This time around, Lucie’s decided to throw us a curve ball…
The symptoms just came on like gangbusters. In the span of 12 hours, Lucie had gone from that happy, healthy dog to a sick, depressed and lethargic dog. After two-and-a-half days, we decided to bring her to the emergency hospital. After a couple hours, Lucie was initially diagnosed with liver failure due to either an infection or an ingested toxin. After spending the weekend under the watchful care of the emergency hospital staff, Lucie seemed to be getting better. However, as soon as we brought her home, we knew she wasn’t well. She just wasn’t herself, so The Husband brought Lucie back to the emergency hospital, so at least she could get hooked up to an IV and get hydrated.
The following Monday, we headed to the vet, who decided to keep Lucie and get a sampling of her liver cells. Still not herself when we brought her home, back to the emergency hospital she went.
By Tuesday morning, it seemed that Lucie had turned the corner. She was holding her head up again, wagging her tail, and just seemed so much happier. But, to be careful, she spent the day at the vet, just to make sure she was on the mend, and to get a sampling of liver cells, just to find out what caused her liver to fail.
Then I get the call. The good news was, the vet was able to get an adequate sampling. The bad news was, the sampling contained cancer cells.
CANCER?
As my heart was dropping into my stomach, the vet started to rattle off words…biopsy…lymphoma…carcinoma…prognosis…chemo.
At that point I felt that I had stepped into this alternate universe. Surely, the vet had the wrong info, Lucie is only 7 – she’s much too young to have cancer.
To be continued…