I'll update you from where I left off last time I posted. We rushed out of here to go to a vet closer to me (my vet was unavailable) to get glucose levels checked. My stepson Ken and my stepdaughter Chris rushed over to my house to help drive Syd and I to the vet. Upon arrival, the vet tech came out and took blood from him. When I was lying beside Syd, he was panting because he was lying in the sun with the van door open. As I tried to hold his head while she drew blood, I was shocked to see a huge tumor in his mouth under his tongue! I had never seen it before. It grew overnight. :-( The vet came out and said his glucose was normal and looked at him and said if it were his dog, he wouldn't make any rash decisions about euthanizing, since his seizures might be able to be controlled and he just might start walking again in a few days. He also gave me a valium enema to give him if he began having seizures on the way to K-State. We drove back to the house to prepare for the ride and before we left, Chris turned on the air to cool the van down and lo and behold, the HIGH fan setting (which hadn't worked since we got the van) began working suddenly and worked ALL the way to K-State! (amazing) K-State Vet Teaching School is 3 hours away. My husband is in the middle of doing a Bike Across Kansas event and was only 30 miles away from K-State and each night, he headed 50 more miles away from K-State. I knew that he would want to get a chance to be in on the decision for Syd and also would want to see him one last time in the event we had to send him to the Bridge. So off I went with Syd in tow. My stepdaughter had tried to feed him baby food (recommended by the vet who tested his glucose level) and also gave him some water before we left. About an hour later, Syd threw up in the van and I about had a heart attack thinking it was a seizure again. So we stopped on the road at a Wal-Mart to pick up paper towels, gloves, some large adult wee-wee pads and a new blanket for him to lay on. When I got back to the van, Syd had gotten up and was looking out the window. He then laid back down as soon as I got in the van. We cleaned him up and off we went. I didn't get to pick up my husband until about 1:15am and off we headed 30 miles back to K-State.
Upon arriving, the intern (who had been briefed by the oncologist) and my husband placed Syd on the gurney because he wouldn't get up. He wanted to get up, but couldn't place his back legs where he needed to. They tried to pick him up and he struggled and wiggled but they managed. The whole time while being wheeled in, he was shaking and whining and I thought he was going into a seizure. He was just scared. We got into the exam room and she did a thorough exam. She said his lungs and heart sounded good. She checked into his eyes and some facial tests which might be indicative of a tumor in the brain. She suspected that since his glucose leve was normal and given that he has lung mets, that the OS had spread to his brain or spine. She said his front remaining leg and one of his back legs appeared to be moving normally. The other back leg was very rigid and he acted as if he couldn't move it, even though it had reflex action. She said he was alert otherwise and was wagging his tail when my husband would talk to him. They put him onto the floor to see if he could get up at all and he couldn't. She discussed the various stages of seizures and said most dogs who have lameness due to seizures normally get back their mobility in an hour or two, while some dogs take a little longer. But since it had been so long since the seizures and since the seizure duration was so short, she, too, suspected brain mets. She said my oncologist would back on duty Friday morning and she would do another exam, talk to her about her initial findings this night and go from there. She said the only way to determine if it was defininte spreading to the brain was to do a CT scan or MRI. The CT scan is not very definitive since it's not as powerful as an MRI, and the MRI was twice as expensive. My husband said for my own peace of mind, I should do whatever I want, no matter how much it costs. She said they normally don't do CT scans or MRI's on Fridays, but the oncologist could ask for special permission. I agreed to have Syd put into ICU overnight and let my oncologist tell me her feelings Friday morning. The intern said they would give him some anti-seizure meds that night and check on him constantly. I asked them to put in a urinary catheter to help make him more comfortable, since he couldn't walk. I left very upset knowing I would probably have to make a final decision about Syd Friday. I so want him to get better so I can continue to fight with him. But I have come to the conclusion that if this is the life he will have of not being able to walk or get around at all and just be an inactive dog, then that is not quality of life for him. I have resigned myself to the fact that somehow he may not make it to his 9th birthday Sunday June 13th, even though I knew he probably wouldn't make it to his 1st dx anniversary of August 1st, never in my wildest dreams could I have envisioned what transpired this evening. I was SO hell bent on fighting the lung mets, that I never thought about brain or spine metastisis. This came out of the clear blue and scared the living daylights out of me. But my mom's intuition KNEW something wasn't right. Syd just wasn't right and sadly, it turned out to be he was getting ready to have some major seizures. Poor boy. I will fight as long as he wants to fight..... |
