My Old Dog

Well, another weekend where things go grossly NOT according to plan, as is on par for my life.  I have written on here previously about my dog’s current condition, but for those who haven’t read that particular post, I will suffice to say that he was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer.  After having his spleen removed, which was essentially just one large, malignant tumor by the time they reached it, his life expectancy ranged anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.  Essentially, the cancer will begin to spawn tumors starting in the lining of his blood vessels, and metastases from there.  Eventually, one of the tumors will hemorrhage badly enough that he will bleed to death, either relatively slowly or very quickly.  My parents and I have decided not to open him up again or have any more extensive testing done, as it won’t change the outcome of his condition, and will only make him more uncomfortable in the short term.

Anyway, my parents took him into the veterinarian earlier this week, because he was acting as if he was in a lot of pain again.  His red blood cell count was down again, almost as low as it was when he went into surgery.  The doctor explained that sometimes the smaller tumors in his abdomen can hemorrhage and then clot off, so he would either bleed out and die in the next few days or clot off and continue to recover.  There will inevitably be an “event” significant enough that he dies, but without doing more tests, it is impossible to say how close to that point he is at.  Needless to say, they prescribed him some non-anti-coagulant painkillers, so he has been pretty out of it.

When my parents delivered this news to me on Friday evening, I dropped everything and rushed home.  I had already said my “goodbyes” the last time I was home over spring break, when we knew his long-term outlook wasn’t very good, but I didn’t want him to die before I could come home for the summer, not having seen me in a month or more.  I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t go home to spend some time with him.  I totally forgot about volunteering at the shelter until late in the day Saturday, so I am going to stop by in person this week to apologize for my absence.  I am willing to deal with whatever consequences I must for not letting her know that I was leaving in advance, but these consequences will be well worth it considering the circumstances.