(For this page, pretend this dog is limping on three legs!)
On 30 July, Ol' Spunky came home! Michele the intern called and everyone was amazed at how well Misha was doing already. She always has been a fast healer, and she'd been eating (make that, *gobbling* down her food) and walking (tried to walk home, I think, since she's very strong and they didn't keep her prong collar), and "doing her stuff" outside already . . . the drainage is greatly decreased, which is the important thing since she couldn't come home with the drain in. It was removed Friday morning.
I'm sure Misha's kept count of how many celery sticks and how many biscuits she's been cheated out of and will want to make up every single one! She's has had enough of this two-meals-a-day-and-NO-TREATS-OR-VEGGIES business, so she'd become pretty obstreperous. The Prisoner was to be released at 5:00 p.m.
On Friday night, Misha was Home Alone, I mean, AGAIN.
We began our trip to Madison 30 minutes late, thus making up for the two times we were one hour early. Luckily, the clinic was open 'til 8 p.m., so a few minutes one way or the other didn't matter.
Michele came out to give us all the details of Misha's care . . . there isn't much to do, just watch the sutures to be sure they aren't getting infected and go to our own vet to have them removed. No swimming or running loose 'til they're taken out. And, she warned us, Misha's wearing the E-collar as I'd recommended and she uses it as a weapon - Michele has the bruises on her legs to prove it!
So here came Misha, literally prancing down the hall, with an inverted lampshade on her head . . . must've been one heck of a farewell party! NO WONDER she was using it as a weapon - their E-collar was really a hard plastic cone that took away all her peripheral vision - if she wanted to look at anyone, she had to move her entire head (and we know how hard those AireHeads are!) and hit anything in the vicinity, such as legs,
chairs, tables, etc. Needless to say, we removed that thing as soon as we got outside. She wouldn't have been able to fit in the crate with it on, anyway, and we figured she'd be too p**ped to lick.
If you've ever seen a shaved 'Dale, you'll know how grateful we should be that dogs have fur, 'cause they're pretty ugly under there. (To see a completely shaved-down 'Dale, visit Briggs Fernandez and you'll see what I mean!)
Because of the possibility of amputation, she was shaved all the way to the spine on that side. She had one little hole with a staple where the drain was, on the outside of the leg, so that didn't look too bad. Then we looked at the inside of the leg - her bikini-wearing days are definitely over! One very long incision from one side of the thigh to the other, and a four-inch incision along the lower leg. Very neat and
clean though, and they appear to be healing nicely.
She hopped right into the van, and home we went. We stopped at Gramma's (VetteMan's Mother lives outside of Madison) to reassure her that her Favorite GrandDog was ok . . . despite how terrible her leg looks, it
was still better than the alternative!
The first thing Misha did when she came in the house was stick her nose into Cari's food bowl and gobble up the few kernels of food left in there, so we knew she was normal . . . she also informed us that we owe her some treats ("Let's see, I was gone for four days -
that'll be eight biscuits, eight pieces of celery, four restaurant treats, and various other things I'm sure I missed. And where's the ENTIRE Frosty Paws you told everyone you were going to give me?").
Both ends worked - food and water go in and come out as per usual. She walked well; no limping or favoring the leg, and she preferred to lie on that leg rather than the other one . . . don't ask why, but I figure she knows what she wants. Her BARKBARKBARKer worked well, too.
The next morning, she wouldn't get up for breakfast, so I gave her room service and served breakfast and water where she was lying. When I prepared my cereal and bananas, however, she could get up for that, so she was ok . . . just playing for sympathy, I'm sure. She had had room
service for several days and probably liked it.
The lumps were sent in for biopsies . . . we declined the radiation treatment - we are basically buying time and hoping that some of the neutriceuticals I'm starting her on will delay the return of the hemangiopericytoma, if that's what it is. If it returns, we'll have to make decisions at that time. We're back to heading for my goal of 15 years of age for Misha . . .
And for those who wondered . . . so far the cost has been, including the beginning aspiration and biopsies, about $1300. We still have follow-up visits for suture removal.
One of the veterinarians from the Clinic called (on Sunday night, yet - I wonder if they work 24 hours/day, 7 days/week??). Misha's biopsies came back already.
Top lumps were, as suspected, lipomas. Bottom lumps were hemangiomas, but a little abnormal (why am I not surprised?), so all we can do is watch for their possible return. Good thing we didn't amputate or radiate.
CONTINUE WITH MISHA'S CANCER SAGA HERE
