Thursday, September 7, 2006

Upsetting News

Well, we are all waiting with baited breath the results of Luna’s pathology report.  It all began the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.  We noticed Luna had a white, pimply bump on her right eyeball (the worse of her 2 eyes.)  Knowing it was a holiday weekend and she probably needed to go to a specialist rather than the general emergency place, we tried to wait it out until Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning the specialist was called and they did not seem alarmed and said that they could take her on Thursday.  Well, throughout the next day and a half, the bump progressed from a small white blemish to a growing, red bump.  We opted to take her to the local emergency vet around 11 PM Tuesday night.  They looked at her eye, gave her a little exam and said to go to her specialist first thing in the morning.  They felt that it would not rupture through the night and that the specialist would squeeze her in knowing that Luna’s eye sore was worsening.

Though we barely got a wink of sleep due to worry, we were at the specialist’s office (about an hour away) before they even opened.  They did, in fact, fit Luna into the schedule.  She was even the first patient they saw.

They examined her eye and came to the conclusion that it is a tumor.  They offered us 3 choices.  The first was to simply change her medicine and pay close attention for any change.  The second was to have them numb her eye and take a cell scraping of the troubled spot.  The third choice was to do a biopsy on another day.  Now, the first choice was not an option for us because that seemed like a hurry up and wait situation where time is of the essence.  The debate then came between numbers 2 and 3.  The thing is with the scrape, they may not actually get an accurate read and the biopsy would still be necessary to rule out cancer if the scrape came back negative for cancer.  However, they couldn’t do a biopsy today and it would require another visit and local anesthesia.

Now it is an odd situation of what do you wish for?  Do you want the scrape to come back as cancer?  Of course not.  But then you have to put Luna through a biopsy and you don’t want that either.  If you do put her through a biopsy and it not cancerous, then it was all worth it and your glad you did but if it comes back negative then you feel terrible that you put her through a seemingly unnecessary procedure.  However, we opted for the scrape.

When do the results come back?  Up to 2 weeks from now.  That seems like a terribly long time to wait.  If there is cancer, Luna will likely lose her eye.  Even if it is not cancer, there is a chance of that, as well.  The main problem is that Luna’s system is trying to save her own eye which seems like a good thing. The problem is in doing so, she keeps producing cells (some normal and some abnormal) in abundance so much that it creates scarring and tumors.  So, even if there is no cancer, she very well could continue to produce these little tumors all over her eye which isn’t healthy for her, either.  She is fighting to be healthy and it is hurting her.  It doesn’t seem fair.

In any event, we will keep you posted on her prognosis and hope that all you pug lovers keep little Luna in your thoughts & prayers.  The silver lining is that none of this is life threatening and Luna doesn’t seem to be in any pain.  Thank you all for your concern and support.