Hi everyone,

Just found out about your site yesterday from our oncologist. Will try to be brief (doubtful) but could use your help/guidance/experience. Our Rosie girl is an incredibly sweet, loving 12-13 (rescue agency wasn't sure when I adopted her) lab-hound mix. She was diagnosed over the summer with an undifferentiated nasal carcinoma for which she received 18 radiation treatments (with about a 9-12 month prognosis which we of course thought she would surpass). She did really well and finished her treatments just before Labor Day. 

At the beginning of November she started limping on her left front paw. Initially it came and went so we thought it was a muscle pull. Anway, to summarize, after vet visits, non-response to non-steroidal meds, worsening limp and xrays, they discovered a mass at the top of her humerus. Fast forward to yesterday when she went back to see the oncologist who originally treated her nasal tumour. She had a CT which showed the mass, an inflamed looking lymph node at the back of her throat, no recurrence of the primary nasal tumour and no mets in the lungs. The CT covered the head, lungs, left leg, liver, spleen but not all of her legs so could she have mets elsewhere?? They aspirated the leg tumour and lymph node. When I spoke with the oncologist yesterday she felt that, based on appearance, the leg tumour was likely an osteosarcoma. She outlined the options and after many tears and considerations my husband and I had decided to proceed with amputation and chemotherapy with the hope that she would outlive (though we knew unlikely) the 10-12 month prognosis. But 10-12 more months of kisses and belly rubs and cuddle time was worth it, especially after looking through this website and hearing all of the recovery stories (though we know every dog is different and nothing is a guarantee).

Well, fast forward to today and the cytology results showed that the leg tumour is actually a metastatic site from the nasal cancer. As the oncologist said, this is really unusual and not something she would have predicted. The options are the same but she said the prognosis (even if we proceed with amputation and chemo) is now pretty unpredictable because Rosie's nasal tumour "is acting really unusual". We had scheduled her to have the amputation tomorrow (the surgeon had a cancellation and from everything we had heard and read it seemed the best decision so why wait) but now I'm having second thoughts.

I struggled with a lot of things. First, the thought of amputation. I really had to work through that and this site and conversations with the vet helped. Second, my husband and I wanted to know (as much as one ever can) that we were doing this for the "right" reasons, meaning that we weren't just prolonging Rosie's life because we couldn't bear to part with her. We want her to be comfortable and have a good quality of life. Before we got the news today, we were comfortable with our decision because, other than the stupid cancer, she is in great health and adapts really well to things (all the vet staff kept commenting on how she sailed through radiation). Third, we considered her age but, after doing some reading here, we thought that she had a very good chance of doing just fine despite being 12 or 13 (actually, turning 12 or 13 on Thursday!).

But now?? Are we just prolonging the inevitable; she already has the lymph node involved? Is it fair to make her undergo amputation with, best case scenario, a 2-3 week post-op recovery etc and then she develops mets somewhere else in 2 months? But what if it's not in 2 months, it's 10 months? I guess on some level I realize it's always a gamble and we will never know; we just have to decide. I realize there is no right or wrong answer but it's just tearing our hearts out. I'm not really sure what I'm asking with this post but would love to hear if anyone else has had this (nasal cancer with mets) situation. 

Thanks everyone, Sheila