Osteo Thread Part Vi

[gracegirl]

I'm so sorry Opie is gone. You gave him the very best gift of all - no more pain.

[greysmom]

RIP Opie.................................

 

[joejoesmom]

Opie is no longer in pain. You gave him the absolute best gift, ending his suffering. Give yourself time. Eventually you will begin healing on your own schedule.

 

My condolences,

 

Jane

[NeylasMom]

I'm so sorry to hear about Opie.

[grey8greys]

I am so sorry to hear about Opie, hugs to you and your family.

[TwiggysMom]

Oh no, not Opie too. I am so sorry.

[Guest HappyHarleysMom]

Susan, I am so sorry for your loss of Opie, your beautiful black boy. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

 

Run free, Opie :gh_run2

[tydyelady]

Thank you all, its been a difficult week. The shock, the pain, the speed at which this all progressed, the exhaustion, the empty house. i haven't even had the strength to post in Remembrance yet. But I will soon. If anyone needs any of the meds we have, please PM me, and I will be happy to pass them on.

[TwiggysMom]

Twiggy update: Not sure if this is bad news or not, not exactly good news, though.

 

She's been doing great, demanding hour + walks, playing like a mad woman, etc. Thursday night I made the mistake of moving her toy baskets, which judging by Twiggy's excitement, was the equivalent of buying her several dozen brand-new toys! She spun and pounced and leapt, and did mini laps in the house, spun some more - really as nutty as I've ever seen her.

 

She was fine the rest of the evening, went outside to potty fine, and came back up to the 3rd floor to go to sleep just fine.

 

Friday morning, she had a very difficult time going down to the second floor, then didn't want to go down the next flight. She ate breakfast, but I had to carry her down to the first floor to go outside for potty (I've only done that once before when she was still recuperating from her amp), and she was barely using her right hind leg. Actually, she was walking 2-legged quite a bit. Things spiraled down from there, she couldn't lay down and started panting and shaking from pain. I had already called the e-vet, and her oncologist was going to see her at 8 am. (btw, if you've never seen a 3-legged dog walking 2-legged, I can tell you that it's one of the most heartbreaking things you'll see).

 

Finally, I got her in the car (actually she jumped in on her own), and she lay down and seemed to get comfortable.

 

Her oncologist did an exam, and initially was convinced that she just had some sort of soft tissue injury due to her antics the night before. However, I told him about the time a couple weeks ago that she suddenly started dragging that leg while on a walk, and I convinced him that we needed x-rays.

 

He took several views, and thought he was something on her distal femur on one view, but didn't see it on the other views, so he dismissed it. After sending the rads to the radiologist, she also thought she saw something on her distal femur, but on a different view that the oncologist was concerned about.

 

So, we have 2 doctors who think they see "something" on her distal femur on 2 different views. The radiologist called it a "anatomical variant", whatever that means.

 

Twiggy is on tramadol & gabapentin, and feeling good, she is actually wanting to play again today, and was mad that I wouldn't let her go for a proper walk this morning!

 

The current thinking is that her acute pain is indeed from her being a wild woman and hurting her muscle; however, we may have inadvertently stumbled on a very early metastasis. I think the plan is to see if she gets back to normal and able to be weaned off the pain meds in a week or so (based on her behavior, I think we can start slowly tapering down the meds already), and then re-do the rads in a couple weeks.

 

I've got my fingers crossed that what they are seeing is just an oddity that she has always had, and not a new lesion starting, but I'm not sure how much more good luck we have coming our way.

[tydyelady]

I hope you have luck with your girl going this route. Its promising I think that she wants to play again today. She is still having fun and life is good.

[4My2Greys]

that its just a soft tissue injury for your spunky little girl Wendy.

[BauersMom]

Wendy - worth sending the x-rays to OSU?

[TwiggysMom]

Wendy - worth sending the x-rays to OSU?

 

I do want to send them - I don't have copies to send yet, though.

 

I'll see if I can get them when I check back in tomorrow.

 

One thing I don't like about the place I go to is they don't do appointments in a room, just in the front waiting room, so you don't get to see the x-rays (plus you have to have your conversations in front of all the other waiting clients). I suppose if there was something really serious, they would do that in a separate room.

 

The good news is, Twiggy is already wanting to play again - I've had to put the kibosh on that a couple times today already!

[giadog]

Hi, all, sorry I've been a stranger... and now I'm back, with bad news, unfortunately. A few weeks ago, Gia started showing signs of discomfort, and her remaining front leg was swollen. I feared the worst, that the tumor had come back in her other leg and we'd have to put her to sleep immediately. I got her to the vet, and luckily, it turned out to be hypertrophic osteoarthropathy--the metastasized tumor in her lungs was pressing on nerves that were creating pain reactions in her remaining legs. We've been managing it with pain meds since then, but in the past few days, the meds have proven less and less effective, and the vet thinks we're fighting a quickly losing battle. He said there are really no other meds that will fight this well enough to get her back to a semblance of comfort, so I fear at this point, we've reached the end. So now I'm faced with all the heartache of that, plus trying to come to terms with whether or not I should let soon-to-be-xDH spend the day unsupervised at home with her... It feels dang near evil of me to keep him from spending as much time with her as possible, especially since i'm sure she'd love to be cuddling with someone at this point, too, but I worry about him having free reign at the house. Too much sadness to sift through to know what's the right decision at this point.

[Batmom]

I'm so sorry to hear your news about Gia. Many many hugs headed your way.

[greysmom]

I'm so sorry about Gia.

 

for Twiggy!

[tydyelady]

I am so sorry to hear this about Gia. We just had to make this decision too - pain meds no longer working at all. Hugs and support at this most difficult time. As far as your to be XDH - think of what is best for Gia, if there are not too many reprocussions for you.

[Guest snakes]

So sorry to hear of Gia's bad news, I hope your remaining days are special ones.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for Twiggy as well!

[TwiggysMom]

I am so sorry to hear about Gia.

 

Is there some way your soon-to-be ex-DH could spend time with Gia outside your house? Probably dogs aren't allowed where he is staying? Maybe you could find some neutral territory for them to be together, or would that be even weirder? I wish I had some brilliant idea.

 

 

Separately, thanks for those with well-wishes for Twiggy. The pain meds are doing wonders, and she wants to be back to normal already. I'm starting to dial back the pain meds, and hopefully she will be pain-free and med-free in a week or so. Then, we'll keep an eye on her metastasis to see how much more happy pain-free time we can get. Since she is already an amputee and terminal, I won't keep her lingering on - when life can't be FUN for her anymore, I'll let her go. (I came home to toys strewn about today, so she is definitely still having fun, even though she is supposed to be healing right now!)

[NeylasMom]

Really hoping it's not a met in Twiggy's leg. Either way, glad she is pain free and having fun at the moment!

 

So sorry to hear about Gia.

[krissn333]

Hi, all, sorry I've been a stranger... and now I'm back, with bad news, unfortunately. A few weeks ago, Gia started showing signs of discomfort, and her remaining front leg was swollen. I feared the worst, that the tumor had come back in her other leg and we'd have to put her to sleep immediately. I got her to the vet, and luckily, it turned out to be hypertrophic osteoarthropathy--the metastasized tumor in her lungs was pressing on nerves that were creating pain reactions in her remaining legs. We've been managing it with pain meds since then, but in the past few days, the meds have proven less and less effective, and the vet thinks we're fighting a quickly losing battle. He said there are really no other meds that will fight this well enough to get her back to a semblance of comfort, so I fear at this point, we've reached the end. So now I'm faced with all the heartache of that, plus trying to come to terms with whether or not I should let soon-to-be-xDH spend the day unsupervised at home with her... It feels dang near evil of me to keep him from spending as much time with her as possible, especially since i'm sure she'd love to be cuddling with someone at this point, too, but I worry about him having free reign at the house. Too much sadness to sift through to know what's the right decision at this point.

I'm so sorry Pinky battled hypertrophic osteopathy, it was SO tough to keep her comfortable. She was on prednisone and benazepril and that helped a little bit at first. But, the prednisone melted the weight off of her Feeding her several meals a day kept her going for a bit, but, then she didn't want to eat. Our vet suspects that she started getting the bone growth in her jaw and it became painful to eat. We knew then it was time to let her go.

 

I know that in some cases, it is VERY hard to know when it is the right time to let them go, but, in Pinky's case, we knew exactly when it was time. I can't explain it, but we just knew.

 

I have no advice on how to proceed with your soon-to-be-ex-DH, I'd say you just have to go with your gut.

 

This is the hardest part, and I'm so sorry that you're now going through it too

[Charlies_Dad]

Good thoughts for Twiggy. I really hope it's nothing. That crazy girl just overdid, it has to be that.

 

I am very sorry about Gia. I know it's been a while since we heard how she is doing and it's very sad to read the update. Please give her a hug from me.

[giadog]

Well, today will be the day for Gia. She had another rough night last night despite adding the gabapentin in. I won't make her go through that again. She seemed a bit more herself this morning, but still just tired and ready, I think. xish-DH came over last night after I was done with my 2nd job and at least got a couple hours with her. He'll come with me on the vet visit tonight. She was our dog, and regardless of what's going on between us, Gia deserves to have as much love around her as possible. If I could I'd have the room full of all the people who loved her; she touched so many people.

[Batmom]

I'm so sorry to hear this. My thoughts will be with you and your girl.

[MP_the4pack]