Abby the Labby, Living with Cancer

Last Day as a Quadrapawd8

Abby is my almost 6 year old black lab (birthday’s St.Patrick’s Day!)  I’m in my mid 20’s and have had my girl since college.   We’ve both been through surgeries, moved multiple times, been through job lay-offs, stupid boyfriends breaking our hearts and everything else two young girls go through but have always had each other.  She’s my best friend, my constant companion and my spoon buddy just about every night. 

Here's Abby napping on one of her 3 beds...spoiled girl! She likes to use her toys as pillows...her choice here is her new elephant, edgar

Since this is our first post I’ll provide a little background about how Abby and I ended up here…the day before her hind leg amputation.  A week and a half ago I took Abby to the vet after noticing a limp that wouldn’t go away.  When she was 8 months old Abby was hit by a car and had knee surgery which involved 4 pins being placed in her left hind leg.  All the pins were removed within a year after surgery however the knee has never been 100% and limping was something that was somewhat commonplace, especially  in cold weather and after long bouts of playing.  This limp, however, didn’t resolve itself and continued to worsen so I took her to our wonderful vet, Dr. Cole,  expecting a small fracture or some sort of ligament strain.  Until last week Osteosarcoma was not a word in my vocabulary and I was planning Abby’s 6th birthday and how we would spend our next 6+ years together, so you can imagine my surprise when after the xrays  the vet came in looking very solemn.  I will never forget his words as he entered the room with his laptop, xrays displayed, and turned off the lights…”Well, I’m glad we did the xrays, but I’m not happy with what we found”. Of course, myself being the eternal optimist I was thinking “oh boy, Abby needs another knee surgery, she’s such a little mess!”  But I was way off-base on that prediction.  As Dr. Cole  put the computer up so I could look at the films he mentioned “bone cancer”.  “Ok” I was thinking “Cancer..but only in her knee…we’ll get rid of the tumor and she’ll be fine”  just as I was thinking about treatment  my vet drops the bomb. “As far as treatment options there’s really not much we can do.  The average life expectancy is 3-6 months” At that moment my whole world crumbled beneath me.  There I was, just myself, my sedated 80 pound beautiful girl (they sedated her to get good xrays and not irritate her already sore leg), and our vet and I couldn’t stop crying. This couldn’t be happening, not to her, not to my Abner.

I did as much research as I could, took Abby in for xrays of her whole body, saw an oncologist and asked a million questions, talking to my vet just about every other day. We were fortunate that Abby’s xrays showed no evidence of tumors anywhere other than in her hind leg and her Alkaline Phosphatase levels were normal.  Because of this and the amount of pain she was in I have opted for amputation and chemotherapy. 

So….here we are.  The day before her surgery.  Its cloudy and chilly (well, chilly for Florida) but Abby’s enjoying the cool weather in her favorite spot, the front porch, watching all the people coming and going in the parking lot of our apartment complex and barking at anyone who heads towards our stairs.  I can’t help feeling sad that today is her last day with all four legs, however when I see her limping, even with Metacam and Tramadol, I know I must be doing the right thing.  I’m nervous and scared and am so worried about what she’s going to think when she wakes up after her surgery, but I know I can’t dwell on these thoughts.

Here are some pictures of my girl’s last day “limping on four legs”

This is a new look for her…sleeping with her tongue stuck out!

Showing her bone off for the camera

 All in all today is a very low-key Sunday for us.  Abby’s been napping a lot and we even watched a movie in bed.   So wish us luck as we begin our journey.  All the diagnostic tests have been done and now we start our fight. We are lucky to have tremendous support from family and friends to help us through what I can only imagine is going to be the toughest fight of our life.  However, we keep hope in our hearts.  When we recieved the diagnosis my Mom gave me a little advice that helped her when her Mom (my grandmother) was battling cancer.  You have to think of them as living with cancer, not dying of it.  With these words in mind I have re-gained my positive outlook and gone into action to do all we can to fight this disease.I want to say a special thanks to my Mom, brother and sister whose financial and invaluable emotional support has helped Abby and I more than they’ll ever know.  You guys are the best.

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