Do I look happy to you, Mom??? I am giving you the raspberries - I am not a happy boy right now!!!
Yes, I am in hiding, and no, I am not telling you why.
Woos - Timber
From Mom: This sweet boy is truly strange. I have no idea why he is hiding, but if I ignore him, he will be fine later. No more issues please.
Let's see who is really having a Happy Tuesday by hopping on the Happy Tuesday Blog Hop sponsored by Comedy Plus.
The dreaded phone call came Friday night. Mom saw the number, looked at the clock, and knew that an 8:00 p.m. call from Dr. B. was not likely going to be a happy hello.
So my pathology report is back. It is not all bad, but more bad than good. The mass Dr. B. removed from my left front leg was a soft tissue sarcoma, one that goes after the skin, tendons, muscles, and other soft tissue. It IS a malignant tumor. It has been graded a low to moderate grade, close to a 2 on a scale of 3 with 3 being the most aggressive. The margins were not clean enough to say that he got it all. A 3 mm margin is needed to call it clean. My report says it is a narrowly excised mass with only a 1.5 mm margin on the periphery and less than 0.1 on the depth. The mass was very close to muscle and tendons, and Dr. B. was concerned about permanent damage to my leg if he had tried to excise into the muscle. Even before the report came back, we knew there was a good chance that the margins would not be wide enough to declare victory.
In addition, a sarcoma acts like an octopus in shape, sending out "small babies" all around it, a bit like spindle cell tumors. There is a reasonable chance that the tumor will grow again either at the main site or with one of the "babies" because we don't have those clean margins. I will be closely monitored by both Mom and Dr. B. for any sign of new growth. Most dogs with low to moderate grades can live 3-4 years if there is not recurrence. Radiation and chemotherapy are both options. Radiation would require multiple sedations, one for the mapping of the area, and then for each subsequent treatment. Because of how easily stressed my GI system behaves, this is probably not a good choice for me. And chemotherapy would basically escalate my IBD to a level that would be unbearable, so that is out of the question. Dr. B.'s opinion is that, if it comes down to new growth, he would not encourage radiation . He is just hoping that we won't have to face that option. And an even bigger hope is that it hasn't/doesn't metastasize to other areas of my body.
Woos - Misty and her supportive brother Timber
Mom says I am still AWWW-worthy even with my gimpy leg and my silly lampshade, so let's hop along and see who else is joining the Awww Mondays Blog Hop sponsored by Comedy Plus.
Who wants to caption this???
Woos - Misty and Timber (BFFs)
Let's see who else is appearing on the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop sponsored by Comedy Plus.
.webp)
Timber, how did you manage to get yourself in there???
Snooter snagged by the lamp cord.
Have no fear. Mom came to his rescue, and he is just fine. Actually he wasn't bothered at all by his situation:). In fact he loves to camp out in tight spots. They are his caves:)
Woos - Misty and Timber
Quick Misty Update: Still coned, incision healing well, GI gut is a mess. Stopped all extra meds except the amoxicillin, which may be the culprit, but necessary to prevent incision from being infected.
We are happy to hop along with the Happy Tuesday Blog Hop sponsored by Comedy Plus.
Loopy Misty
My fancy bandage. My incision ended up being a lot bigger and longer than expected.
My tail incision where they removed that ugly thingie.
Me today, feeling and looking a lot perkier. Mom is going to tell you all about my surgery.
Mom here now. So Misty's surgery went about as well as expected.
The growth on her eyelid was a granuloma, typically benign. Dr. B. removed it, and she is getting some ointment on the eyelid as it heals.
The ugly growth on her tail was a cutaneous horn, also benign. It was removed. Misty has a couple of stitches there along with a bare spot where she was shaved. It was just going to get bigger and bigger so good riddance.
That brings us to the main problem, the mass on her front leg. The mass was located between the wrist and elbow on the back/outer side of her left leg. Since it was fairly large, there was some concern about closing it in an area that doesn't have that much skin. Dr. B. said that the whole situation was "very gnarly", his words. Because he had to cut such a large area to remove the tumor, he also had to cut below the wrist and higher up toward the elbow to be able to have some skin flaps to close the wound. He does not expect the pathology report to indicate clean margins because he was trying to avoid damaging the muscles in the area. He wants to get the pathology analysis first and then worry about what comes next. So the incision is quite long and zig zags up the leg from below the wrist. As for the mass, he said it was unclear what it actually is. We have to wait for the pathology report and then weigh our options. It wasn't so much what he said as what he didn't say that makes me concerned. There was a very guarded tone to his words. I have had a bad feeling about this lump so I guess I need to be prepared for bad news and hope for good news.
Lastly, this morning Misty seemed much more alert. She ate her breakfast but just wants to lounge around - and that is fine. She can't do stairs, no horsing around, and no running for two weeks when the stitches come out. I have her penned off from Timber overnight and when she is not under the supervision of me or my husband. This incision is too tricky to take any chances. The one problem we encountered today was what appears to be a major flareup of her Inflammatory Bowel Disease. She had a bowel movement after eating, fairly typical in appearance, laced with lots of blood. But about an hour later, I noticed a huge smear of fresh blood on the floor, her tail, and hind area. She evidently is putting out quite a bit of blood from the intestines. Dr. B. is in surgery and will call me when he is done to discuss. But from what has occurred in the past, there really isn't anything to give her that makes any difference. She doesn't tolerate any meds other than antibiotics. We just have to wait for the flareup to subside. Maybe he will have something different to try when he calls. I am also keeping an eye on the bandaged area for swelling. I can remove the bandage tomorrow unless it comes off on its own. It is difficult to tell if there is swelling with that large an area covered. I will check with him about that too.
Nothing is easy with Misty, but we continue to hope and wait.
And I am waiting too. I want Misty to be better soon so we can have fun and hang together.
Woos - Misty and Timber and Mom too
And since we are all thankful for a wonderful vet and all the POTP from our friends here, let's join Brian's Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.
An Ussie for you from US:)
And here is a Selfie from Misty who has some news and a request.
Hi to all my friends. Take a good look at me today because I am going into hiding after Wednesday. I am going to be sporting the dreaded cone AGAIN as well as some bare spots on my body. I have a very large and very firm mass on the back of my front left leg that appeared very quickly and grew very fast as well. The vet aspirated some cells to take a quick peek and he thinks it might be a tricoblastoma tumor. These are typically benign, but it could also be something more sinister, like a trichoblastic carcinoma tumor or a mast cell tumor, neither of which would be good. He said we could wait and see what happens with it, but the bigger it gets, the harder it will be to do a successful surgery. At the same time he is going to remove a cutaneous horn from the base of my tail that is really ugly. AND if all goes smoothly, he is going to remove a small growth from my eyelid. I have had lots and lots of lumps and bumps removed, mostly all sebaceous cysts. Mom says it has something to do with my auto-immune system. She is also hoping that the stress of the surgery and the pain meds they may give me don't aggravate my already difficult inflammatory bowel disease. I don't do well with ANY kind of meds at all. So maybe you could all send me a little bit of the Power of the Paw. I will let you know how things go, but I may not show my face:)
Woos - Misty and Timber
Let's join the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop sponsored by The Cat on My Head.
Hello, remember us??? Our Secretary has been very negligent in letting us post. We worry our blog is slowly fading away. Please forgive our absence. Here we are today.
