What a long day traveling to Blacksburg and back. We arrived there before our 10:00 scheduled appointment time and were shown to an exam room fairly quickly. At first I was kind of disappointed because the oncologist we spoke with didn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know. Osteosarcoma, blah blah, amputation, chemo, blah blah…. So we discussed a barrage of tests which we chose to have performed on Toto. New chest x-ray to rule out any spread which may have happened since last one, new blood work (her last was done in May), echocardiogram (to make sure her heart was healthy enough for the chemo they recommended) and an abdominal ultrasound. This was optional seeing as how only 5-10% of osteosarcoma patients have metastasis to the liver and spleen. But, since we were there, we opted to have it done. We were told to pick Toto up at 2pm…it was now only 10:15am so we headed out and traveled up to Mountain Lake Lodge for a bit (that’s where my husband and I honeymooned).
I received a call on my cell from the vet at about noon. She stated that during the (optional) ultrasound that they found some lesions on both of her kidneys. They had also noticed an enlarged lymph node by the affected arm…and some other bumps under her skin and on top of her skin. She asked permission to biopsy all of these lesions.
We returned to the hospital to retrieve Toto about 2pm. We finally got called into a room around 3pm. Guess what? We are now dealing with histiocytic sarcoma. So…now what? Well, the prognosis is the same and treatment is similar except that the chemo is oral (CCNU) and also still includes amputation of her limb. (Which we’ve scheduled for next Wednesday, August 7).
Silver lining? (because I always search for one) Two of the attending oncology veterinarians at VT are researching this cancer and it’s treatment. They even asked permission to take some blood samples from our dear Toto for research purposes. I assured them that they’d be writing a paper about how Toto kicked this cancer’s butt in the future. 🙂 The oncologist then asked Toto if she’d like to become famous and Toto gave her a hefty tail wag in response.
VERY impressed with the entire crew at VT. Even with the somewhat depressing news, I’m relieved we made the trip.