Monday, March 16, 2009
Today, we take Sol in for her post surgery checkup. From our perspective, Sol’s mouth seems to be healing quite nicely, but we will know for sure after today’s visit.
We got the cytology results for Sol’s mammary tumors and it is good news. The lumps are inflamed tissue. We will need to make an appointment with our regular vet to see if he recommends having them removed. Right now they are very small, but if they grow in size odds are likely we will need to have them removed. The trickier part is figuring out if Sol is spayed or not. We haven’t been able to find a scar on her hairy little belly and we have learned that an ultrasound might not be able to give us a definitive answer either. I’m not really keen on waiting to see if she goes into heat to find out if she is spayed.
I’m not so concerned about not seeing a scar on her belly, because Luna’s scar is barely visible and she has absolutely no fur on her belly. When we adopted Luna, her scar was very pronounced, but it has since faded away to almost nothing. However, if Sol was spayed early in life the odds of her developing inflamed mammary tissue are very slim. So, hopefully, Sol has been spayed, but just not as early as they would like. Her being spayed, even if it was later in life, would be better than her never being spayed. We shall see.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
I was having a lot of fun taking pictures of Henry in the yard the other day. If the sun is out Henry is usually not the ideal subject because he is unable to stand if he feels the warm rays of the sun. Instead he just rolls around in the grass. But, the other day he was cooperative and he managed to sit up for about 4 minutes before eventually succumbing to the FL sunshine.
On a different note, Sol continues to do very well. She goes back next week for her post surgery follow-up appointment. I will be curious to see how things are healing in her mouth. We haven’t been able to sneak a peak in there to see how things look. We thought about trying, but decided we should leave that to the experts.
Monday, March 9, 2009
The theme for this weekend was rest. After we got Sol home and got her settled and I fixed dinner, I was out. I don’t even think it was 8:00 PM yet. I was just simply exhausted.
Sol has been resting, but I am pleasantly surprised by how well she is doing. It doesn’t appear that it is taking her much time to get used to her “new mouth”. She shows no hesitation when eating or drinking and her appetite is as healthy as usual. She still follows us from room to room and is always present whenever there is action in the kitchen. We had burgers on the grill on Saturday and she nearly went out of her mind. You would have never known that just two days earlier she had had part of her jaw removed.
Seeing how well she is doing just days after the surgery really helps me know that we made the right decision. I was very worried about her quality of life and that she may never adjust to having part of her jaw removed. However, she is doing remarkably well. It is like she doesn’t even notice.
Thank you all for your thoughts and well wishes through all of this. It really meant a lot to us. And I can’t even put into words how grateful I am to those who made contributions towards Sol surgery. Your generosity is simply amazing!
Check out the fantastic card that Penny from South Africa made for Sol. How awesome is that? Thanks Penny!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Well, it turns out I had planned on taking the fashion forward pics for this week during that hour I lost last night. I will be sure to get something up next week, but in the meantime, I thought I would post some pictures of Sol after her surgery.
She is recovering amazingly and has been doing great this weekend. The surgery, slightly altered her jawline, but from across the room you really can’t notice a difference. If you look at her up close you will see that her bottom lip sticks out past her upper lip giving her the cutest little pout. More details tomorrow, but I could not be more pleased with how well she is doing. She is a trooper.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Great news! Sol gets to come home today! Our appointment to pick her up is at 3:30PM this afternoon. They said through the night she ate, drank and peed! There was no doubt in my mind that she would eat. She is a pug after all. They also said that she slept, but she was also a little whiny during the night. The girl does not like to be in crates at the vet! She would much prefer a little dog bed in the corner somewhere.
The main reason we can't pick her up until 3:30PM is that we are waiting for a delivery of liquid medicine to arrive. It should be delivered in the early afternoon, so they scheduled our pickup for the evening. After I get her home, which could take awhile since it is Bike Week and there is a race at the track this weekend, I will be sure to post an update.
I had no intention of doing this, but I have received several emails and requests from pug lovers asking for my PayPal email address so they can make a donation towards Sol's surgery. First, this just blows me away. Your generosity and support for Sol has been more than anyone could even imagine and we are so very lucky to have friends like you. The reasons I wasn't going to post anything is because, um, the economy sucks and I am always asking you guys to support a pug cause. I'm sure I will ask again in the future so I try really hard to pick and choose wisely and not to be the girl that is always asking you to donate, donate, donate. However, I know what it is like to want to help and decided to post my PayPal address for those of you that emailed and commented and want to make a donation to Sol's surgery. Please don't feel obligated to make a donation. Right now, we are on the hook for $3,500 for the surgery alone, so every penny will help a tremendous amount, but the last thing I want to do is put the burden on your shoulders. No matter what we will get through this. So after that very long winded explanation, here is my PayPal address: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! I will definitely have a big update on Monday letting you know how Sol is doing. I will be very happy to see that little girl, home, sleeping in her puff ball bed.
Update: I have been getting a lot of questions on how to use my email address to send a contribution to Sol. If you have a PayPal acount you can login and then click the Send Money tab. For the recipient, you would enter my email address, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) To make things easier though, here is a button that will allow you to make a contribution to Sol.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Update 6:30PM: We called and got our last check-in of the night to see how Sol was doing. They said that Sol was “zonked” out and sleeping very soundly. I can just imagine. She had a very long day and I bet the little girl is exhausted. One of the vet techs is a pug lover, so they told me Sol was getting a lot of attention. It made me feel good that there was a fellow pug lover on site! Later in the night, they are going to offer Sol food and see if she will eat it. If she eats and drinks tonight they said that it is very likely that we will be able to pick her up tomorrow. My money is on her eating. She has always had a very strong appetite. The next time we can check-in on her is at 8:00 am tomorrow morning. After I get the report, I will let you know how things went through the night. Have a good night everyone.
Update 3:30PM: Sol is out of surgery! She is alert and doing well. The surgeon was very pleased with how the surgery went and that Sol had suitable tissue left to close the incision. While she was under and they were working in her mouth, they also shortened her palette and removed her satchels. They took this precaution to prevent any complications during the recovery period as it might pose a problem since pugs are a bracycephalic breed. We are going to call around 6:00 pm to get an update to see how she is doing. After that we will call in the morning to get a report on how things went through the night. Right, now we are scheduled to pick her up at 10:45 am on Saturday. There still is a small chance that we will get to bring her home tomorrow afternoon, although she will have to have a very good night to make that a reality.
A huge thank you to everyone for all the well wishes! Hopefully, the mammary tumors are nothing to worry about. Frequently, they are not an issue, but not knowing Sol’s history could be troublesome. We believe she is spayed, which will increase the odds that the mammary tumors are nothing, but at this point we aren’t sure. She is quite a furry girl and they could not find an scar on her belly. Although, our vet said she was spayed during her initial exam. They may need to do an ultrasound to be sure that she is spayed, but at this point we are just going to wait the 24-48 hours for the pathology report. We are going to tackle one issue at a time and let the little girl recovery from this hurdle before we start testing and getting exams done on the next.
Update 1:00PM:We just got the results of the CT Scan. Things look very good. Very little of the jaw bone will need to be removed which is fantastic. The surgery plan is that they will need to remove about 2-3 cm in all directions. This is really the best news possible. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to hear that. I would be on cloud 9 right now had it not been for a little “but” in the conversation. When they sedated her for her CT Scan they noticed a very small mammary tumor! They aspirated it and sent it off to the pathologist. When they told me that my heart sank. Just when we thought we were out of the woods. In any case, it could very easily be nothing, but I feel like we are back at square one again. I am doing my best to stay positive.
On an unrelated, but positive note, Sol was quite charming this morning. She was making friends with everyone at the office.
I will give another update as soon as Sol is out of surgery.
Well, today is the day. The day I have had such mixed emotions about for a week. Sol didn’t get to eat her breakfast this morning and she was none too happy about that, but we had spaghetti, one of her favorites, last night for dinner so she did get a nice treat the night before her big surgery. The procedure will require at least one overnight stay at the hospital, possibly two or three nights depending on how far the cancer has spread and how much of her jaw they need to remove. I am really hoping that she will get to come home Friday evening or Saturday morning. However, I am bracing myself that she might not be able to come home until Monday. They are staffed 24/7, I know for sure because I asked 5 different people, but I would just feel a lot better having her home. However, I know being at the surgery center is the best place for her.
I will do my best to keep everyone updated throughout the day. The first update with be the CT Scan results. Bad news on the CT Scan would mean that Sol doesn’t even have the surgery.
Thanks again for all the well wishes! I will keep you posted.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Well, we have reached a verdict. We have decided to have surgery for Sol to remove the cancerous tumor from her mouth. We came to a decision last Wednesday and scheduled her surgery appointment for tomorrow at 9am. At that time, we will meet with the surgeons and they will do a CT Scan. The CT Scan is the final step to make sure Sol is a candidate for surgery. There is a possibility that the cancer has spread too far and that surgery is no longer a viable option. Sol will go under a light sedation for the CT Scan and the results will be read immediately. If the surgeons feel they can remove the cancer, she will be fully sedated for her surgery. If not, they will let her wake up and then she will come home with us. In case surgery is not an option, we will be staying in the Maitland area until we know the results of the CT Scan.
Making this decision was a long and winding road, that seemed to circle back several times. We tried to consider everything and in the end we went with our gut feeling. In the two months that we have had Sol we have seen her zest for life be rejuvenated. The pug that could barely hobble along the first day she arrived here now will not settle for anything less than a half mile walk. And unless you plan on taking her for a ride in the car, don’t let her get anywhere near the garage. Dog park, dog beach - she’s game! And if she catches a wiff of a cookout within a mile radius you better believe she is going to be showing up at your grill.
Since we adopted Sol, I can’t count the number of times I have remarked on her optimism. At this point no one can say for sure, but I am going to take a cue from Sol and be optimistic in this situation. I am not going to let this be the beginning of the end. Instead, I am hoping that this is going to be the beginning of a new chapter in Sol’s life. Am I being selfish? Maybe. But, through her actions, I feel like Sol is showing me that she is up for the fight and that she is looking forward to living out her golden years cancer free.
The Saturday after we made our decision, I received the latest issue of Bark magazine in the mail. The issue is devoted to senior dogs and the first thing I read on the cover is a byline that says “14 is the new 8”. That issue could not have come at a more perfect time. I have practically read it cover to cover. I feel good about our decision. Yes, I’m a bundle of nerves, but there is this strange calm under all those nerves that keeps telling me everything is going to be OK. For now, that is what I am going to believe.
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