Hi y'all,

First of all, I'm so grateful for this community! Here is a quick story on our almost 12 year old pitbull/boxer mix (unsure exactly as she was adopted) Indie.

I'm having major guilt, because in November, she had a seroma near her right front leg, kinda on her ribs. We noticed that the chair next to the "pointy" coffee table was moved, so we though she got spooked by our robot vaccum and hit herself there. I wanted to take her to our normal vet, but they didn't have any appointments available soon enough, so I took her to a different one. They took a sample of the fluid, just to be safe, and nothing "scary" came back and said to monitor it. It went away and we had our spirited girl back. Then it would come back on and off for the next few months but she didn't seem too bothered by it. I felt a lump in her armpit, and deep down I knew it was cancer, but didn't want to admit it,(we just had our other dog go through chemo for lymphoma in 2022 and he passed away at 7). She was doing fine until about 2 weeks ago. She was sticking her leg out and was very uncomfortable and the seroma was back. At this point I knew she needed surgery. We tried aspirating it first, but had no luck getting any good cells to see what it was. So I just scheduled the surgery to remove the mass.

Fast forward to Monday, her surgery day, and I get a call mid surgery that she has lost a lot of blood and they only way to have a successful surgery, is to amputate her right front leg. I DID NOT see this coming. I wish my vet would have told me this could be a possibility. She said she thinks its a nerve sheath sarcoma. We haven't decided if we want it biopsied or not. At this point, I don't want to do chemo again, as we did that before and with her age, I just don't want to go through that again. I know she doesn't have very much time left, and just want her live out her days. I'd love some opinions on if we should still get it biopsied or not. 

Day 1- shock and grief of her losing her leg. We brought her home on a doggy stretcher for the night and I thought I watched her take her last breath. I didn't sleep. She was very zonked and it was amazing that I was able to get her to swallow her pills in the AM while funneling water into her mouth with a straw. 

Day 2- Took her back to the vet in the morning for the day for hospitalization (they don't have 24hr staff). I was expecting them to bring her out on a stretcher again to take her home, but she came hopping out. I immediately started bawling. Night two she was a little restless around midnight. Incision looks good, just a little bruising. 

Day 3- Took her back to the vet again, as she still had her IV in her leg and they wanted another day of observation. She did great and they said we didn't need to take her back the next day.

Day 4- We spent most of our day outside, as she hadn't pooped yet and I wanted easy access as we have a few stairs leading to both the back and front yards. She was sleepy during the day, but more perky in the evening. She was walking quite a bit and doing the stairs mostly by herself... deep down I felt like she was doing too much walking this day (even though it wasn't very much)

Day 5 (Today June 28th)- I noticed this morning that her good front leg and foot was swollen, which makes me worried and feel guilty. It might just be extra fluid, as she has a seroma today.

It's been a rough few days, but trying to stay hopeful.