Spanky had biopsies done today and came through the surgery fine. We were gonna go see him around 4, but the doc thought it was best not to excite him.Yesterday was a bad day that included serious thoughts that it might be time to put Spanks to sleep. His nose is worse; bleeding off and on. The problem was that when we had him in last week they didn't actually do anything to figure out what was going on with his nose. Our vet did non-invasive tests, basically looking for signs of cancer that has spread. He saw signs that something was up, and expected the test results to confirm the worst, so he didn't do the nose biopsy. The tests later came back negative.
But yesterday Spanky's worse and I don't want him to suffer and Diane and I are talking (and crying -- lots of crying) and wondering what to do. And I'm damn upset because we don't know what to do. We don't have an answer about what exactly is causing the problem, and because of that can't know for sure it's not treatable. So we're wondering whether to put Spanky down, knowing there's at least some chance he could be cured. It was not a good day.
I called our vet and vented, told him I was upset -- upset at him, upset at the situation. He explained his approach and basically offered to do the nose tests today instead of next Tuesday. (His partner, who is the specialist, even came in today to help him do it.) They're charging us for the tests and surgery but not for the hospitalization. Diane and I even had to work through that -- are we putting our boy through surgery just to make us feel better and not him -- but decided the potential good outweighed the bad.
So we don't have answers today, but hopefully we will soon. And maybe they'll good ones, because Spanky's a good boy! (banga-banga-banga...)
4 comments:
Geez, I'm so sorry about all of that. We went through the same crap with Leo, except that Leo wasn't SICK, just old.
It's never easy and there are no pat answers. There are no wrong answers, though, when you act out of love and with a sincere desire to provide not just quantity of life, but quality of life.
We'll keep the good thoughts coming, and hopefully the nose biopsy will reveal something easily curable. Give him some pats for us when you see him.
Thanks for all your good thoughts. I think they helped! Today is the first day in almost a week my eyes aren't puffy from crying. I'm glad we're trying to find out what's up, so we'll have a better shot at not ending his life too soon or making him stay past the point of pain. I really do appreciate all the good wishes. So does Spanky!
The good thoughts keep coming for Spanky. Give him a hug for me also.
We have our fingers and toes crossed that they are able to figure out what is going on. We are still sending lots of good thoughts to Spanky. We are thinking about you guys too! Hang in there!
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