Geez! What a weekend

Man… 

 

So, Friday I got home and let Emma out of her crate.  I had just finished making the boys some chocolate milk when I looked up and noticed this huge weird lump thing on Emma’s throat.  I check it out and my heart sunk…

 

I got on google to try to figure out what might be going on.  But, I already knew what lumps on the throat meant.  There were a few different flavors, but, everything you find is cancer.  Maybe lymph nodes, maybe thyroid….  either way, not good.

She was obviously in a lot of pain.  She wouldn’t eat, she’d barely drink.  She hung her head and wouldn’t even look up for a treat.  She wouldn’t come to me to let me pet her… she just wanted to lay on her bed and sleep.

Saturday morning we went to our vet.  She checked her out and took some xrays.  After an hour or so of waiting, she said she suspected what I was afraid of: lymphoma.  She sent me to downtown columbus to visit the OSU veterinary hospital where there was a veterinary oncologist on call. 

At this point, I was convinced Emma was on her way out.  Our vet told me that with treatment, lymphoma patients could sometimes get another year or so.  But, it was REALLY expensive.  Mandy and I talked and agreed that we weren’t going to go back into debt just so Emma had a few more months or maybe a year of life…  especially if that meant she wasn’t happy or if there was a risk that we came home one day and found her dead in her crate and then had to deal with explaining that to the boys.

So, we checked in to the emergency room.  They took her back and we sat and waited.  The nurse came out to check on us after half an hour or so.  We tried to press her for more info.  She said “I can’t really say anything more right now…” but the way she said it was NOT encouraging.

We sat and waited longer.

Eventually, we got called back to meet with the vet who had examined her.  He had a thick italian accent.  We sat down and braced for impact:

“Well, I’ve checked Emma out and it looks like she has mucoclene.”

I’d never heard that word before.  I passed it through my italian accented english filter to see if it was some other word that I knew.  I cross referenced it against all the medical terms I’d picked up while googling Friday night.  I was finally forced to conclude that it was some sort of exotic cancer that even google hadn’t heard of.  I figured we’d have to put her down right then.  All these thoughts took about 0.25 seconds.

The vet continued, probably prompted by the blank look on our faces:

“What that means is that she has a ruptured salivary gland.  The big lump under her throat is saliva that has collected there under her skin.”

I noticed that he hadn’t said the word cancer during that explanation.  I suppose my expression changed a bit and he continued on.

“The good news is that it is totally treatable by surgery.  The veterinarian who invented this surgery actually works here.  With the surgery, she should make a full recovery.”

Mandy found her voice first.

“You mean… she’s going to be…  ok???”

“Yes, she should be just fine.” he replied.

Mandy and I both started crying.

So, we’ve had to keep an eye on her.  Today we take her back to the hospital to get her checked in.  Tomorrow they should do the surgery.  We couldn’t do it right away because it was on the weekend.  Because it wasn’t a critical type thing, he recommended that we go back home to avoid having to pay for hospitalization over the weekend, which means that today is the earliest we can get her back in for surgery.  So, she’s gonna have one side of her face and neck shaved and a nice little scar, but, she should be fine.

As for me, I’m still not sure if I’m fine or not.  It was a heck of a rollercoaster.  I’ll probably relax a bit after the surgery is over and they say everything went ok.  Until then, I’m still waiting on another shoe to drop.

 

Also, for what it’s worth, this will probably mean that the credit card has to come out of retirement.  That lasted what…  a week?!

Stupid real life.