Lovely people who gave so generously for our little foster dog, Alma, who has been diagnosed with cancer and is facing a serious fight, here’s an update on her and her condition:
To begin with, a hundred thousand “THANK YOU”‘s to everyone who participated in the fundraiser for her care, whether by donating, spreading the word, or in the case of the amazing Robert Ottone, promising to murder someone in one of his stories if they pushed the fundraiser over the finish line. (At least, I think it was in one of his stories…) You are all fabulous and in Rob’s case maybe just a little bit scary.
When we took Alma in to have her surgery, we asked the vet to do an X-Ray first, to ensure there were no additional complications. It was fortunate that we did, because the X-Ray revealed additional tumors in her mammary glands, requiring a radical mastectomy, which is a more complicated surgery than she had been scheduled for. (For a moment, there was a possibility she might have had a tumor in her lungs, as well, but that turned out to be a false alarm.) We had to reassess and reschedule.
As of now, the plan is for me to take her to a specialist to have a scan of the adjacent lymph node tomorrow. If the cancer is confined to the mammary glands, then we’ll go ahead with the surgery, which will have a good chance of success. If it has spread to the lymph node (and by extension, to the rest of her system), we’ll keep her comfortable and loved for as long as we can. Obviously, we’re hoping and praying that isn’t the case.
Alma was pretty freaked out by the vet’s visit; though she recovered herself pretty well by the next day. Since then, however, she’s become quite attached to Amber, our little dachshund-chihuahua-maybe corgi? mix. They seem to take great comfort in one another. Here’s a picture of the two of them.
Mr Gaunt: 