our emergency update
First thank you everybody for your support and prayers.
Brought Neka home today about 12pm. She is acting completely normal, just really tired because she only slept here and there over night, probably due to all the commotion. But she stayed stable over night HR and BP all stayed completely normal and they re-ultrasounded her heart at about 9am, and her pericardium did not refill with fluid and the little bit that filled last night drained on its own or reabsorbed.
So thank goodness. but now..now I am faced with these options and of course they are never easy options.. 1-We do surgery to remove the 5cm mass on her liver, during that same procedure they could do a thoracoscopic entrance to make a pericardium window for any future blood accumulation to drain out, preventing and heart stress. In lamens terms a little man made hole in the sac around the heart so blood doesnt accumulate. During that same procedure she said they often take the spleen as well as preventative because it often spreads to there even though no other places in body showed masses via ultrasound or xray. Its suspected that its by the heart only based on symptoms and the original mass in the liver.
Another option is just doing the window for the blood to be able to continue to drain since its scopically done between the ribs, to at least avoid that issue in the future as it may progress. But then its like if I do one thing shouldnt I do it all.. uug…IDK..
If I do nothing she will eventually bleed out in the liver and then thats it, or the pericardium can refill with blood.
A part of me wants to fight and give her all the chances I can, the other part of me.. doesnt want to do it to her if its spread everywhere.. I know we can do chemo again, she has always tolerated it very well, really no side effects..and then it would kill me if she couldn’t handle the surgery and that did it to her… But the idea of knowing her liver will bleed out is hard, its like if you know then fix it, how can you not fix it.
in addition to all this, her echocardiogram showed a very healthy strong heart esp for a dog her age, which kills me even more because non of this would be going on if it wasnt for the damn Cancer.. All her other blood work is normal.
I knew better I should have had a ultrasound more recently, I kept doing chest xrays but hadnt done a US in a year…
So.. I think I will make a consult with her surgeon and get his opinion since hes known her through all of this, and Ill sit with an oncologist, unfortunately her regular guy moved back to canada…uug.. so now its a whole knew one to break in, you know to handle me..LOL
I know everybody says no choice is the wrong choice, but thats easier said than done esp with a huge type A like me.. you know in case you guys didn’t notice. plus I don’t really have anyone to even bounce Ideas off of or talk it over with.. so its like your trapped with your own thoughts…
its so hard, like she looks and acts normal, but you know this thing is eating her insides up..
All the critical care vets said, she is really strong, Im like I know… thats my huge dilemma, if shes so strong, I need to make strong decisions.
Does anyone know if you can mix the apocaps with the yunnan baiyao.. its seems like theyd cancel each other out. but I am unsure and since she does have suspected hemagio cell bleed , I don’t want to risk it unless i know for sure.
December 6th, 2015 at 12:03 am
My heart aches for you and you’re agonizing decisions…you just want SOMEONE to tell you what is the right thing to do. Hopefully your vets can help guide you. I totally understand wanting to do everything possible, but being afraid of doing too much. Many prayers still coming your way, for you and your beautiful Neka.
Paula and Nitro
December 6th, 2015 at 10:48 am
Unfortunately none of us can answer this for you. For me, I could not do another major surgery because of finances. If that is not a problem, then just go with your gut. I would say at the least I would do the pericardial window since that is not so invasive. If she is having bleeding already then a liver operation sounds like it would likely have more complications. Just throwing out my thoughts. I am a surgical nurse, but for humans. Good luck to you. You love your pup and that will guide you.
December 6th, 2015 at 1:54 pm
Ohhhhhh these are huge decisions. And you are not alone, never. Please call us if you want to talk in person OK? 844-TRIPAWD.
I agree, talk to the surgeon,the onco, and then decide. You have always done things with her best interests in mind and you can’t go wrong there. I’m glad she’s home, doing well and with you now, she is really amazing.
Not 100% sure about Apocaps & Yunnan Baiyo but it can’t hurt to call K9 Medicinals and ask. They are very, very knowledgable about stuff like this. See: http://k9medicinals.com/
Keep us posted OK and remember we are here for you. xoxo
December 6th, 2015 at 4:49 pm
We are so glad to hear the Neka is feeling better today and is back home. These are indeed difficult decisions and I say get as many opinions as you can so you can be as fully informed as possible! Ask your specialists to be clear about prognosis for the various options you are considering. But also recognize that statistics are just numbers! It is GOOD news to hear that all who have seen her so far believe her to be strong and otherwise in good condition.
Today is the 10th anniversary of my heart dog Rosa’s death from hemangio so it seemed like a good day to re-educate myself about this piece of crap disease (I have 3 GSDs so the odds are I will deal with it again…:( ) and learn about new and alternative treatments and hopefully come up with some useful information for you as well. So I did some web sleuthing and found the following link briefly discussing 3 evidence-based alternative therapies (including Yunnan Baiyao) that might be helpful http://hopevs.com/2014/12/12/2908/ It cites studies for each therapy so might be a good one to take with you to the specialists in case they are not already on board with alternative therapies.
Also here is a Tripawds post from 2014 with additional info on I’M Yunity mushroom therapy (mentioned in the article above) for hemangio http://nutrition.tripawds.com/2014/01/13/im-yunity-mushroom-therapy-for-canine-hemangiosarcoma/
Finally here is a link to a recent Tripawds post on K9 Immunity http://nutrition.tripawds.com/2015/11/16/k9-immunity-coupon/, which includes several different types of mushrooms and has been shown in at least one study to improve quality of life for dogs going through chemotherapy https://tripawds.com/files/2014/04/JerrysK9ImmunityStudy.pdf It has helped a number of Tripawds members as well.
I hope this helps and that Neka continues to do well! I cover the Helpline tomorrow if you would like to talk. If you don’t get me live (my “shift” is 1-4) just leave a message and I will call you back!
xoxo,
Martha, Codie Rae, and the Oaktown Pack
December 7th, 2015 at 5:19 pm
thanks you for the links, I had off today, so of course Ive been researching. I know stats are just that, weve already beat them multiple times, which is adding to my contemplation..uug.. my apt is fri to meet with the surgeon and the onco. In the meantime Ill be looking up as much as I can, but uug. I thought OSA was bad this thing sound horrid.