Tuesday's Telling

A time for concern for The OP Pack.



Why so serious, little one?


And you too, TD?

Tell them, Phantom. You can do it better than we can.


Well, TD and Ciara, yesterday I found myself taking a ride in the car with Mom. At first I thought this was a good thing, but look where we ended up. You all know how I feel about the V.E.T.



Mom, why am I here again? You know I don't like to visit the V.E.T.


Do you think I need to wash my paws before my checkup?
How do you turn this water on?

Mom, I think you need to tell our readers why I am here - I really don't understand it at all.

Momster here. We don't know a lot yet, but there is definitely cause for concern. Saturday night I found a new lump on the side of Phantom's face. He gets regular full body massages from me as I want to be sure I can find any issues with him as soon as possible. This lump made my heart skip a beat as it felt very hard and firm. It is about the size of a grape. For those of you who are new to our blog, Phantom had a very bad tumor removed from his chest last summer, just about one year ago. There has been ongoing concern about a recurrence because the surgeon was unable to get clean margins large enough to give us confidence that all the cancer had been removed. The type of tumor is one that sends out little spindles to other parts of the body where new insidious tumors can grow and will do so "with a vengeance".

The vet did an aspiration of the growth after agreeing with me that this lump did not feel at all like a fatty tumor. An in-house cytology showed very suspicious cells. At this point we have opted to send the slides to the lab for further analysis. Based on history and vet opinion, we are not expecting good news. As for what happens next, we aren't there yet. We would need to consult with an oncologist to determine the best route. The vet has suggested the need to try to "stage" the tumor. This would involve bloodwork, xrays, and ultrasounds. The concern is that the cancer has spread to other major organs, in particular, the lungs. Right now, we are in limbo with a lot of uncertainty. We don't expect to hear anything until later in the week.

For now, Phantom himself is doing OK. He has his usual bouts of not wanting to eat for a couple of days and then a return to normal. It is hard to understand why this happens. Sometimes we think it is thunderstorms, sometimes we think he just doesn't feel good. But he looks good, his eyes are bright, his tail is perky, and he still loves his walks. So once again, we are back to taking things as they come. We sure could use some good thoughts from all our furiends and friends out there.



Don't worry, Mom. I will be OK. And TD and Ciara - watch out, this guy still has a lot more "fun police" work to accomplish.



All we can add is that we are going to invoke all the power our paws can muster to help our brother.




After all, we love being The OP Pack.

Woos ~ Phantom, Thunder, and Ciara