Hello Friends,

First off, I want to thank everyone who has contributed to this site. This forum was brought to my attention about a week ago and my husband and I have found it extremely valuable. 

A little background: Our 14 year old sweet, absolute best dog in the world (no, really) developed another bump on her hind leg about 2 months ago. The other bumps were benign, silly skin bumps and we thought this was the same. Unfortunately, not so. This mass was aggressive and in the weeks it took us to visit vets, assess, diagnose, get a second opinion, it grew to the point that we truly had no choice but to amputate. Last week when the side effects from the medications (prednisone and diphenhydramine) were causing her to suffer as much as the growing mass, we thought it might be best to let her go. At that point we had met with 2 general practitioners and 2 surgeons, each with his or her own opinions about options and recommendations. After deciding we would let her go (insert the saddest possible emoticon here please...none of the current options are quite sad enough) and stopped the medications, she began to perk up and behave like the same puppy she used to be... who has no idea she's elderly. After 3 days off the meds, she was completely back to normal. No way we could even begin to think about euthanizing her then. After weighing all the options: euthanize (no), let her live with the mass until she's uncomfortable (um, no way) or amputate and give her the best life we think we can, we decided to move forward with the surgery.

She is home now and resting comfortably in her home-made surgical suite in our bedroom. We set up a very large crate with a very comfortable orthopedic bed and have the entire crate covered with a sheet. We're keeping all the other pets out of the room to decrease the stimulation. We're on the road to recovery taking it one hour at a time. I've been scouring this forum, am nearly finished reading Loving Life On Three Legs and am so grateful to have access to such a large, wonderful community that understands what we are going through to lean on. 

One of the main issues I'm having is dealing with the guilt that we waited so long to get her assessed because we assumed that the bump was just another of the bumps she's had in the past. About the mass - we confirmed multi-nucleation and, based on the presentation and history, the practitioners believe that it's a type of soft-tissue sarcoma. However, we have also decided that we don't necessarily need to know exactly what type of malignancy this mass was because we have agreed not to opt for chemo or any advanced cancer interventions. Because of her age and the financial resources , it's just not feasible. I know we will be judged for making this decision by some and we'll be judged for "putting her through" this surgery by others. 

Our sweet girl has been a loyal, loving member of our family for over 14 years. I want her to be as happy as I can make her and as pain and suffering free as I am able. When she lets us know that she is not having much of a good time anymore, we'll reassess. Until then, I'll smooch on her as much as possible. 

In case anyone is wondering - it's about 20 hours since her surgery and she is drinking and has lapped up about a tablespoon of soft food. I was a little concerned about offering food too soon but I'm more concerned about her ultra sensitive stomach and all the medications we are giving her on an empty stomach. We took her out at about 4am to pee but no dice. We only took her outside because we could hear her moving about inside the crate and thought perhaps she was telling us she needed to use the ladies room. Maybe we'll try again later. Trimmed about a mountain of hair out from between her toes and am about to get rubber boots for traction . 90% of our house is either concrete floors, tile or wood. What were we thinking? 

Thanks for allowing this therapeutic post. I'm sure you'll be hearing more from me soon!