Yay for Ben! He has been recovering really well. It has been a bit over 2 weeks since his soft tissue spindle cell sarcoma excision surgery (say that a bunch of times really fast). He's been enjoying the extra pampering, treats, cuddle times and extra plush bedding popping up in places where there was none before. What he hasn't been enjoying however was his limited exercise - very short leash walks only. NO running, jumping or playing for those 2 weeks. We are now easing back into it and he is one happy camper. Molly was being great during his recovery, listening to me (for the most part) when I told her to not body check Ben or invite him on squirrel chases on the hill. BTW, Ben is not wearing a t-shirt because it's cute. He's wearing it because he does not bother his looong incision site when he is wearing it. It's quite effective and worked better than the dreaded cone.
The pathology on the excised mass was guarded news for us. The not great news was the sarcoma was a grade 3 tumor that has up to a 50% chance of recurrence. It was characterized as a neurofibrosarcoma/nerve sheath tumor. The best news is that the doc (a board-certified surgeon) was able to get clean margins by 1.5cm on all sides and 1cm deep, which is excellent!!! I take the bad with the good and stay optimistic. We have a lot of good things going for us: it had not spread to internal organs, Ben is in excellent health for a 12 year old, his blood panels and CBC are great, he is lean, always a great appetite and a good pooper and... and we got clean margins. I'll say it again. Clean. Margins.
Thank you to Dr. Krista Evans and the other fine staff at Chesapeake Veterinary Surgical Specialists. This has been quite an ordeal for little man Ben and an emotional journey for me. I hope to write about that in a future post but for now leave you with some random thoughts and observations:
- Ben is very happy to be eating more raw food
- All the leafy dark green veggies in the crisper drawer of my fridge are for my dogs
- Never say you would never buy a dog ramp for your vehicle
- I hope to never have to pull a RX transdermal patch off a dog ever again
- I'm thankful to have dogs that are easy pill takers
- Rescue Remedy is a fine fine product
- A dog wearing a cone collar is really freaking funny
- Walk your dogs and cherish every minute of their company
Yay to clean margins! Go Zen Ben! Wonderful post...thanks for sharing with us!
ReplyDeleteYea for clean margins!!! So glad to hear he is doing so well! Love your 10 things....
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear things are going better for Ben! Although his t-shirt isn't meant to be cute, it still is! We had to do the same thing for one of our boys Bear when he injured his shoulder.
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