Setbacks.

Unfortunately, this post does not bring news of Audrey's great progress. She has, in fact, taken several steps backwards in her recovery. We have not taken her to the doctor yet, but I suspect that the arthritis in her remaining back leg has worsened to the extent that she will soon be unable to walk at all. She is now having trouble standing up and can only walk a few steps before falling. It breaks my heart to see her struggle like this. Hopefully, the vet can give her some medicine to reduce the pain in that leg. If not, I am not sure what we will do.

Week Two Report

Yesterday was exactly two weeks since Audrey's amputation. We went to the vet to have her staples removed. The doctor was impressed with her progress. The wound has healed perfectly. She also said that she would not recommend chemo at this time, which is wonderful news. There is no reason Aud will not have a long healthy life. Here is a pic of the nicely healed wound. Once her hair grows back, she will look great.

The most remarkable thing was her weight. At one time, she topped the scales at 101! Yesterday, she weighed 73 pounds. Just look how skinny she is:

What a difference a week makes.

It has been one week since Audrey's surgery, and it her progress has been amazing. Just take a look at the improvements:

I don't know if you can see it in this photo, but I really saw a spark of her old self this morning.

Post-Op Day 4.

What a good morning we had. Once we coaxed Audrey out of bed, she showed her independence and strong will and went out to the bathroom all by herself. The first video is a little long. She paused at attention to watch the neighbor dog doing her business. Stick with it because it is pretty impressive to watch her go back into the house. The second video is her maneuvering the steps with ease. She is such a tough girl.

Post-Op Day 3.

Today is a better day. She is up and walking on her on. Amazing progress in one day.

Post-Op Day 2.

We brought Audrey home this morning. It has been a really hard day for us. First, she is mad as hell at us. She will not even look at me, much less give me a kiss. She is not able to walk or even stand without collapsing. It breaks my heart.

Warning: The following pic is pretty disturbing. Do not look if you have a weak stomach.

Background

If you are reading this, you likely know at least a portion of Audrey's ordeal. I have created this blog to document her progress. Here is a little background.

A couple of months ago we noticed that she was limping. Thinking it was just a strained muscle, we ignored it. After a week it only got worse so we took her to the vet, who diagnosed a possible torn ACL, but wanted us to try anti-inflammatories for a two weeks before looking into surgery. Two weeks later, the limping was worse so we scheduled surgery. She went in on August 27th for surgery to repair her ACL. When the doctor opened up her leg, she noticed some tissue that didn't look normal, and the bone was eaten up by a tumor. She took out some of the tissue for a biopsy and closed the leg back up -- it could not be saved. The doctor explained to us that if Audrey had osteosarcoma (a cancer of the bone), there was not a lot of hope because it is an aggressive tumor that metastasize quickly into the lungs and lymph nodes. Alternatively, it could be synovial cell sarcoma or fibrosarcoma (both tissue tumors that invade the bone). These are less agressive tumors that do not typically metastasize to other organs. We understood that if it was osteosarcoma, we would face the decision of putting her down. If it was not osteosarcoma, we then faced amputation of her leg. So we waited for the pathology results, and waited. Unfortunately, this happened all over Labor Day weekend so it was Wednesday, September 3rd before we got word that it was not osteosarcoma.

She went in for amputation on Thursday, September 4th. The surgery went well - no complications.