We hope you've all been enjoying the New Year, but we've had a bit of bad news to deal with over the last few weeks. Unfortunately, we received the regrettable news that Lulu's cancer has returned (now 16 months removed from her initial surgery). But let me back up a bit.
In November, while chilling on the sofa and lovingly petting our four legged crew member, I noticed a small bump on Lulu's right arm just above her elbow. I had a completely expected reaction...immediately tearing up, fighting the anxiety that crept from my stomach up my esophagus bringing with it a wave of nausea. This is my normal reaction when I feel anything out of sorts on Lulu after her diagnosis of a mast cell tumor and its ultimate removal back in fall 2012.
Alex tried to calm my fears, reminding me that Lulu's vet instructed us to carefully monitor for new bumps, and if we discovered any, to keep an eye on them for any change in size and color. Well, we watched it obsessively for a few weeks and it neither grew nor shrank, much unlike the mast cell tumor she had on her abdomen over a year earlier. When it didn't go away after a reasonable amount of time, we called and made an appointment to have her vet look at it more closely.
The week before Christmas she had an appointment and a sample of the bump was collected with a small needle and sent off for biopsy analysis. I don't know what came over us, but we were really optimistic it was nothing. We had convinced ourselves it was likely nothing after it didn't change in size. We'd made the initial determination that it was hopefully nothing to worry about since it was so much smaller than the first one. And most importantly, we had almost dismissed it as a risk after the bump didn't bleed when it was stuck with the needle several times, which our vet pointed out is very uncharacteristic of mast cell tumors. So we went on our way, feeling pretty positive that the results would come back negative.
A few days before Christmas we got a call from our vet. Much to our and our vet's surprise, the test results came back positive for mast cells. In fact, a mast cell tumor. She was shocked, we were shocked, Lulu...well, Lulu was fine, she didn't know the difference except for the fact that I was now crying and slobbering all over her for no apparent reason.
How had this happened? How had this bump, this tiny little, non color changing, non bleeding, non growing bump, which we had no expectation as being anything more than a benign tumor or fatty deposit, come back as a mast cell tumor? How had she "beaten" this by being tumor free for the prior 16 months (anything more than 6 months without recurrence is considered "cured"), only to have it come back when we least expected it? It just doesn't seem fair.
So where are we now? We're sort of in a waiting game. Today, Lulu is going undergoing tumor removal surgery. We had to drop her off early this morning, and are currently waiting for the call when she's out of surgery.
The hope is that the tumor is successfully removed with good margins, that it's tested and comes back with a grade 1 rating (the grade with the best long term prognosis), that she recovers quickly and without issue, and that she lives a long and very healthy life, licking our faces whenever she wants. That's the best case scenario, and the one we're obviously hoping for. There are so many scenarios beyond the best case, but that's the one we need to focus on, while simultaneously preparing for one of the many other possible cases.
It's a scary situation, compounded by the fact that our little four legged and very furry and wrinkly baby can't talk to us, can't understand why she's having surgery, and why she has to go to the vet (her most hated place in the world) once again. It's not fair, but it's necessary. We just need to keep reminding ourselves that we will do absolutely whatever is necessary to give our Lulu the best life we possibly can. And at times, that means we need to give her medical care that we're pretty sure she'll hate us for in the moment.
Wish us luck, or better yet, wish Lulu luck, a speedy recovery, favorable lab results, and a longstanding recovery. We want to be able to provide many more years of wrinkle faced and goofy looking photos of her sweet Ori-Pei face or quick video shots of her agility in climbing trees while chasing squirrels.
