We got the results back - and although not the news I was hoping for, it's still better news than I thought it would be (?)

Our vet is to call me in the morning as I did not get to talk to her at length today and my husband was the one who got the results. "A low grade osteosarcoma Stage I" as there was no metastasis in her nearby lymph nodes in the leg that was amputated and the lymph nodes in the amputated leg were not enlarged at all. No visible mets showed up on her Xrays prior to surgery (of course). 

Everything I've read on Osteosarcoma so far says that if it "shows up" it means it's spread - so I guess where do we go now for a 9-year old healthy dog? Anyone else deal with a Stage I Osteosarcoma? 

(Going to post this in my recovery / treatment thread as well but wanted to give the official diagnosis on this thread as well that corresponds with her original Xray) 

Wanted to give another update - Lana had her stitches removed today! WOOT WOOT!! We were both pretty excited about this achievement.

Her wound is healing nicely. She does have some continued seepage but her vet has instructed this is normal as her muscles are atrophying and she had a bit of fluid built up. No signs of infections, no signs of anything not "right" (I think I ask that question constantly - are you sure everything is right? On repeat.) She just has a cute stump with some floppy skin now. 

Successes: 

- Lana can go both up AND down stairs on her own without her belly harness! Truthfully, she was ready to get rid of my help before I was quite ready to give up helping her. 

- Each day she seems to have more stamina than the day prior and gets less exhausted doing her normal potty breaks, up and down the stairs, brief walk in the front yard etc. And each day we are adding just a tiny few steps more than the day previously to slowly build her back up. She really enjoys sitting on the front porch (as long as she has a cushion) with me in this fall weather we're having! 

- She continues to love her mixture of wet and dry dog food and is eating a healthy amount, drinking plenty of water, and perfect normal poops! I doubt we'll be able to go back to just dry dog food lol. Our other dogs are super mad about not getting the same treatment. 

- She also mastered her new ramp that I got to help load her into the back of my SUV since she is 78 pounds. I am SO thankful we went through a phase of agility training! I may have had the slowest dog in all of agility and not the most focused one (lol) but at least we learned how to get on inclined objects - because that really saved us here! 

Struggle: 

Lana is "afraid" of the dark I think. She was always a little more cautious about it before her broken leg / osteosarcoma / and amputation. Now, however, as soon as the sun goes down she gets really glued to me. If she has to potty in the middle of the night she panics if she even thinks I might leave from being near her (as if I would!) 

She is also getting night time anxiety / discomfort. We had run out of Gabapentin and I definitely noticed a difference. She was in my face and anxious throughout the night but then perfectly fine once it was daylight. 

Her vet discussed both phantom limb pain and also a possibility of some sundowners going on. Lana would get up and walk around some at night in our bedroom before all of this but she wouldn't panic. Lana is back on Gabapentin and our vet said it's possible Lana might need to continue being on it going forward. She also prescribed Trazadone at night to hopefully help Lana sleep through the night and not pace / tremble / feel she needs to have me right next to her. I don't like her being drowsy on meds - but I also don't like her being anxious and uncomfortable. 

Her old buddy dog Hektor has helped keep her calm, too. Luckily, Hektor is a VERY calm and confident old dude and that's helped me these last few nights to keep Lana a little more relaxed. 

A couple update photos just to show off my #1 girl (no she's not spoiled at all....): 

Whew! It's been a busy week for us. I've been playing catch up at work and Lana has been getting a lot of R&R at home. Our boy dogs are seeming to adjust a little bit to the fact that Lana continues to get pill pockets and a mix of dry and wet dog food, and they get their normal fair. Arlo (3 year old cattle dog mix) still takes it the hardest, though...poor guy lol. 

We have established new rules about our stairs in our house and door etiquette. Although Lana is still being cautious our other two dogs can be pretty spirited (both herding breeds!), so they have been learning to wait if Lana is on the stairs first or going through a door. 

Arlo misses being rowdy with Lana. I am hoping that in another month she might be up for wrestling with him again. They definitely love a game I have dubbed "grabby face" and you can see that Arlo really misses his wrestle buddy. Our 12 year old Aussie / Shepherd mix is just happy to have Lana healthy again. 

Lana's incision site seems to be healing over nicely. She's had a couple pinker skin areas that seemed to bother her more, but now they are turning her normal coloring and fur is growing back. As long as she keeps from licking, at least - and that brings me to my next part....

I am probably a bit paranoid - but is it normal they would still want to lick the incision site so much after stitches are out? We are 22 days post operation now and her vet said she no longer needed to be coned when she removed stitches last week, but I am still having her wear it at night or during the day when we are not home. When did some others ditch the cones? We have just come so far I definitely do not want to risk taking steps backwards at this point. Especially since at night she is still fussing over it but it is definitely better when she is on Gabapentin than when she is not. No signs of infection at all, she just has an obsession with it especially at night. 

During the day she is absolutely great! She is even becoming playful again. Although, lol, she tried to jump and spin and catch a bone on our wood floors and, well, her remaining three legs definitely went out from under her. I swear she looked at me like, "Uh, hello mom, why am I missing a leg? I would have nailed that!" Her boxer personality is shining through and I am SO happy to see her seem happy and have energy once more. 

As far as my artwork goes Jerry I make fine art paintings and some craft things!A nd, of course, I love portrait painting dogs! Here's a portrait of our dog Hektor I did: 

Thank you all for the pawsitive encouragement as always! Lana continues to do better and better each day despite a few freak outs (mostly me!) here and there. I kept my eye on her licking and we adjusted to only keeping the cone on while we were away at work, but not at night.

She has done a LOT better but there was still that "need" for her to lick just a small area of the incision site (about 1" or so in length) since I made the post above. I took your advice (Jerry) and felt along the incision but everything felt really normal to me. Yet, she continued to kind of obsess over it. And if she does lick it long enough it becomes puffy, red, oozy (clear, thin liquid with no smell) and kind of separated looking. I made Lana an appointment and we visited with her vets today and she believes it's just a small area that is slightly more resistant to healing than the rest of the incision. (The rest of her incision looks great! It's very well sealed over, has hair, not angry looking at all). Her vet agreed that there's no signs of infection or anything super alarming but that we need to get that last little bit healed. 

Lana now has a topical "Silver Sulfadiazine Cream, USP 1% 25gm" that we are instructed to put on the wound 2-3 times daily until healed. She will also continue to be in her cone during the day until we are confident she will not try licking her incision sight throughout the day. I did put her new topical on her earlier and she seemed fine with it although I do think perhaps the topical solution felt a bit uncomfortable at first (or me fussing over her, etc - I swear Lana is the chill one and I'm the super crazy, anxious, high-strung one lol ). Will update how the topical does on soothing/healing the last remaining part of her incision.

As for her fluid build up (seroma ) etc, that's all gone away by now. She just kind of has a little bit of extra floppy now and a cute stump. 

Her enthusiasm keeps going way, way up. She chased a squirrel in our fenced in backyard before I could realize what was going on. Lana went for it at a dead run and I about had a panic attack! Her butt was completely sideways and she was FAST! When she came back to me and I was fussing and worrying, checking her over I swear she was just proud of herself lol. She had this look of like, "Yeah, I still totally have it." 

As far as paintings - I have made them for others in the past! I just paint as a side hobby to my career, but I love doing portraits of animals. I'll post some more paintings tomorrow once I recover from crazy exhausting work week a bit.  I will send you a message too Nancy! 🙂 

Here's Lana relaxing in her new collar while I did some yard work the other day. She is my forever sidekick