Oct
5
Jewels’s History
October 5, 2011 | 1 Comment
Eleven years ago in 2000 we had just moved to from Hawai’i to Albuquerque as newly weds and purchased our first home. I grew up with dogs and felt right away that our home is not complete without one. So we took a trip to the local dog rescue and found Jewels, a very cute lab/shepherd mix puppy. She had these cute ears where one was floppy and the other was sticking straight up, what I call “cock-eared.” Her ears were like that for many years. It wasn’t until in recent years that her ears were both sticking straight up. Too bad. I loved those cock-ears!
Over the years she brought us lots of joy and happiness. Not only is she a pretty dog, she was is also a very smart dog and sensitive to what was going on around her.
She was also so very healthy. I don’t recall ever having to take her to the vet for many things other than her routine vaccinations. She loves hiking and camping.
Jewels was our first “baby.” A year after we got her we got another lab to keep her company. And we were a happy family of four for several years.
Our family welcomed in 2008 twin boys. Now we are a family of six! As expected with twin babies now in our lives, the dynamics of our family changed drastically. Our attention turned primarily to our human children, but Jewels welcomed the boys into the family and “tolerated” their “intrusion.” Unfortunately due to the new additions to ouir family Jewels’s ‘ranking’ in the family pack had been downgraded and I did not pay as much attention to her. I was a very busy mom trying to take care of two young children. I did not have the time I used to have in taking her along with me on my jogging runs through the hiking trails. But she never complained. She just savored the few moments I would have now and then to cuddle and pet her.
Then on June 1, 2011, everything changed. I was devasted to learn that the lump on her left front leg that was causing her to limp was osteosarcoma. The following weeks were some of the most emotional for me.
I knew that as an older dog she may not have much more time with us, that she was at the dawn of her life. But I didn’t imagine the sorrow that I would experience nor the trauma of knowing she has cancer that will cause her so much pain.
Her lungs were clear with no metastasis. So at least that was not yet an issue. After consulting with her regular vet and oncologist, I soon learned that the treatment for this disease is typically amputation followed by chemotherapy. Both of these treatments did not sit well with me. The thought of taking her leg away was unthinkable. And then I was worried that the chemotherapy would have terrible side effects.
So for about a month, while her limping was not too bad and the pain could be managed with pain meds, we decided to not do anything but keep her as comfortable as we can.
But the pain was getting worse and after thinking about amputation and learning more about its benefits we decided to go ahead and proceed with the surgery. The day of surgery I was an emotional wreck. I did not feel like I was ready for this, but I also knew it was the only way to take away the pain. A few hours after I left her with her vet to perform the surgery, I got a call from the vet telling me that he cannot proceed with the surgery because her insulin levels were off the scale. This meant that surgery was too risky for her and that she had an increased chance of not coming out of anesthesia. For the moment I almost felt relieved that we had a good excuse to not amputate. However the possibility of her having a seizure and dying was suddenly the immediate concern.
So I took her home and changed her diet to grain-free. And monitored her closely for any seizures. Strange! She never had seizures before. But all of a sudden I was worried sick that she would have one.
For two months I continued to have her on a grain-free diet, provided supplements (multi-vitamins, fish oil, glucosamine) and continued consultation with our oncologist for pain management. She was doing okay for awhile. Then about a month ago we noticed that the pain seemed to be getting worse and the tumor was starting to rapidly grow bigger and lumpier. We had her on the highest doses of three pain medications (gabapentin, carprofen and tramadol) that would be safe for her, and yet I can tell she was still hurting.
We needed to do something. The only choices were to either euthanize or take the risk of amputation. We were also in a better financial situation to afford having a surgeon specialist (very expensive) perform the surgery who would feel more comfortable with the risks involved with abnormal blood sugar levels related to insulin. After consultation with the oncologist and surgeon, we found that 1) her lungs were still clear from metastatis and 2) her blood sugar levels somehow returned to normal. All other pre-surgery bloodwork and tests showed that she was cleared for surgery.
At this point it was three months since diagnosis. I had a lot of time to process what was happening to my girl and felt more ready for the amputation than I was two months ago when we were initially going to have the surgery. In fact, I was almost looking forward to it because I knew that it was the only way to relieve the pain.
1 Comment so far
Thanks for sharing Jewels’ story! We look forward to hearing more, and just announced your blog in the forums.