just a c&p of updates I gave after the amputation

talked to the vet for a long time just now. the type of tumor Spencer has – a fibrosarcoma – doesn’t tend to spread to the organs. BUT… his is a level 3 tumor, which is the most aggressive and it DOES tend to spread. And it has come up so fast that they can’t be sure that it hasn’t already spread; but just isn’t big enough to show yet.

They said that if we do nothing that we will likely need to put him to sleep in 2 weeks – 1 month. The tumor is growing so fast that his skin will end up rupturing and it will also likely grow in and cause the leg to be lame.

Given the 2 weeks vs. a chance for years, we are moving forward with the amputation tomorrow morning. But hearing that 2 weeks was a real shock to me. Spencer just seems FINE right now. I can’t believe how fast this is happening. 

*************UPDATE**************

this is just a c&p from my FB update, so if you are FB friends with me it us just a repeat.

OK, Spencer is waking up. I could hear him whining in the background. I have never heard him sound like that. 🙁 haven’t talked to the vet yet, just the surgical tech. She said Spencer is fine if she sits with him, she just wanted to come give me a quick call and then she will go back and sit with him again. The vet should be calling me soon.

************Update 2***************
apparently during surgery he was worried that it hadn’t been able to get every bit of the tumor. He had to take out t bit more of Spencer’s muscles than he would normally do with an amputation. But after the surgery he looked at the tumor, cut into it and found that it seems to have all been encapsulated in a layer of something (I forget what). He doesn’t seem to be in too much pain, just doesn’t want to be left alone. So someone at the vet’s office has been sitting with him all day. They were able to get the lymph nodes, which looked normal; but they are sending them off to be checked to see if there are any cancer cells in them. So it looks like Spencer will probably come home tomorrow! Depending on what comes back from the lymph nodes we will either do an x-ray in a month, or if they are clean we will wait 2 months. The vet seems to think the odds are really good that this surgery was a “curative operation” rather than just buying a few more months.

Also, I think I’m going to keep updating this post with the most details of any of my places for now. I’m trying to decide if I want to put all of this in my family blog or if I want to start a blog about Spencer and his recovery.

***********Update 3**************
(from FB, and then a little more)
He came home around 4:00 or so. He can’t walk on his own yet, I use a sling thing with handles to help hold him up. So far he won’t pee. He has never been one to pee when on the leash, so I think it is bugging him that I’m *right there*. He did eat and drink some finally tonight (he would only eat out of my hand, so I sucked up my disgust at dog food and hand fed him). I’ll try again to take him out in a few.

He is doing pretty darn good at going UP the couple of steps for our porch; but not so good at going down. and he does NOT want to be in his kennel. Before this surgery he would go in there on his own or anytime we told him to; but now he is fighting us on it. But he has to do minimal exertion and is supposed to be in there most of the time!

He does have a drain in place that that is well, kind of gross. But it is what it is. he doesn’t seem to be in much pain; but he really is going to have to lose about 5+ lbs (on top of the several lbs he lost simply with losing the leg) and build up the muscles for his front leg. he seems to forget that he doesn’t have that left leg and he will try to take a long stride and then will fall on his face when he expects the left leg to go. 

And I really just don’t know HOW I’m going to get him to go to the bathroom!!! 

***********Update 4 *****************

OK, Spencer really is amazing. he slept like a champ last night. no whining. The drain thing does kind of make me want to barf; but I get over it and just clean everything up. I can see HUGE improvements today from yesterday!! but it is now noon and he STILL hasn’t peed. so he hasn’t peed in probably 24 hours. And he drank 1 bowl of water last night, another about an hour ago. He keeps acting like he wants to go out; but when we get there he walks around a bit, then lays down in the grass. Fine. But THEN a bug flies by him and he jumps up and tries to chase it.  he will make it about 3 steps, then I think mentally he thinks he has put his left foot out and so he falls.  for the peeing thing, he has never been one to pee when on leash. Especially at home. He is used to having free run of the yard and often our end of the street if he and I are in the front yard (well, he goes as far as 2 doors down to see one of his friends). And that is when he normally pees. He normally poops back in our woods, which there is no way we can navigate right now.

I tried letting him off of the sling to see if me stepping a few steps away would make him pee; but he then hopped around a bit and laid down.

He and I are leaving in 1.5 hours for a 1.5 hour car ride, then he is going to have to stay in his kennel at the lawyers office while we do the closing. I really need him to pee before we leave!!! 

************#5*******************

just after posting that he started again with his, “I need to go potty” whine and looks. So we tried again. I let him off the sling for just a bit. he had a false start where he tried to lift his leg, realized it wasn’t going to work and then came and laid at my feet. I gave him about 5 minutes, then we tried again and he peed!!!! for us old people – it was like why Austin Powers woke up from being cryogenically frozen! He must have peed for nearly 5 minutes! And when he was done his tail was wagging a mile a minute. I bet he feels SO much better!! This dog is amazing me with how fast he is getting the hang of things!!!

************#6****************

sorry for no updates for the weekend. We don’t have internet set up at the new house yet! (and barely any cell coverage there)

I am honestly inspired by my dog. I am going to try my best to learn from him here. He certainly is a dog who seems to have just decided, “yeah, that kind of sucked; but now it is time to move on.” And he has.

So, Thursday night he was so sad. I really worried that he wold take a LONG time to bounce back. Friday during the day I was still really supporting him with the sling; but he did pee (as I said in my last post). He and I had to get on the road for me to get to to our closing for the house. After that we got to the house before anyone else and I could not figure out how to get him settled and get the kennel out of the car and set up. So I just took him over to a bench in the yard and we sat and let him rest. For the next few hours he still wasn’t too stable on his feet; but he also was looking really red around where the sling had been rubbing. so I let him off of that again and he peed again. yay.

The next morning we got up and I let him walk without the sling again and he was doing more than just a few steps. He was really getting the hang of it. I called and talked to the vet about the irritation and him not wanting to pee on leash and they gave the OK to let him go on his own as long as I was right there to slow him down (he responds really well to verbal cues). I also asked about not having him in the kennel as long as we were in the room with him and was given the OK for that; but little to no stairs, which I was very good with.

On Saturday I also started adding pumpkin to his food. He finally pooped this morning.

he now is pretty darn stable on his own, no need for the sling. I have to really get on him to stop and wait for me before he tries stairs.

I had questioned taking him up to the new house for the weekend; but I now know it was the right thing to do. We let my mom and step dad have the master bedroom for the next few weeks and we are sleeping in the room that will normally be theirs (master is on the top floor, their room is basement/verandah level). so he had no stairs to deal with. It was an easy walk for him to get to the lake, where he liked going to just lay and watch what was going on (the kids swimming, or the birds, whatever). If we had stayed home he would have had to deal with 3 steps and a walk all of the way around the house every time he went in and out.

We go in tomorrow for him to get his drain removed. It was supposed to be done on Saturday; but since we were out of town they said it would be fine to have it removed tomorrow (Monday).

Oh, and BIGGEST NEWS of all – the biopsy results for the 2 lymph nodes they took came back clean!!! They think we got it before it spread!! 

We are trying to come up with a name for the new house to honor Spencer (it is a cabin in the woods, lots of people there name their cabins ). So far suggestions have been “Spencer’s Hill”, “Red Dog’s Run” (he is a red doberman) and my 5 year old’s favorite – “Spencer’s Castle”. Anyone have any suggestions?