Feeling Better… and with us for a little bit longer at least…

Here is the good part. Rio is home and she is doing great. The change in her breathing is amazing. She seems quite happy, considering the fact that they cut a tumor out of her throat last night.

Here is the bad part. Doc said that the tumor is most likely one of two kinds of melanoma that are common with blue tongued dogs. In addition, they were unable to remove the whole thing since it was at the base of her tongue and dogs need their tongues to drink. He sent the tumor off to be looked at, just in case.

He also said if it is melanoma, there is a canine study at CSU that he knows of that we may be eligble for, which would include free treatment. While Bryan and I will, of course, explore this option, I am hesitant to do anything that would be hard on her. We’ll see.

The Doc said that these types of cancer are really agressive and would most certainly come back like gangbusters. He said if we are lucky, we will have 3-5 months with her. He also said she was a very sweet dog, and they have a saying at the hospital, “Bad dogs don’t get cancer. It is always the good ones.”

That is certainly true of Rio.

I am just glad we have made her more comfortable and will hopefully make her very happy until it is time for her to go.

The doc said to me as we were leaving, “I am really sorry I don’t have better news.” And I said, “Well, it is better than losing her today.” And he replied, “Yes, she’ll be here for Christmas. She’ll be here for Christmas.” And we both teared up.

As an uplifting sidenote, the vet has been wonderful. He gave us his home and cell phone numbers in case anything happens this weekend with her stiches… and he also went up and slashed the bill for us, so in the end, it was only $750. Still a wad of cash, but much better than I expected. Thumbs up for the Emergency Vet.