The heartbreak continues...

The new vet (heretofor known as DrZ) was suspicious of Gabby's symptoms since they weren't really jiving with her numbers. She was also concerned about the steady increase of her numbers so she suggested doing an ultrasound to see if there's something else going on. This is not an inexpensive proposition. Our previous vet did mention it when she was first diagnosed, but didn't recommend it. The diagnosis of kidney failure and the treatment wouldn't change. My gut was telling me that we needed to pursue what was going on, so I agreed to the ultrasound. DrZ told me to have my phone handy in the event that they found anything. I was afraid to answer the phone when it rang.

There was a small mass in her abdomen and her liver looked abnormal. She wanted to do biopsies. They were suspicious of the mass. The liver could simply be "old dog" liver...or, if the mass was cancerous, it could be the sign of it spreading. This was also an expensive proposition, but I needed to know what we are working with so we did both.

We got the results. The liver was, in fact, old dog liver.

The mass, however, is cancer. A "poorly differentiated carcinoma." Based on analysis of the cells, they do not believe that this is the primary tumor and recommended doing chest x-rays to see if there are any other visible tumors. If there are, then additional biopsies would potentially let us know what kind of cancer we are talking about. I had the x-rays done tonight. Along with a test for Addison's Disease (to be explained in another post).

Some might ask what's the point? Why spend all of that money on a 15 year old dog. She has cancer, she has kidney failure, the prognosis isn't good. And I know that, I do.

I want to be clear, though: I won't ask her to give more than she can for my own selfishness. I won't ask her to suffer just so I can keep her around as long as possible. BUT, at the same time, I don't think she's done living yet. She has never held back "telling" me anything, I don't think she'll hold back telling me when she is ready to go. I can't say, "Ok, that's it" when I don't have all of the information and I can't give up hope if there may be things that can be done to get her back on track and feeling better for a while longer. I have no doubt that the 3Cs (Cori, Carol, Celeste) as well as other friends and DrZ will keep me in line if I do momentarily step out.

She's my best friend, I owe it to her to fight the good fight, as well as to know when to let her go.