Morphine ahhh,

So I had a most horrible scare this past Friday. While checking my dog over, she was going to be shaved for the warmer upcoming season, I noticed a lump. It had been bleeding and was found just below left of her anal area. Cancer sprung to mind, she is about 12 years old and is my BABY! Tears fought their way out of my head as I left the room, splashed cold water, and babied her thru the weekend deciding what I was willing and able to do in worst case scenerio.

Called the vet on Monday and they checked her out that afternoon. Some blood work and inspection of the lump showed that her thyroid was low and was cause for the odd hair and coat appearance but the lump appeared to be nothing more than a fatty tumor, just tissue and not attached to anything so no alarm. Surgery was planned for the following(today) afternoon. They cleaned her teeth, exercised the tissue and sutured her up. She now has a patch of shaved fur on her rump, left leg, and chest. Looks ridiculous but I'm shaving her the rest of the way this weekend anyway.

Upon picking her up and $800.00 later, she was stoned out of her 'coned' head on morphine, which I opted for so she would feel less pain and have a smoother recovery. It's the least I can do! Now she's at home relaxing and I think starting to feel some discomfort or else she whining while dreaming of her last anxious 24 hours? She's still sort of in zombie mode so I don't know how much pain or discomfort she's in yet. I'm hoping she'll get a decent sleep in tonight and feel more like herself by morning. We go back in a couple of weeks to take out the stitches and then again in two months after she finishes her thyroid meds to check her blood again.

They took out a loose front tooth; didn't get to keep it so no fairy visits! She has a three inch crooked vertical scar on her tush and her tongue is half hanging from her mouth. She looks so beat down. My partner and I just cried in the office when they took her in the back to shave the area and get her blood work up started. We were just so relieved it wasn't cancer. I have been in such a mood for the whole weekend with that weight just sitting on me. I can breathe again today. Furthermore, I felt so proud, proud mama, because the vet said she was in great shape especially at her age and with exception to her coat(it really looks horrible) she was in top form.

My girl and I would hike Camelback Mountain, cruise and hike Jerome, and took visits to Flagstaff to play in the snow. We were both very active when we were younger. She doesn't have the endurance to hike like she used to (same here) but she is still in the pool and chasing down sticks and catching balls. I always wanted to take her to the ocean and when we thought we were looking at a fatal situation we made plans to go to California with her next weekend. Well, we have a reprieve and have resched the trip to this summer instead as we are going to Dianah (as I've prev posted about) at end of the month so that worked out way cool. But I am looking forward to her hitting the waves. Can't wait to see her splashing in the ocean. She's gonna flip!

If you have pets, bookmark this, it was a great site to peruse over to get some information. Nothing beats a visit to your trusted vet's office but for a long weekend or to get some idea of what you may be in contact with...this was a very informative and helpful site to help me prepare for what could have been.

I'm very, VERY fortunate.