Hi everyone,

I have just jumped on again after a few days of spending time with Harlie and taking her for a picnic and spoiling her rotten buying her a new big bed because she deserves it!  I have to say I needed to read Sally & Hannah, Kat and Katie and Sam's replies to my post after not being on this site for a couple days. I started to doubt amputation yet again and then reading your posts I know it's the right decision. Harlie has a lot of life left to live and putting it in perspective of 3 months is like a year in a dog's life I couldn;'t be more sure now. I knew it would be removing her pain and I want that more than anything - I am just so freakin scared.  Scared to take her leg and have her be in  pain after for recovery and scared at why she has no leg now.  Of course I'll be there for her 150% post op but gosh when you read about people being scared it really is heart-wrenching of a decision to make for my best friend.  Thank you all again for writing.  I really dont' know where I'd be right now without you guys.

I do have an update to share from last week and wondering about your thoughts -

On Thursday I went to meet with the surgeon as I had posted.  When I got there I pointed out a small lump on her front right paw to the surgeon. It looked like fatty tissue but I was adamant that they aspirate it.  The oncologist came in and got a good test done.  Unfortunately it came back suspicious so they took her right in for an xray of the leg. As i waited an hour in the patient room I did a lot of crying and begging for her xray to be clear.  Thank goodness the results came back negative but with a positive aspiration and a negative xray they thought it best to put it to the board of pathologists for review. I would know in a couple of days.  I got the call at 3pm yesterday that it is soft tissue sarcoma and only isolated to that one spot.  Not a higly spreadable type of cancer i was told and that I could continue now with scheduling her amputation.  That they could just take that lump off while she's under for the amputation.  However, another cancer diagnosis????  What does this mean for my girl Harlie?  Is this a bad sign?  Even though it's isolated and can be removed with a 90% chance of not spreading, it made me even more worried as of last night. 

I am calling to schedule her surgery for sure today.  I know it's the best thing for my girl.  But anyone got any thoughts on the 2nd diagnosis and whether or not i should be concerned of it being a cancer diagnosis in her front leg? And do I definitely remove it during surgery or just let it be which was the surgeons second option?

Thank you so much for your time,

Rachel & Harlie