I've been lurking on the forums for a few weeks now. Thanks to all of you for your stories. You have no idea how much...well, yes, you do know how much it helps to know others have walked the same path you have. 

Today was a particularly hard day- not because of anything remarkable. So, I would like to share our story with you in the hopes that someone else with tears rolling down their face at 2 am a week before Christmas desperately trying to figure out how they can "fix this" might benefit from what we have learned in the last 3.5 weeks. 

Here's our story: 

Canine, female boxer, age 11 years, 6 months at diagnosis. Front left amputation due to a tumor diagnosed as Osteosarcoma

Her name is Bailey. My husband "bought" Bailey from his Senior Chief while he was on recruiting duty after senior decided they wanted a pool and didn't have room for a dog to be able to run around. That, and Bailey (in true boxer fashion) had separation anxiety and decided to destroy any room she was put in when the family would leave. Take that, evil underwear and rug monsters!  

Okay. So, my husband (pre-me) who was probably the most squared away E-5 the Navy has ever known inherited the drool bucket and chaos instigator we have grown to love. 10 years later, my husband is an O3, and her face is gray. She's PCS'd a few times, grown to love the "other woman" (me), endured a GIST tumor, two torn ACLs, and paralysis caused by osteomyelitis. She's a tough old bird. 

12/12/18- While playing with her "brother", he knocked her over. By the evening, a large lump had come up on her leg, above and close to the foot joint. So... distal femur?

12/13- Took her to the vet. Vet prescribed rimadyl and told us to wait to see if the swelling went down 

12/15- Swelling had gone down, but the lump was still there. I was worried she had fractured it, and sent the hubs to the vet for x-rays. The vet found the tumor. It was contained in the bone. The vet told my husband we needed to call two places immediately, because without treatment, she'd be gone in a month. Hubs comes home and tells me "it could be cancer". 

12/17- we called the cancer specialty clinic in town and they offered us an appointment - December 31st. NOPE. We called our vet and they recommended another specialty vet in town who immediately booked us in for an 11 am appointment. They did an aspirate same day and we picked her up that afternoon. That evening around 9 pm, the surgeon called us to check in on her and talk to us about what we could be looking at - osteosarcoma or chondrosarcoma. He was kind and knowledgeable, but told us if we chose to amputate, she would have a limited quality of life. He said she wasn't the best candidate for amputation. She has a typical boxer spine, with spurs and fusion and idk what else, and two back legs that have arthritis from the torn CCL injuries. She's also kind of a big girl. We assured him we would do all we could to make her life on three legs the absolute best we could, and that if the only way to save her life was amputation, we'd do it. We scheduled the surgery for Thursday morning. He wanted to confirm the type of cancer prior to operating. 

12/18- I googled until I could google no more. NCBI, research studies, life expectancy, amputation videos (thanks tripawds!), and anything else I could find. Then, I stumbled across a new treatment for osteosarcoma that uses immunology after amputation and chemo. There was hope. The study treatment was extending mean survival times to more than 900 days. The surgeon called that night and I told him about it. He was so excited. We both did some googling and found that one of the 20 centers administering the trial treatment is here in Jacksonville, FL and they only had about 20-30 spots left. I cried. Tears of hope. YES! The surgeon knew the owner of the clinic. YES! 

12/19- Surgeon talks to clinic, confirms diagnosis, and schedules the surgery for the morning. He warns us again what a job we will have on our hands caring for a three legged old boxer. We told him she loved us, and as long as she was telling us she still wanted to live, we were going to fight for her to be able to live well.

12/20- Surgery day! Surgeon calls and says things went remarkably well and was a little surprised our old girl did so good. We obviously weren't surprised at all. 😉

12/21- My mother in law and the rest of the family arrive for Christmas- not a grocery in the house, so we went to Outback. Ha! Husband went to see Bailey for the first time with three legs. It was hard on him. But Bailey loved on him and told him it would all be alright. That's our girl. 

12/22- We picked up our girl at the vet around noon. The sight of her with three legs dropped my stomach. She was just starting to do the hop, and was in full harness gear. This was going to be tough. So, we loaded her in the truck, and after I nearly had a heart attack because she bumped her chin on the seat and getting a pep talk from the vet tech, we were on our way. She spent the afternoon and evening happily wagging her nub under the Christmas tree in her bed. It was like she didn't even know she had three legs. She shot in the house so fast after going outside we were jogging to try to slow her down and hang on to her harness. 

She did poop this day, and because of the gabapentin, she was doing it involuntarily, so we just used a pee pad, and cleaned her up. this isn't permanent, so don't freak out. 

12/23- Same as the day before. Our 5 year old niece was upset that Bailey had to lose her leg, but we sat her down and talked about it, and she was fine. She turned out to be a great helper. Bailey whined alot when the room would empty out and she was alone, so our niece would go sit beside her and pet her. Bailey watched Sam Bush on the TV and listened to some music. She was good. 

12/24- Family went back home. House was quiet. Bailey slept like the dead. It scared us. Gabapentin was still causing the incontinence, and she was acting almost drunk. Apparently, that's normal?? I wasn't too good with it, but the vet said she really needed it to be able to let her body heal. An amputation is a major, major surgery. 

12/25- Christmas Day. This was rough. Bailey had not urinated for 36 hours. She would not posture at all. She refused. She was very confused bc of the gabapentin and very lethargic. We fretted over her all day. Finally, I had my husband take her outside and after another fruitless pee walk/carry, we laid her down on the lanai and I evacuated her bladder. It was like the flood gates opened. Pee everywhere. Multiple towels and pee pads soaked through. She looked like she was visibly more comfortable. My husband actually teared up. He never does that. EVER. 

12/26- I needed help. Was really questioning if we did the right thing. Bailey was barely able to balance, still very confused, and just all around pitiful. I ordered "The Dog Cancer Survival Guide " by Drs. Dressler and Ettinger. I asked my husband if we did the right thing. It was his turn to encourage me. 

12/27- The one week check-up. My husband took her. We saw a different surgeon, since ours was out of the country for Christmas. I wrote a page of progress notes, current medications, behaviors over the last few days, and sent the hubs on his way with a stern warning to make absolutely sure that vet read every word. The vet agreed the gabapentin could be discontinued, and said alot of her problems to date we observed were complications from the medicine. 

12/28-1/1- big improvements each day! No more spontaneous pooping, much more alert, learning to balance and walk, eating, drinking, etc. She even got up on her own several times without us helping. GOOD GIRL!!! 

1/2- Two week checkup and first chemo treatment. Her surgeon was really impressed that she had come so far in two weeks. I don't know if he expected her to be a lump in a wagon or what. She walked all by herself all the way through the parking lot and into the office. She was being so extra. I was so proud of her. Chemo was caroboplatin. She did well and came home that night, with a little bit of lameness in the back leg where the IV was, but it was really slight. 

1/3-1/9- Continued improvement. Daily very short walks made her feel like a queen even though we just went to the end of the driveway. Lots of praise for small things, like letting us hold her harness while she uses the bathroom, and actually using the bathroom. I read the cancer book. I bought K-9 Immunity and the oncologist approved dosage. Scared us to death when she got excited about a treat and in a split second had somehow gone airborne, completely rotated her body and landed hard on the floor on her nub side. She was not too worried about it. Her main concern was the treat. That was a good lesson. Stay close to that harness handle. They do try a little more than they are truly able to do early on. Help-Em-Up harness is really a godsend. 

1/10- Noticed some decompensation and less enthusiasm when getting up. Less willing to walk outside. She would only drink "chicken water". This is water served in a "human" bowl with a little shot of chicken broth and slightly warmed so she thinks she is getting people drink. She peed on the floor twice and once in her sleep during the night. That's extremely out of character. She just couldn't make it outside quick enough. Some signs of confusion again. Some constipation. 

1/11- (today)- This is 9 days after the first chemo treatment. Called the specialty vet to report the situation. Vet says she needs a CBC, urine culture, exam. 150 bucks. Hooray. So, we go down to her primary vet, say hello to her girls at the front, pull some blood, try fruitlessly to get her to urinate, and get the blood results. WBC looks good, and all values are normal except... platelets. That can be dangerous. Was relieved that it wasn't the WBC, but worried about platelets. Got home at noon. Googled and googled for how to do my part to raise the platelets. Chicken water, rest, liver, protein, iron, blah, blah, blah. The specialty vet had an emergency come in. They still haven't called to talk about the platelet thing. I'm worried sick. It's 5:30 pm. Bailey has not had an accident since 6 am this morning. She seems happy as a clam, but is still slow to get up. We'll baby her tonight. 

So that's where we are. I'm so tired. SO tired. She's happy and giving kisses, telling me thanks.