will say hi on here too Polly glad you found it it's been a bit of a rollercoaster for you these last few days in a way I'm glad we only had 10 minutes to decided if we wanted Dizzys leg to be amputated. She has her final chemo tomorrow, I hope that the chest xrays are clear tomorrow. If he has to have hos leg amputated there are many places on here you can find out about what to expect good and bad.

This site makes me cry many times a week sometimes in happiness sometimes sadness but I am so glad I found it hope you find it as helpful

I was one that didn't waste anytime scheduling the amputation as soon as I saw the X-rays at our primary care vet's office. She said it could only be two things, infection or osteosarcoma. I remember feeling like I had been slapped the tears started flowing. Meanwhile my dog is sitting there with her tail wagging. I let myself cry and grieve the first night and then jumped into action to help prolong her life and keep her with us longer. We read the prognosis and I remember my husband saying this is not good. She went the next day to the oncologist at a specialty animal hospital and when I found out she had no spread through ultrasounds and x-rays and all her blood work and everything was great, we scheduled her amputation immediately. Even though I had sprung into action to amputate based upon the recommendations of my oncologist and surgeon, even without a biopsy because we were all so sure of what it was (it was a textbook case osteosarcoma on the back limb right under the knee), I still felt anxious about what I was doing. What if I was wrong? I knew the chances were slim that I was wrong and the surgeon told me based upon the X-rays the mass did not look good and was so intimately connected to the bone and tissue that even if it were by chance benign, if it was his dog, he would remove the leg. I felt guilty for what I was doing. Even friends told me they were not sure why I was proceeding without knowing what the biopsy said first. But I went ahead and we took her in for her surgery in less than a week after her diagnosis. I am sure glad we did it. Surgeon said tumor was nasty and the leg would have needed to go no matter what. They sent it to biopsy which confirmed what we already knew was osteosarcoma. We live in the midwest. No way it could be a fungal infection. I remember waiting for the surgeon to call me about how the operation went. I was so anxious and nervous. But imagine my surprise when I picked her up that next day and she was actually walking and wagging her tail. The wound looked clean and I tried my best to smile and be positive even though it is quite an emotional feeling to see your dog on three legs instead of four. The first thing she did was hop over to the dog hospital's prescription food store and start sniffing around. She was hungry! The rest of the time was good. We kept her on her pain meds, had a hard time keeping her still and tried to keep herself calm. It was like having a new baby walking for the first time. You know how scared you are that they will fall. And the first time she ran outside and spring on to our deck, I just about died. I even asked her to sit and look at me and read her what the doctors said about no running, jumping or horseplay, and she just looked away. LOL! After that we just let her decide her limitations, except for not allowing her up the stairs at all yet. One of us would slept downstairs on the couch with her on her dog bed. She has just done fabulous and everyone is so shocked how fast she got back to normal. She is only three weeks post-op and can jump in the car, go up and down stairs, and takes us for walks. I do still struggle with sadness. I feel sad that now we have to put chemo into her body and anxious again about what it might do to her. I am overwhelmed by all the supplements and diet choices and recommendations and different paths we can follow. It's a lot of ups and downs. I said I would not come here and join in this website because I didn't want to be brought down by all these said stories and pity parties for people's dogs because I didn't feel like Cadence needed pity. It's human beings that have all those thoughts about vanities and what will other's think. But it's not like that here at all. I finally joined after lurking for a while. Glad you are here and let us know how we can help! 

Cadence's Mom

Have you seen the films? Did you tell you what kind of "something" they saw? They showed me mine right away and put them on disk for me. I wish I could post them here somehow. But I am not sure how to attach in these forums. I expressed your same concern to both the surgeon and oncologist. I think those of us that do not wait for biopsy do have those fears. I trusted both of them what they said that they were 95% sure it was osteosarcoma and would amputate if it was their own pet. I saw the films and I acted. I felt deep down in my gut it was cancer somehow although inside of me there was a glimmer of hope that it could be benign or even a non-aggressive cancer. I just didn't want to wait to find out. When I saw that ugly thing in my dog's leg I wanted it gone before it could do anything else. I look at her now and how well she is thriving and pain free and know I made the right decision.