The Rollercoaster Ride

Thanksgiving 2017.  Things were going great!  Life was normal.  We were at the family lake house.  Me, my husband, my mom, my dad, my aunt, my uncle, 4 Labrador Retrievers, & a 1 Boston Terrier.  It’s a house full, but it is alway a lot of fun for humans & dogs alike.  It was 4pm and we all know what that means.  It’s time for grandpa (my dad) to take the dogs out to the big yard to play!  All the dogs begin getting restless and vocal letting no one forget their precious play time.  Everyone goes out, watches as all the dogs play fetch in our large yard, then happily run to the lake to jump in and cool off.  Later on that night, we started to notice that Raven had a slight limp.  It was slight, but noticeable.  She seemed to spend more time in our room then she did with everyone in the living room.  We took her home after the holiday assuming she had tweaked her leg while playing on one of the days in the yard.  No big deal.  We just won’t play at home for a few days.  I’m sure it will be fine…….

Things improved with some rest at home.  We thought all was good, so we played in our small backyard at home.  She was stir crazy & so we played an easy game of fetch.  Everything was back to normal, or so we thought.  A few days went by and then she started limping again.  My husband & I’s first thought was maybe we had not given her enough time off after Thanksgiving.  I mean she is 12.5 years old.  We prescribed another few days of rest for Raven girl.  It became very obvious that we were not dealing with a small tweak when a few days went by and things were not improving.  In fact, they were getting worse.  Her limp was getting more significant and she had developed a small knot on the front of her shoulder.  It was so hard that we were worried she had dislocated her shoulder during one of our play sessions.  A little panicky, but still not assuming the worst, we made an appointment with our vet.  They got us in on Tuesday, December 4th.  Dr. Gregory evaluated the situation and said he wanted to take x-rays of the area.  We waited and then it happened.  He came back in the room talking about the possibility of bone cancer, tumors, etc.  My head went fuzzy.  I couldn’t think clearly.  All I heard was the words BONE CANCER.  What?  What does that even mean?  We spent the next hour looking at x-rays and talking through possibilities & options for treatment.  One thing he knew for sure.  He wanted to do a bone biopsy ASAP.  We agreed and scheduled it for the next day on December 6th.  Because it was scheduled on such an emergency appointment, the surgery could not be performed until 3pm.  They still wanted us to drop her off at 8am though in case there was a cancellation or the doctor would have time earlier in the day to perform the biopsy.  We went home devastated, confused, and scared.

The morning of December 6th is such a blur in my head.  I was nauseous, scared, uncertain.  You name a bad feeling, and I guarantee I was feeling it at some level.  We dropped her off & I tried to stay busy that day.  We went to work, but I couldn’t focus, so we came back home.  (We own our own business).  FINALLY, the vet called around 4pm and said that the surgery had gone well and that Raven was in recovery.  He was certain that we got a good sample, in the middle of the suspicious area.  Even though the surgery was done late in the afternoon, we would still be able to take her home that day.  He did warn us though that she would be VERY groggy & it might be a restless night since she would be doing most of her “waking up” throughout the night.  We agreed we wanted her home no matter what.  So we went and picked her up about 5:30pm.  She was very, very groggy and we ended up carrying her to the car.  We got her home and settled her in her favorite spot and buckled down for a long night.  Throughout the night, she would shoot up & cry out.  It was heartbreaking watching her so loopy.  She was high as a kite & in another dimension for most of the night.  Towards the early morning hours, she really started to “come to”.  I was so relieved to watch the sparkle come back slowly and surely.  We eventually got to a good place within a day or two, but the pain killers were keeping her pretty calm.  Because the surgery was performed late on a Wednesday afternoon, the results would most likely not be expected until Monday – so we had a long weekend ahead of us.  We had a low key weekend, snuggling, decorating for Christmas, and loving on our baby girl.

On Monday, December 11th the doctor called late in the afternoon with the results of the bone biopsy.  Guess what?  IT WAS NEGATIVE!!  RAVEN DID NOT HAVE BONE CANCER!!!  No sign of cancer anywhere, no cancer cells, NO CANCER.  I couldn’t believe it.  What had we just been through?  That was an insane roller coaster, but we were in the clear.  Of course the lump on her shoulder was going to have to be addressed, but guess what – we didn’t have bone cancer!  Anything would be better than that………

Pictures of progression from Thanksgiving to post bone biopsy: