I had every intention of keeping up this blog. I enjoy writing and it is a stress reliever for me. Moving in with my in-laws was hard, still living here is even harder… I was doing okay, though… we were chugging along and we were doing okay. But, shit happens… So this is the story of why I was away.
My fiancé and I knew that before we moved out of this house and back on our own, a few things needed to happen: work on our debts, get a new computer, go to the doctor… Things like that. First and foremost, our Cattle Dog Mix, Saphira, needed to be spay. After her sister getting incredibly ill from not being fixed (and us going into massive debt because of it… hence, why I live with my in-laws…), we thought that getting her taken care of as soon as possible would be in the best interest for everyone involved. We love our fur babies as if they were our own flesh and blood, we wanted to avoid any illness at all cost. Two weeks after we moved in with my fiancé’s parents, we ponied up the money to have her spay.
While it was expensive, overall the surgery went really well. We go to a wonderful veterinary practice and they take great care of our fur kids, so I was confident in their abilities. When I picked her up from the hospital, her surgeon pulled me into an exam room to go over her medication and what to expect. At one point she looked at me sternly and said, “Alright, D. She did great, she really did… But we did find something pretty odd in there and I wanted to talk to you about it really quickly. On her ovaries, we saw many cyst-like nodules, which isn’t uncommon for adult dogs her age. What is a little weird, however, is that they do not contain the fluid in them that most cysts would.” She then lightened up and said, “Personally, I think it is just a mass of cysts, but because I have never seen it before, I do want to give you the option to have it biopsied… just in case.”
After talking to my fiancé, we decided to send it off. We didn’t think much of it, but we wanted to be sure that IF it was cancer (which we were almost sure it wasn’t), that it is completely gone.
But, we just knew it wasn’t cancer. After all, this is a happy and healthy pup who loves to go for runs and play all day… she is fine.
Two days before Christmas, I got a phone call from the our vet. I answered it, expecting them to remind me to pick up my dog’s medication, completely forgetting about her biopsy. I was overall feeling pretty cheerful; I was in the middle of reading a great book, I had just opened an early Christmas gift that was beautiful, my fiancé was done with work early and was on his way home… But I knew something was wrong when I heard the words “Do you have a few minutes so that we can talk?”
I looked down at Saphira, who was sprawled across the bed, snoring in delight, and knew that I was going to get some very bad news.
Cancer… A very aggressive form of cancer… If caught within the first few months there is a chance that chemo could work, but her type is very rare in dogs, so it isn’t easily detected. In fact, it is usually only detected in the middle of a spay. It spreads from the ovaries very quickly, affecting the lungs, causing the dog to slowly die from drowning in fluids. I know that my vet gave me really helpful information and was trying to help me wrap my brain around what was happening, but all I my brain allowed me to hear was “Your baby has cancer and she is going to be in pain and die.”
After a few hours of bawling my eyes out, I collected myself enough to decide that I wasn’t going to accept this as a death sentence. I called my vet back and made an appointment for the following week… I needed some time to clear my head enough so that I could properly wrap my head around all of the information that I would be getting. My vet was able to answer whatever little questions I had, but most importantly put me in touch with an oncologist that could further educate us on our next steps.
We went to Dr. Hamilton, the oncologist who preformed the biopsy, with hopes that he could help us figure out treatment options that could keep her as happy and healthy as long as possible… at six years old, there was still so much spunk in her, we weren’t ready to let that go.
After blood work and a few chest x-rays, Dr. Hamilton came back in our room and slowly shook his head. My fiancé and I exchange wary glances at once another and grabbed each other’s hands, fearing for the worst. He let out a sigh and ran his hands through his hair and said, “I have never been able to say this in regards to this type of cancer… We can’t find it anywhere else in her body.”
It took a minute for that news to register in my brain, so instead of celebrating, I just stared at the man and stammered, “what?” while my fiancé plopped to the floor and cradled our dog.
We were lucky. We couldn’t find the cancer… but that didn’t mean she was out of the woods just yet.
The cancer she had was incredible aggressive, so we had two options. 1. Cross our fingers and hope it doesn’t come back. 2. Undergo chemotherapy to help prevent it from coming back.
As you can probably guess, we chose chemo.
Dogs handle chemo much better than humans do. There is no hair loss, their appetite doesn’t suffer (except for the day of treatments), there is no nausea (again, except for the day of)… But man oh man is it expensive. Our dog was worth it to us, but we had to really work to rearrange our money to afford this. We were paying more monthly in her vet bills than we were paying for rent every month- so much for saving money so we can move out!
We cut of bills- unfortunately meaning that we went without internet. We picked up extra shifts at work. We prayed. We finally made it.
Last week, Saphira had her last chemo treatment. Last week, her oncologist gave me a huge bear hug and said “you did it kid. She did it.”
We are back to life as normal, she and I just went on a run. We have another follow up appointment in June, and a few more following that, but it is just so we can be sure everything is working the way it is supposed to.
I’m looking forward to writing more often, but I can’t say that I am sorry that I as away for so long… We beat cancer and our dog is the healthiest she has ever been. I would do it again in a heartbeat if that meant my babies are well.
Blessings
-D
The Witch D 