Oh My Dog!

Lucas sleeps in

“I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model of being alive.”
- Gilda Radner

In hindsight I realized that I cursed myself when I wrote in my last post that things were finally settling down! Ah, well. I’ll probably never learn. So here’s what went on over the past nine days:

1. My sister had a baby! Emmett and Lucas are now uncles! His name is Owen and he’s the cutest little peanut, weighing in at a whopping 5 pounds.

The little peanut

2. We spent about 5 days at my parents’ house so that we could be closer to my sister, to be prepared for when she went into labor, and to help out afterward. So… Lucas got a tremendous amount of playtime with Tank, Buster, and Otto. When we got back home this weekend, Lucas snuggled into his bed and fell asleep instantly. And didn’t wake up for almost two days. Poor guy. He’s three but tries to hang with all the one-year-olds. See videos below.

3. Emmett got his stitches out today, and the site looks great. The best news of all is that the margins came back clear, so the surgeon is confident he got the whole of the tumor! No more sulking or pouting for Emmett! Here is his last little bit of “poor me” posing.

Sulking in his harness and bandage

Snuggled in bed because he can get away with it at my parents'!

4. Michael Vick, back in the game. HMPF. Out of everything I’ve read, I really feel this says it best.

And now for the videos… these are sort of in chronological order, but essentially what John captured in these short clips is what goes on and on and on and on the entire time all the dogs are together at my parents’. Do note the dead bush/shrub thing in the corner, which died because the dogs love to pull the branches off of it to use as sticks. Also, if anyone knows how the heck you get the videos to embed from Vimeo, I would GREATLY appreciate some advice. For now, links:

Lucas loves being chased!

Lucas and Buster run it out!

Done. For now at least!

BONUS Update: My wonderful neighbors got a puppy! She’s the cutest, fuzziest, sweetest little thing! Of course, I totally forgot to take a pic, but I just love her, and as soon as she gets her last round of shots, she and Lucas are definitely having a playdate!

Things have settled down significantly around here. Emmett is home and recuperating. Though the surgery went well, they removed everything from skin down to the tendons to get as much of the tumor as possible, so he has a four-week recovery period that prohibits walking, running, jumping, climbing stairs, basically anything fun for a dog. So it’s going to be a challenging month. It’s a relief that he still has all four legs, though we now have to wait another three months before we can do his next chest x-ray to get the scoop on those “suspicious” lung nodes.

In the meantime, my darling cousin-dog Turk came for a visit today to keep Lucas occupied while Emmett rests.

The big team sport of the day has been hunting flies. There are zillions outside right now, and every time we open the back door, several scoot in. Lucas believes that one of his life’s purposes is to snap every fly in the house then spit its dead body out on the floor for me to pick up with a tissue. Amazingly, Turk seems to have the same set of priorities.

They can hear the fly, they just can't find it.

Beyond fly hunting, the boys have been rather subdued today, spending most of the afternoon napping. The temperature rose to the mid-90s, and that seems to make them lethargic. We have six (six!) dog beds in our house, and the boys aren’t allowed on the majority of the furniture. But somehow sneaky Turk took a delightful nap on our living room sofa while I was busy doing other things.

Honestly, he was too darn cute to wake him up right away…

Lastly, I have a few really cute pictures of Emmett coming home after surgery but have yet to find time to download them off my camera. I’ll work on that this week!

We met with the specialist this morning. He was fantastic. He explained everything calmly and clearly, and presented us with a concise picture of what we’re facing. And it’s not what we thought.

Emmett’s x-rays showed that he has two microscopic nodules on his lungs. As soon as he said that, my heart sank through my feet. Does that mean it’s already spread?

It could mean that, he said, but it could also be something totally benign like a fungus or mineralization of the lung tissue. They’re too small. There’s no way to tell at this point. But, because of these nodules, they decided not to amputate, but instead to remove the tumor on his leg. He’s in surgery right now.

Then we have to take him every three months to x-ray his lungs and to track whether or not those nodules change or grow. We also need to keep a very close watch on his leg to ensure no new tumors pop up. If he does get more tumors on his legs, we’ll revisit the amputation IF it turns out the nodules are nothing.

If it turns out that they’re something… well, then, that’s a whole other discussion.

We’re staying with my parents for now because they live about 15 minutes from the specialist. Plus it helps to keep Lucas occupied because my mom’s little dog Otto is his best, best friend. So while we wait for Emmett to get out of surgery, and because I’m in need of a little smile, I filmed Lucas and Otto on my cell phone camera last night. It’s a little fuzzy/choppy, but you’ll get the idea of their sustained level of play.

Click here: vid-00008

So. This morning. Emmett’s appointment.

We bucked up, said no crying, we need to be brave for Emmett. Deep breaths, etc. We drive to the animal hospital making lame attempts and jokes and reaching into the backseat to rub his silky ears.

We are ushered into an exam room, and are visited by a fairly inept surgical intern with zero social skills. Then the surgeon bursts into the room. He examines Emmett. He pokes his tumor, has him walk a bit, reads his chart, looks at us and says, “Nope.”

Um. What.

The surgeon disagrees with the assessment made by the surgeon who first evaluated Emmett. This surgeon is pretty sure – nay, entirely confident – that he can perform the surgery that the other surgeon could not, that he can remove the tumor without affecting Emmett’s ambulation. And hey, he says, if the tumor comes back, I’ll give you a discount on amputation at that point.

Um. What.

He asks us how we want to proceed. I truly felt like I had just been pantsed in front of my entire high school or something. We rely on these people and their expertise to guide us. We were finally reconciled with the decision to amputate. So now what do we do?

The conclusion is that there is a soft-tissue specialist from the Purdue University vet school who is going to meet with the surgeon and our vet tomorrow, along with me, John, and Emmett. This specialist will evaluate his condition, check through the tests, and make a recommendation. Then the surgeon and everyone is basically on board to do whatever this specialist guy says.

I think I need a drink…

I caught myself “lasting” nearly everything today. Today is the last day Emmett will eat breakfast on four legs. Today is the last day Emmett will wrestle Lucas to the ground on four legs. Today is the last day Emmett will nap like this:

Emmett enjoys a good snooze

It was his last four-legged car ride, and his last four-legged dinner. His last four-legged Frosty Paws, and his last four-legged belly rub.

But each time I catch myself in the “lasting” trap, I forcefully remind myself that it’s not really his last anything. I know that he’ll be his same old self, wrestling Lucas to the ground, sleeping lazily, chowing down on Frosty Paws, and making me smile every minute of every day.

He’ll just be using this ramp we built for him with our bare hands (and a staple gun) until he’s steady enough on his feet to try out the steps.

Ignore the dirt and fur.These STEEP steps lead from our kitchen to our backyard. Hence, the ramp.

The next couple days will be a little bit crazy, but I’ll let you know how the surgery/recovery goes. A big, humongous, teary-eyed, bear-hugged THANK YOU to all our amazing friends and family for the outpouring of love and support. Seriously, there will never be a way for me to thank you for your wonderful words and positive thoughts. It’s made a tremendous difference in helping me and John cope with everything that’s going on. From the very bottom of our hearts, thank you.

My favorite pic of Emmett

Wednesday is the day. We take him to surgery at 9 AM, and he’ll have to stay for at least one night but perhaps up to three nights depending upon how fast he’s recovering.

I am relieved beyond belief that this option will eliminate the cancer. As I watch videos of other three-legged dogs, I realize we are so incredibly lucky that his tumor is a soft-tissue sarcoma because it doesn’t cause the pain or infect his lungs like so many of the other cancers. Amputation will literally eliminate the tumor. We are so incredibly lucky for that.

Yet I can’t help but mourn this loss. It’s more than a loss of his limb; it’s loss of a completely reckless, care-free mobility. It’s the loss of knock-down-drag-out wresting matches with Lucas. We will need to monitor closely the health of his other three legs, we will need to monitor his weight, we will need to ensure we’re protecting his health because Emmett will do and do and do every single thing we ask of him. We will need to ensure we never ask too much.

Emmett and his "cousin" Ava

The past few weeks careened past us leaving everything in their wake, everything except one question: What are we going to do?

We met with the oncologist. He was wonderful, kind, thorough, honest. He presented us with the two options we already knew. Surgery plus radiation therapy (every day for three weeks), which would push the cancer into remission. Or amputation.

We have had many long, sleepless nights trying to figure out the right decision. We didn’t come to this lightly, but we have decided to amputate. It gives Emmett the chance to have a long, happy, cancer-free life. There will be an adjustment period for him while he relearns how to go about his day, but the surgeon said that since he’s so young, so healthy, and so strong, he should be fine in 2 to 3 weeks following the surgery.

Though we came to the decision yesterday, we decided to wait until Monday to call and schedule the appointment. We just aren’t ready to start the count-down yet. I’m also still harboring a secret hope that the oncologist will call us and say, “Wait! We discovered a new treatment! He’ll be cancer-free with four legs with our new protocol!” Or, even better, I hope that the vet’s office will call us in a panic, “Wait! We mixed up the results! It’s nothing after all! HAHAHA! Isn’t that great?”

… sigh…

I know that’s not going to happen. So in the meantime, we’re trying to stay positive and use humor to cope with the devastation of putting our darling Emmett through what is sure to be a hellacious month.