Sierra's FIGHT with Cancer - Part 2

After much research, we began to discuss getting Sierra a maxillectomy, hoping we could get clean margins. We talked to the surgeon at our vets office and wanted to explore other options and surgeons. Luckily, one of my friends who also has a dog going through cancer recommended us to a specialty surgery center. We made an appointment hoping for the best. In the meantime, the tumor on Sierras mouth was growing. It wasn't slowing down, but just looking at it struck such pain and sadness in my heart. Everytime I would look at her, all I could think of was that there was a ticking time bomb in my dogs body.

We met with the surgeon and got a great feeling from this Dr. I can't stress how important it is to have that intangible feeling of this is the write person to care for our baby. We absolutely love our regular vet, but they told us this was beyond their capabilities. The surgeon described the surgery process, how Sierra would recover, and how it would affect her quality of life. Even though the cost was high, we were ready. Through all the Dr. visits, I was also stressed on how much anxiety this was giving Sierra. She has always hated the vet and her anxiety was high. Luckily, everyone at the surgery center fell in love with her and handled her like a princess.

The surgeon recommended that we do some pre-op blood tests and an ultrasound to make sure everthing internally looked ok. Well, b/c Sierra was so healthy, we had no worries. We dropped her off for her ultrasound and were ready to soon proceed with her surgery. During this whole time, we researched a lot about diet for cancer and took Sierra off all carbs. We focused on a natural diet and gave her lots of vitamins and flaxseed oil to hopefully slow down any spread of cancer. We received a call from the Dr about the test results and ultrasound and were devastated to find out that Sierra had another tumor, on her bladder. The surgeon explained that due to the tumor on her bladder that he would not recommend the maxillectomy and that her prognosis for the bladder tumor was 6 months. I was at a loss for words. It felt like a death sentence, it was one. I posted on the bone cancer forum and one piece of advice I received is the difference between our girl living with cancer and dying from cancer. We decided that we were not going to spend this time with our sweet girl dying from cancer, but letting her live.

The decision was made to proceed with surgery to de-bulk the tumor, leaving her jaw bone intact. Sierra went into surgery and came out fine. She was a big sluggish and we were concerned with any pain she may be experiencing, so we requested something for pain. She was prescribed Previcox and we gave her the prescription for three days. During that three day period, she went from doing kind of ok to totally downhill. She could not get up on her own, she stopped eating and started urinating in her bed. I assumed this was the cancer rearing it's ugly head and took her immediately to the surgeon. Thankfully the surgeon was able recognize her symptoms as not being from the cancer, but an adverse reaction to the Previcox. We immediately discontinued use and saw Sierra bounce back within a couple of days. Unfortunately, due to the adverse reaction, Sierra lost more weight. We did everything to get her to eat. She was in hog heaven, getting chicken, beef, turkey, fish, you name it. I never did feel like she ate enough. It saddened me daily to see her hip bones outlines.

This was all done end of March beginning of April. Sierra did seem to bounce back bit by bit and I saw that spark of her happy self come back. The only thing she didn't have was her amazing stamina, and at that point, I felt walks were overrated. She still would bounce up and down like Tigger outside of the door, begging to come in and that was enough to make me happy.