My boy BoBo was not quite himself when I arrived home from work in the evening on Feb. 12. We were off to the vet the next morning as he had a hard time getting up and walking. Beyond pano, cuts and minor 'sport' injuries he has never been ill, so this was highly unusual for him. I suspected a blown disk first.
At the vet I realized that his abdomen was distended. The vet noticed the pale gums, and I knew it immediately. I lost my previous dog to hemangiosarcoma 9 years earlier. They took x-rays and confirmed internal bleeding. His bloodwork cinfirmed that he was very anemic. The vet sent us to the ER for ultrasound and emergency surgery. I wanted to go to UPenn, but she felt that we did not have the time because he was bleeding.
At the ER we ended up waiting 3 hours (I was very upset as the place was pretty much empty, but the ultrasound was a different "business"). The exam confirmed that he had a 4-5cm diameter lesion on the spleen, other organs were clear.
The next step was surgery. BoBo was a blood donor for several years, and his contract allowed free blood, if he ever needed it. I never thought we would need it but here we were. Since this ER did not work with our blood bank, I moved him to a different ER that did. This saved us $1000-2000, depending on the amount of blood we needed.
BoBo had his surgery at 3AM on Feb. 14, Valentine's day. he bounced back amazingly quickly, and he was pretty much his old self after two blood transfusions.
These are the pictures I took on Feb. 15, when I picked him up.
With the vet that operated on him
In front of the hospital with the tech that cared for him
And leaving his signature in front of the hospital
At this time we did not have a final diagnosis yet. The lesion could have been hemangioma, which is benign. Unfortunately, two days later the pathology results came back, confirming hemangiosarcoma. We got the diagnosis on Feb. 17, his 9th birthday. With surgery alone, his prognosis was 1-3months. I reread "Eich Chronicles" and knew how true this was.
We started chemo 2weeks later. I am going to document his journey for us and others. My beautiful, sweet boy is fighting for his life, please say a prayer for him. He is very brave and happy and he has made many friends at the different hospitals that participate in his treatment.
At the vet I realized that his abdomen was distended. The vet noticed the pale gums, and I knew it immediately. I lost my previous dog to hemangiosarcoma 9 years earlier. They took x-rays and confirmed internal bleeding. His bloodwork cinfirmed that he was very anemic. The vet sent us to the ER for ultrasound and emergency surgery. I wanted to go to UPenn, but she felt that we did not have the time because he was bleeding.
At the ER we ended up waiting 3 hours (I was very upset as the place was pretty much empty, but the ultrasound was a different "business"). The exam confirmed that he had a 4-5cm diameter lesion on the spleen, other organs were clear.
The next step was surgery. BoBo was a blood donor for several years, and his contract allowed free blood, if he ever needed it. I never thought we would need it but here we were. Since this ER did not work with our blood bank, I moved him to a different ER that did. This saved us $1000-2000, depending on the amount of blood we needed.
BoBo had his surgery at 3AM on Feb. 14, Valentine's day. he bounced back amazingly quickly, and he was pretty much his old self after two blood transfusions.
These are the pictures I took on Feb. 15, when I picked him up.
With the vet that operated on him
In front of the hospital with the tech that cared for him
And leaving his signature in front of the hospital
At this time we did not have a final diagnosis yet. The lesion could have been hemangioma, which is benign. Unfortunately, two days later the pathology results came back, confirming hemangiosarcoma. We got the diagnosis on Feb. 17, his 9th birthday. With surgery alone, his prognosis was 1-3months. I reread "Eich Chronicles" and knew how true this was.
We started chemo 2weeks later. I am going to document his journey for us and others. My beautiful, sweet boy is fighting for his life, please say a prayer for him. He is very brave and happy and he has made many friends at the different hospitals that participate in his treatment.