Monday, I took Mercy’s sutures out of her incision from the mass removal 2 weeks ago. That felt like an effort in futility – removing sutures from a leg that’s coming off in, now, less than a week. For whatever reason, it just felt like the routine thing to do, so I did it anyway. This incision is healing well. Much better than the last one. Also, got back the results of her radiology consult for her chest xrays, no pulmonary mets! Hooray for little steps! Tuesday, her new shirts came in the mail. One is a pink one with, what seems to have become out motto for the moment, “Cancer took my leg, not my life”. The other, a gray one with “Cancer Survivor”. Tuesday also brought a cold front down from Alaska and the beginning of some incredibly cold weather for a little spoiled shorthair dog, so we broke out the winter clothing a little early this year. Walking around the block in her snazzy hot pink coat and her halloween bandanna definitely gets some looks. Today, we had another visit to the vets office, so what better way to show up so close to halloween than in a witch costume! Mercy looks so cute in her hat and dress. She had to take it off quickly, though, to begin her examination and sedation prior to her ultrasound. For the ultrasound, we had to shave halfway up her sides, all of her abdomen, and a spot on her left shoulder. In addition to her left front leg from the mass removals, and the shaved spot on her right front leg from the IV catheters, she’s looking a little risque! At 1pm, the doctor came with the ultrasound equipment, he came down from Tucson, 1.5 hours away to see her. The results of the ultrasound were… not bad, but not good. There is nothing that seemed to alarm either of the doctors, or prevent us from continuing with the amputation next week, but there were a few “oddities”. She had a small lesion on her spleen, which they believe may be normal geriatric changes. She also had a very odd round cystic “thing” not attached to any of her organs, just *there* near her kidney. Neither of the vets knew what it was. Everything else looked okay, which is good. We’ll be repeating her ultrasound in 3 months to check to see what’s going on with what we did find. The visiting vet wasn’t able to palpate or locate her prescapular lymph node with ultrasound, so we weren’t able to send a sample in to check for metastasis. Chances are, since noone is able to find it, there’s nothing to worry about; however, we’re going to see if we can find it during the surgery and remove it to err on the side of caution. After the ultrasound, we wiped as much of the ultrasound “goo” off of her as possible (I can’t stand that stuff!) and I took her home. We’ll be wearing shirts regularly for awhile now! Between the cold front, not having any fur, and soon losing a leg, it’s regular shirts for awhile. So now we’re curled up on the couch with a faux mink blanket, some mac’n’cheese and some B horror movies courtesy of the upcoming holiday. Mercy is still recovering from the sedation. Oh, how she hates sedation, but at least she’s sleeping now. Also, just received her new ruff-wear harness in the mail. We’ll be sizing that correctly tomorrow when she’s not so wobbly. We’ll also be getting a bath tomorrow to get all the residual “goo” off, and to make sure she’s ready for her surgery next Wednesday. Saturday will hopefully be a halloween costume contest for the dogs, then rest for a few days… at least for Mercy. Wednesday will come to soon for me, and yet not soon enough. As much as I’m not looking forward to the amputation, it’s going to come, and I’ll be glad when it’s over and we can recover together.
Wednesday, here we come…
So glad to hear that Mercy is finally home!!! Just snuggle, cuddle… and spoil… That’s all you can do for now… and she will absolutely love it!!! Try to post some pictures of Mercy in her new T-shirts. They sound too cute!!!
Jake’s Mom
i bet Mercy will be glad too! Best wishes, and thanks for the update.
Mercy has been through a lot in her cancer journey so far. But it sounds as though you have inspected her from head to toes, so have good information before the surgery.
My Tazzie, who used to be a long-haired and large fur ball, is also having indecent exposure issues (hair loss mostly due to chemo that followed surgery, with no help from a previous torsion surgery and later heart and abdominal ultrasounds). We live in a very cold climate and have been shopping for winter sweaters and coats this week, mostly on-line. Ruff wear and Orvis have some things (fleece sweaters and overcoats) that look good.
Hope to see Mercy in some of her hot pink clothes-great color! You will love the Ruffwear harness. Good luck with the amputation, you will do great! We will be thinking of you!
Hi Ashley and Mercy,
This is the first time I have read you blog and I have to say Mercy is adorable. Yes I too would like to see her in her new outfits. I was reading your worries about all of the things you won’t be able to do after surgery and you will be suprised just how many things Mercy WILL do after surgery. Solo had surgery exactly 3 weeks ago today and is doing remarkably well. She can go up and down the steps in our house (there are 15 to the second level), go on a 30 – 40 min walk, play, bring dirty socks to me to wake me in the morning, roll on her back waiting for a belly scrub, snuggle, and run. Once she came off all of the pain meds she went right back to her same, sweet personality except now she is free from the cancer pain in her leg.
I am sure it is hard being in the field of veterinary care because you know too much. I work in health care (of the human variety) and I am always worried about something and I have a tendency to think the worst will always happen. Usually it doesn’t. You have a lot of people thinking of you and wishing you and Mercy the best for next Wednesday.
Christina and Solo
Hello there, Happy Happy halloween!!!