that. I know it is not the result of pain but the sedation medicine. Still, I just want to snuggle next to him until it wears off. Unfortunately I couldn't, someone had to drive. He continued to cry for a while when we got home. I offered him a cheesy pain pill but he refused. We might have a few difficult days ahead. It is supposed to get down into the single digits tonight. The cold will not be great for his breathing.
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