Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The Expected Bad News Arrives

Metastatic cancer is not a good look for Tuffy.

Since we never heard back from the doggie oncologist with the biopsy results for Tuffy, I finally called today to follow up. It turned out that while she was on vacation, the test results came back and were accidentally filed away rather than given to her to see when she got back. I figured it was probably something like that.

Yes, Tuffy's swollen neck is cancer, her squamous cell carcinoma metastasized to her lymph nodes. There are no reasonable treatment options for fixing this - we could spend thousands more dollars but it probably wouldn't help much.

I let Dr K know that we weren't going to try any further dramatic and expensive treatments, and she came up with one other thing to try. There's a drug she mentioned once before. It's very good for cancer-related pain, and has mild carcinoma-fighting properties, i.e. it may slow things down a little. She didn't give a time frame, but I'm guessing we can buy Tuffy a few more months of acceptable quality of life, with a $30 a month prescription from the compounding pharmacy near the "dinosaur McDonald's" at Grant and Tanque Verde. First she needs to go off the prednisone, so that is what we'll do.

Bummer.

Karen

8 comments:

Becky said...

I'm so sorry to read this... Hugs to you guys.

barrettmanor said...

Oh, Karen. I am so sorry. Give both dogs a pat for me.

Call me Paul said...

Sorry to hear about the news, Karen. I usually try to take the macho attitude, "hey, they're only pets," but then I look over at Shadow and give my head a shake. They certainly worm their way into our hearts, don't they?

Mike said...

So sorry to hear that. I never thought I'd get attached to a pet until we got our first dog. I hope the meds help out some.

Astaryth said...

So sad. I'm really sorry to hear this, I always enjoy the Tuffy posts, and I know how hard this is. We lost our cat to cancer last year, and I still miss her.

Jama said...

sorry to hear of that, Karen. Hugs to you.

MyMaracas said...

I'm so sorry to hear about this, Karen. I know how hard and sad it is to be losing a beloved pet.

TJ said...

I am tearful reading back through your entrys of Tuffy's journey.
Hugs
TJ