Unfortunately I have no good news to share. I left the technical stuff at work, so I don’t know the medical terms for what’s going on. We got the results from the cytology of the spleen back. There are two possible diseases affecting the spleen, and they can’t determine which one it is unless we have surgery to remove the spleen. (the oncologist said he would not do a biopsy in her case). The oncologist’s recommendation regardless of which one she has is to remove the spleen. Because of different symptoms she has is also confident that of the two things that it could be, that she has cancer. After surgery she would need chemo.
After talking to me regular vet I decided not to do the surgery/chemo. There are a number of reasons that decision was made. Life expectancy is 1 year or less with the surgery and chemo, I don’t want to put her through surgery and chemo, and my regular vet’s opinion was to not do the surgery. She said she has seen a lot of dogs go in for surgery/chemo and come out with a low quality of life, even though they stay alive longer than the other options. In addition, it’s very expensive and we don’t know how long it would actually give us.
The oncologists second recommendation if we elected not to do surgery is to put her on steroids. My vet agreed that this is the route she would take. So we started her on steroids tonight. Her condition seems to be deteriorating quickly over the past 24-36 hours, so I’m hoping we are just going through a bad day and she will start to improve.
Its been difficult to make these decisions, and I know there are more to come. Please pray that God keeps Meeka comfortable and with us a little longer, I am not ready to say goodbye to my little princess.