An Introduction
Hi! I’m Kristie, and this is my gorgeous, sweet, crazy, goofy girl Luna, aka Tuna, Lulu, Tooney, Lunatic, Looney Toon, you get the idea.. She is a nearly 7 year old great dane, adopted 4.5 years ago. I can’t imagine my life without this pup. She is the sweetest, spunkiest girl in the world! We live in Seattle and Luna enjoys an active life with her two dog brothers, two cat brothers, mom & dad.
I wanted to create a blog to document our journey, in hopes that people can get information and perhaps inspiration from her story, as well as to keep friends & family more easily updated.
From the Beginning
Luna started limping on her right rear leg on Oct 19, 2014. She had been playing hard with a 7 month old dane mix minutes before I saw her limping, so I assumed it was a mild injury. We took it easy, rested & restricted exercise for two weeks. No improvement. We went to our regular vet, we both thought it could possibly be a partial cruciate tear, though she couldn’t feel a drawer sign. She prescribed continued restricted activity & Rimadyl (NSAID) for two weeks. No improvement. We visited orthopedic surgeon #1, who recommended doing a TPLO for what he thought was a partial cruciate tear, along with biopsies, as the x-rays, and her knee for that matter, showed a little more swelling & fluid than would normally be present with even a full cruciate tear. This didn’t make much sense to me, as I thought we should probably find the cause of the swelling & fluid on her knee (infection, cancer, etc) before performing a serious knee surgery, even if she did have a partial tear, as it could really change our route of treatment based on what else we found.
So we visited orthopedic surgeon #2 for a second opinion. Luna immediately liked him better than the first, and so did I. Always a good sign. He took a look at the previous x-rays, did an exam & drawer test, we talked. He was much less convinced than surgeon #1 that it was a partial tear & said what I was thinking- we should determine if/what was going on to cause the swelling & fluid in her knee. Two main options: joint tap or arthroscopic surgery with biopsies. Joint tap was less invasive than the scope, but also had less of a chance of finding out what was going on. We went ahead with the scope. I knew it would be a bit of a recovery for her after the surgery, but I also knew that it would be important to know what was going on inside that knee. The surgeon called me immediately after the surgery to let me know all went well & explain the results they could tell from the scope alone. Her ligaments looked good. There was some ‘inflammatory tissue.’ This could mean a number of things, but the tone in his voice when I mentioned the possibility of cancer did not sit well with me. But of course, without any testing of the tissues, he couldn’t say with any certainty what was going on. On to waiting. He said the results would take 7-10 days. What?!? How can I wait that long? Well, thankfully the results came back just 5 long days later.
The Diagnosis: The worst C-word there is
Thursday December 11th, Doc called & gave the awful news. Luna had cancer. They couldn’t tell at this point if it was synovial cell sarcoma or histiocytic sarcoma. Both pretty uncommon cancers, both with rather different prognoses in general. Synovial cell tends to stay more localized & has a lower rate of metastasis (spread) at time of diagnosis. Histiocytic tends to be much more aggressive & has a rather high rate of metastasis at time of diagnosis. So he sent the tissue off to immunohistochemistry. Great, more waiting. Two days later, doc calls & gives the even more awful news that her cancer is histiocytic sarcoma. Well, f*ck. Heartbroken. & worried about my girl.
Alright, Let’s Find Out Our Options
I scheduled an appointment with an oncologist for the following Tuesday. More waiting. We did a series of staging tests to see if there was any metastasis or if it had stayed localized to her knee. We took 3-view radiographs of her chest that looked clear. There was nobody there that day to do an abdominal ultrasound. Great, the waiting is now killing me. We went in for the abdominal ultrasound the next morning. Everything looked good except for her liver.. There were a couple little spots they could see. Well, Luna has had elevated liver enzymes for 3+ years, so I was hopeful that was the cause. But I wouldn’t know the results until cytology came back, probably the next day. The oncologist called that evening with the results- all of the samples showed no cancer cells! Woohoo!!!
What does this really mean? It means there’s no visible signs of metastasis anywhere else in her body. With histiocytic sarcoma being as aggressive as it is, there’s still a pretty good chance that there is microscopic metastasis, however. The recommended (and really the only) course of action is to amputate, generally followed by chemo. So we scheduled an appointment for the next morning with a surgeon to discuss her amputation.
We went in to talk to the surgeon. I had a zillion questions, as one might imagine. We both loved him. Luna was all over him & seemed so comfortable with him immediately. He had availability that afternoon to do the surgery. Wait, what?! I thought I had days, at least, until he would have availability, and for me to prepare our house & my brain for my girl having her leg amputated. But I wanted to know I did everything possible for my girl, so we went for it. I didn’t want to give that C-word a chance in HELL to spread. I had a nice talk with her about what was about to happen & why, how we would get through it together & I told her how incredibly strong she was. I kissed her goodbye.
The Amputation Surgery & Day 1
The surgery was that afternoon, Thursday December 18th & was uneventful (yay!). We went to visit her later that evening after she had a chance to wake up a bit. She was more awake & looking better than I expected! We brought dinner, and after a few slow & confused bites (seeing spinning pink elephants must have an affect on one’s appetite), she totally gobbled up her whole dinner. That’s my girl! So we left her to sleep it off, and were excited to visit her the next day. I went to see my girl midday on Friday. She came hopping into the room like a pro. She was pretty alert & seemed comfortable & pain-free. While she was still learning how to walk well, she was doing a pretty kickass job considering it was about 18 hours post-op! She hadn’t peed outside yet, as she would try to squat & couldn’t figure out how to balance. I knew this would come soon. One of her nurses & I took her outside for a little walk and that crazy girl was dragging us around! Back inside to snuggle & talk in our room alone some more, then doc came in. We talked for a while & he expressed how great she was doing, way better than anyone expected. Yep, sounds about right for my Luna. “She can go home with you right now,” he said. Caught off guard, I stuttered, “Uh, uh, well I still have to get the house ready for her to come home, do some grocery shopping, and I have my SUV not my van, and I’ll have help later.” The girl was ready to come home before I was ready for her! I wished so badly I could bring her then, but I knew it would be better to wait until I was more prepared that evening.
Bailing Her Out
I went with my friend Ruthann Friday evening to bring my girl home. I can’t thank her enough for her help, I couldn’t have done it without her! We paid some moneys, got the instructions, and out the door, trying to keep up with my new tripod! We went directly to the grass & would you look at that- squatting on one hind leg to pee like she’d done it a million times before. Another great pee when we got home, and I got her settled into her special spot inside so she could rest. I can’t even imagine how exhausted she must have been. What a big day & a half she had had!
Day 2, Saturday December 20th
We went out first thing in the morning, and she squatted on her own for a nice healthy poop! <Insert fake apology for talking about my dog’s poop here> Your dog pooping after a hind limb amputation surgery, especially so soon & completely supporting herself, is freaking exciting.
Luna’s gait has improved so much already in just this one day, as well as her ability to stand up from laying down, and go up & down stairs. Every time we go out for a potty break, she’s trying to drag me down the street for a ‘real walk.’ “Let’s go, mom!” She’s eating like the usual ‘clean-up-crew’ that she is, and pooped again today! (Ok, you get it, she can squat & poop with one rear leg)
Luna’s an Effin Rockstar
I am so proud of my girl. She’s a tough bitch. I knew she would do well, but she’s just blowing me out of the water, both with her physical strength and her amazing attitude. We could all learn a lot from our animals, I’ll tell you that much! I know we have a way to go in her recovery, and it may get tougher, so I ask that you all send her tons of positive healing vibes. I will keep you all updated, both on her recovery and the other treatments we will be doing.