Well, I thought this blog was completely retired now, but it seems like a logical link that I would post about Theo here. He was very closely bonded to Laurie, so it makes sense. Theo was the one who would "post up" next to Laurie at night and stand between her and any person he wasn't comfortable with.Let's travel back to Tuesday, Nov 15th when this all started....
I noticed that Theo was starting to limp a lot on Tuesday
afternoon to the point that I was really concerned. I’d noticed a little
here and there over the last week or two that his right forearm seemed to be
favored, but it was minor and seemed to get better after he’d move
around. I called to talk to Dr. Staatz at Sage since he’d done the rear
knee work just under a year ago. There was an appointment Wednesday
morning, so I took Theo in to get checked out.
I took Theo to Dr. Staatz and kept him from the normal
walk. He was limping distinctly even at the vet. This indicated to
me that it was more than normal as Theo becomes more stoic and has always
hidden any injury well. Dr. Staatz did the normal work and walking and it
looked like Theo must have just sprained things. The conclusion was to
just keep an eye on things and come back in a week or two if it didn’t resolve
itself.
Friday, Nov 18
Theo was laying at the bottom of the stairs waiting for
me. He got up when I came down and was pogo sticking on his leg. I
could tell it was really painful. It appeared that the leg was swollen
just above the knee. I thought it might have been a bit swollen
yesterday, but today it was clearly swollen. I called Sage to see if I
could get in to see Dr. Staatz. I got a 10:45 slot. Dr.
Staatz saw Theo in the lobby could see the swelling. He went through the
standard list of what this could be from scary to just a worsening
sprain. I figured with the quick swelling it was probably the latter.
An X-ray is really the only way to tell for sure. They took him back to
take a picture and I waited 15 minutes for them to do their work.
We took a look at the pictures. The bad news is that
there wasn’t a break. There was bone growth going on in the swelling area
above the knee and the bone didn’t have the normal density. This is not
good news. Dr. Staatz said it could be some weird fungal thing, but it’s not
likely. He said there’s a 90% chance it’s the big C and it’s the bone
type. The only way to be sure is to do a biopsy and wait a couple days
for the results. If this proves out, the long term answer would be
amputation if Theo had 3 good legs. His legs are fair at this
point. The thing is that the odds are that if it’s in the bone and even though
we seem to have caught this quickly, it’s very likely spread. That means
cheomotherapy along with possible radiation and finding a way to make this work as best possible. With drugs
the prognosis isn’t super long, but it’s better than doing nothing. The
question is really how is his quality of life.
Today was a long wait. I called for status a couple of times, but never received a call back from Dr. Staatz. At 7pm I called and he'd left, but I didn't have the anti-inflammatory for tonight, let alone drugs for the next 2 weeks (which is needed due to my travel plans). They called Dr. Staatz and got the prescription updated so I could get the anti-inflammatory. I'll have to go back to get a written prescription for the Tramadol (a narcotic). I can get the Tramadol at Target for about $0.08 as opposed to almost a dollar each at the vet (it has to do with volume and a weird medical group I can get for the dogs via online coupon).
The plan and Prognosis
I have an appointment with the Oncologist at Sage for Wednesday December 7th. I'll know more about the plan after that. For now, Theo gets some pretty strong pain medication and an anti-inflammatory 2x a day. He's kind of a sweet dopey dog already, so it just adds to it for most people. I suspect most people won't notice the glazed look in his eyes that I see. I don't like it, but there's a strange sweetness to it and I know it's the best for him.
I'm doing "OK" for now. Naturally, I'm shedding some tears and utilizing my stock of Keenex. I'm still doing yoga as much as I can. However, last Friday I was so out of it I completely spaced on the start time for a class I've been attending for 20+ months. Of course, this is the time I really need those classes too. I'm still going to Thanksgiving with the family and bringing Cassie and Theo. I also am continuing with my plans to travel. Fortunately, I've got an absolute rock star of a dog sitter that was available and can deal with anything that might come up (she spent 7 years as a vet assistant). If she wasn't available I'd probably be wouldn't be doing any travel. She also took care of Theo last year when he had knee surgery.
