Sammy & Cancer

I do not have children so Sammy is in essence my child. I never knew him as a puppy but remember him as a vibrant teenager that loved to play fetch, go for swims and explore. He was my chemo dog when I went through treatment. He had the same lump on his right side where they felt the lumpectomy removed all the precancerous cells. I watched him slow down as he aged. I would be with him when he had his grand mal seizures. I was with him when he vomited and hand a difficult time breathing and had to be rushed to the ER to be later diagnosed with laryngeal paralysis. Decisions had to be made whether or not he would have the invasive surgery at 10 years old. Looking at quality of life he had the surgery and surprisingly recovered well AND that took care of his grand mal seizures!

He has slowed down and is showing signs of stiffness in his hind legs. He's now sporting some cool sneaks to help with traction and getting up off the floor. He looks pretty good for a 12 year old lab.

His last visit to the vet showed high elevation of liver enzymes and higher ph in his urine with crystals. Long story short he has nodules on his liver that looks normal in older dogs but would need to be biopsied or CT to make sure it isn't malignant. They also feel his adrenal gland may have cancer.

I promised myself that he would not have further surgeries after his last one. This surgery would be real invasive. My gut tells me to look at his quality of life and forgo the surgery, especially since we're uncertain if it's cancerous. Giving him an invasive surgery would be like giving my 85 year old grandfather an invasive surgery. He could die on the table. More testing and research needs to be done but I am uncomfortable with any further surgery for him.

Though I've been able to find balance with cancer and my life and with work it always seems to keep creeping back into my life. This is one scary stuff...especially now that it's attacking my baby.