Tundra’s Cancer Journal

This is going to start from the beginning…while it is still fresh in my (Steven, dad) mind.

Sunday, 10/31/10 – Steven takes both boys for a walk across the river on the Brotherhood Bridge Trail.
Neither boy is off the leash and we didn’t walk all that far.

Monday, 11/01/10 – Both boys are limping. Tundra shows it in his front left leg, Timber in his rear left leg – the leg that he had surgery on back in April for a torn ACL. Great.

Tuesday, 11/02/10 – Timber no longer limping. Tundra, worse. Appointment made for the next day at the vet since it is time to get his blood work checked anyway. Tundra has been on a thyroid medication, and, although he has been doing well, it’s been about a year and time to just have a checkup.

Wednesday, 11/03/10 – Our world comes crashing down. Joyce took Tundra for his checkup and she calls me at work to tell me that he has been diagnosed with bone cancer. I immediately left work and joined her at the vet. We discussed all the possibilities and options. We were told that it can metastasize in the lungs and lymph nodes. We had x-rays of his lungs taken. Nothing shows there. We discuss amputation and chemo. In order to determine his health, besides the x-rays, we have more blood work done. He’s completely healthy in all other aspects. We schedule a biopsy for the next day.

Thursday, 11/4/10 – Tundra goes to the vet to have a biopsy taken of the bone. The cancer is in the lower portion of the bone above the wrist. I talk to the vet, Dr. Webb, about how sensitive Tundra is to anesthesia. Even when he gets his teeth cleaned he is out of it for two days. Dr. Webb says he will take that in to consideration, but I know how Tundra will be so I arrange to work from home Friday in anticipation of having a lump of a boy that will need some help.
I pick up Tundra after work – literally. He’s 100lbs. Dr. Webb says, encouragingly, that the bone was very hard where he tried to get the sample. He said that there are times they try to get a sample and the bone is mush. This makes me feel that we are lucky enough to have caught this very early. We understand that this is an aggressive cancer. When I get Tundra home I have to pick him up out of the truck and when I try to set him down on the driveway, anticipating that he will put his legs down, I am sadly mistaken and lay the lump on the driveway until he is ready to get up. When he finally gets up he wobbles around the driveway, up on the deck, down off the deck and I finally guide him to the front door.

Friday, 11/5/10 – I sit at the table all day working on two laptops while Tundra is on the floor a few feet away, needing to go out once in a while and looking all the while like a drug addict having been over-medicated. Oh, and keeping him from licking or biting the stitches from the biopsy site.

Saturday, 11/6/10 – We made a walk date with our friend Dave and his dog. In anticipation of losing a leg, we think we need to make an effort to get Tundra more exercise to help the right leg that will have to do the work of two. But we are conscious of the fact that the site of the cancer will deteriorate and we need not to allow it to break. A little while before the walk I take a shower. I come out and find that Tundra has taken advantage of that short time alone to lick out one of the two stitches. Back to the vet. Deemed unnecessary to re-stitch, it is bandaged and we get an Elizabethan cone – the Cone of Shame. He hates those and has destroyed them in the past in a matter of hours. We then meet Dave and take that walk.
Various times – Joyce meets with a vet at another clinic where Tundra will undergo chemo after he will get surgery. He says that he would not like to see the amputation, that he thinks of that as a last resort, especially in a large breed dog. There is another vet, a specialist, coming up on 11/22/10 and if he gives the word that it is, in fact, cancer and needs to amputate, he will do the surgery right there and then. In the meantime, the biopsy sample has ben sent to Phoenix, AZ to a lab and we are waiting for the results. When the results do come back, they are inconclusive. Great. There is a slight possibility there is something else other than cancer that it could be and we are ready to cut his leg off. The stress level is rising. The chemo vet makes a call to Phoenix to have the biopsy sent to Colorado to a lab there that he says he has had good results from. Results due at the same time the leg is supposed to come off! Tick, tick, tick…

Monday, 11/22/10 – We take Tundra to see the specialist visiting at our regular clinic. He says amputation on a large breed like Tundra is difficult for this type of dog. Most of their weight is supported by the front legs. Would be a better candidate if it was a rear leg. He talks with us about limb-sparing, a technique where they use a done bone section or a metal implant and a metal plate to secure either in place of the bone containing the cancer that will be removed. He says they will put together some numbers for us (compared to costs of taking him South which is really not feasible for us for several reasons. Juneau is just a place like that – you takes what ya gets living here). He says he can come back up at almost a moments notice, probably the following Monday, and perform the surgery. Considering this will most likely improve his quality of life, we are hopeful this is the magic pill for Tundra.

Now the rug seems to get pulled out from under us.

Tuesday, 11/23/10 through Sunday, 11/28/10 – We never heard back from the vet Monday as we were told we would be so I called. They said they were still trying to get the info. We knew the specialist was leaving Tuesday morning so we were getting anxious. Then there was no info Wednesday and Thursday was Thanksgiving. One of the girls that I know at the vet said she left a message on the specialists cell phone and gave her personal cell number and that as soon as she heard anything she would call me. Then there was something about a fax that got to the vet at our office and they would get back to us. Joyce got out of work early Wednesday and went in to talk to them. The veteran vet, Dr. Taylor, tells Joyce that he has no experience with a dog that has had limb-sparing surgery, and there could be complications and he is uncomfortable dealing with it. AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!! What does that mean?!? It sounds like he has just written a death sentence for our boy. It feels like he has said, Sorry, you’ll just have to make him comfortable until he dies! The other vet, the chemo vet, now says he thinks we should amputate! Our heads are spinning!
Over the weekend, Joyce and I talk about our options, what we need to do and the fact that every day that goes by and we do nothing is that much more time for the cancer to spread and for the bone to weaken. We decide that it is time to just get the leg amputated and make a plan to begin chemo. And somewhere in there, the biopsy sent to Colorado turns out to be inconclusive!

Monday, 11/29/10 – Joyce talks to Dr. Taylor and he is relieved and says that it really is the best course of action. The surgery is scheduled for the next day. In the meantime I have discovered a website that Joyce had previously found, www.Tripawds.com and I am beginning to feel better about our decision. We also ordered a harness that will help the boy when he needs to go up and down stairs or in and out of the truck.

Tuesday, 11/30/10 – Amputation day. I brought Tundra in at 7 AM and talked at length with Dr. Taylor and learned how and where the amputation would take place – he gets to keep his shoulder and that protects his chest and is also an easier surgery as far as blood loss, etc. I say goodbye to my boy and make arrangements to see him after I know he is waking up from the surgery.
During lunch I get a call from Dr. Taylor that Tundra is doing well, that the surgery went very well – “textbook” – and there was very little blood loss. He tells me to call later in the afternoon to see about visiting.
After speaking with Dr. Taylor later in the afternoon, Joyce and I visit Tundra but he is nothing but a big lump with an IV. He whined, half wagged his tail and we left him to rest.

Wednesday, 12/01/10 – I spoke to Dr. Taylor and Tundra is doing really well – he even ate breakfast! I didn’t expect that the day after surgery especially considering all of the drugs. They got him up in the afternoon and he walked outside and back but that was all he could take. We visited after work again. We got to pet him and give him some snacks. He seemed a LOT better.

Thursday, 12/02/10 – I couldn’t visit Tundra today, but momma did and she was there when they walked him in the snow – which he loves! I have planned on picking him up Friday and spending the day and all weekend with him.

Friday, 12/3/10 – I’m so nervous! Not scared, just nervous. Not certain why. I realized that I have hard-edged concrete blocks in the back of my Suburban for weight now that we have snow. I need to get bags of sand so I go to the lumber yard before going to pick up my boy.
I knew Dr. Taylor was going to be off today so I didn’t know who was going to talk with me before I got to take Tundra home. It was Dr. Webb! We like him and he was the first one to make the discovery and diagnosis. We had a nice long talk and then he brought me my boy! I made him take a picture of us.
I got some help getting Tundra up the ramp into my truck and then we went home where I backed up to the deck and the ramp was nearly level getting him out and into the house.
He has been resting. I changed his t-shirt and I have lain on the floor with him. Momma came home and brother has been circling. We got him some water and now he’s laying a few feet away from me again.

Now we are caught up to the present.