7/9 Rosie

Rosie underwent further testing this morning - an ultrasound of her abdomen.  This showed a tumor the size of a grapefruit on her liver.  The doctor told me that it appeared "cavitated" as well, a formation that indicates there are several areas that contain fluid or blood.  For this reason they didn't do the needle aspiration of cells to determine just what variety of cancer it is.  But, we know it has spread to the lungs and other organs, and by virtue of the seizures, it has spread to the brain.  The tumor itself is inoperable and because of the way it's spread she's not a candidate for cancer treatments such as radiation or chemo.

 

The prognosis was not good.  Without the brain tumors, dogs in her condition would survive typically only 30 to 60 days.  The invasion into the brain is a wild card.  Right now her seizures are being controlled with medication, but it is very possible that the seizures could soon become uncontrollable if further growth or swelling in the brain occurs.

 

We have made the difficult decision to have Rosie put down.  We don't want to prolong her suffering, and the next 30 days on medication would only make a painful situation even worse.  We asked Laura to go visit with her today - she will spend as long as she likes this afternoon comforting Rosie and just being someone that she knows, and then the euthanasia will take place at the end of the visit.

 

We got a call from Laura around 7 o'clock.  She spent about 3 hours with Rosie at the clinic, and stayed through the euthanasia.  They brought Rosie into a private room for visiting, and removed the IV drip so that she could be a little more alert.  Within minutes of that she began having seizures again, even though she had plenty of the anti-seizure medicine still in her circulation.  They restarted the IV along with a little booster, and she was comfortable again.  Hearing this gave us some comfort that we made the right decision.  Rosie knew Laura was there, and they visited between Rosie's naps.  We are very grateful to her for the tough duty she did of providing Rosie with loving care in her final hours.