A Good Day, A Bad Day

Stella made it through the pacemaker surgery fine and her heart is now beating away with the help of modern electronics and gadgetry. The bad news is that while they were trying to take a sample of the mass in her intestine, the doctors discovered a huge mass in her spleen that appeared in the ultra sound. They believe it is a hemangiosarcoma.

From Wikipedia:

Dogs with hemangiosarcoma rarely show clinical signs until the tumor has become very large and has metastasized. Typically, clinical signs are due to hypovolemia after the tumor ruptures, causing extensive bleeding. Owners of the affected dogs often discover that the dog has hemangiosarcoma only after the dog collapses. The tumor most often appears on the spleen, right heart base, or liver, although varieties also appear on or under the skin or in other locations. It is the most common tumor of the heart, and occurs in the right atrium. Here it can cause right-sided heart failure, arrhythmias, pericardial effusion, and cardiac tamponade.

If they get in there, they'll be able to know for sure that that's what's going on. They can remove the spleen, which would add a few months to her life. But if has already spread to the other organs - say, the liver, for example, then it would probably be better to just let her live out her life - one week, one month, maybe up to three months.

Yesterday was a day of high highs and low lows. We saw Stella in the ICU around 6:00pm last night after Dr. Bottorff went over the events of the day and options with regard to the situation. Given that her ultrasounds showed no sign of trouble just three weeks ago, and now she has this huge mass, it doesn't seem good.

She'll either come home today or undergo the splenectomy and come home a few days from now. 

Stella's birthday is the 4th of July. She'll be 14.

Update: Just spoke with Bottorff. Stella has a good night and is up and around. As usual, making friends with everyone at the OSU Small Animal Hospital . . . .