Misty Monday

The dreaded phone call came Friday night.  Mom saw the number, looked at the clock, and knew that an 8:00 p.m. call from Dr. B. was not likely going to be a happy hello.

So my pathology report is back.  It is not all bad, but more bad than good.  The mass Dr. B. removed from my left front leg was a soft tissue sarcoma, one that goes after the skin, tendons, muscles, and other soft tissue.   It IS a malignant tumor.  It has been graded a low to moderate grade, close to a 2 on a scale of 3 with 3 being the most aggressive.  The margins were not clean enough to say that he got it all.  A 3 mm margin is needed to call it clean.  My report says it is a narrowly excised mass with only a 1.5 mm margin on the periphery and less than 0.1 on the depth.  The mass was very close to muscle and tendons, and Dr. B. was concerned about permanent damage to my leg if he had tried to excise into the muscle.  Even before the report came back, we knew there was a good chance that the margins would not be wide enough to declare victory.

In addition, a sarcoma acts like an octopus in shape, sending out "small babies" all around it,  a bit like spindle cell tumors.  There is a reasonable chance that the tumor will grow again either at the main site or with one of the "babies" because we don't have those clean margins.  I will be closely monitored by both Mom and Dr. B. for any sign of new growth.  Most dogs with low to moderate grades can live 3-4 years if there is not recurrence.  Radiation and chemotherapy are both options.  Radiation would require multiple sedations, one for the mapping of the area, and then for each subsequent treatment.  Because of how easily stressed my GI system behaves, this is probably not a good choice for me.  And chemotherapy would basically escalate my IBD to a level that would be unbearable, so that is out of the question.  Dr. B.'s opinion is that, if it comes down to new growth, he would not encourage radiation .  He is just hoping that we won't have to face that option.  And an even bigger hope is that it hasn't/doesn't metastasize to other areas of my body.

My incision is healing well, so my stitches will come out Wednesday.  I hope to shed the cone then and get the release to do stairs again.  I do have a bit of a limp, but Dr. B. says my skin has a lot of stretching to do from the flaps he had to create in order to close my wound.  Poor me, I have had CCL repairs on both knees and now this on one front leg.  I still have at least one leg free of issues.  I want to keep it that way.

It is certainly not the news we were all hoping to receive, but as Mom says, it is what it is, and we will deal with it.

Woos - Misty and her supportive brother Timber

Mom says I am still AWWW-worthy even with my gimpy leg and my silly lampshade, so let's hop along and see who else is joining the Awww Mondays Blog Hop sponsored by Comedy Plus.