Milo's Tumor

***Update***
Milo is out of surgery, chattin’ it up with the staff at the hospital. Doc said he was a “rock” through the surgery, didn’t even have one out of place blip on the vitals monitor. Now, we need to wait a few days to get the results back regarding the spread of the tumor. Doc said it was very vascular and had actually increased in size from just last week. These types of tumors are resistant to chemo, so the only course of treatment is radiation and surgery, if needed. The other course is amputation, but Milo is NOT a candidate for that. Doc said she would not do that for him given his age and other factors. WE couldn’t do that to him either. So, while he sailed through surgery like a champ, the wait until the final lab results come in will be brutal. Thank you again for all of your thoughts, prayers, emails, calls, and love. Ed is going to get him to bring him home, so I’ll try and post again later. I am such a mixture of happy and relieved and anxious and…..this is going to be a looooong wait.
***End update***

Our big lovebug, our sweet Milo bear, is having surgery as I sit here and write. During one of our many massage and “feeling for lumps” sessions last week, Ed saw a lump on Milo’s rear right leg a little bit bigger than a golf ball. It looked like it was hanging off his ankle/hock area. It was tender to the touch and we both had a sinking feeling right away. We’d been here before. Oh God.

Took him in to the vet’s right away….the tests didn’t come back in our favor. Actually, there is a small bright spot in the ordeal for Milo, in that the tumor seems to be very local, so we don’t expect it to have spread or anything like that, but we’re waiting for everything to be confirmed.

I dropped him off this morning for his surgery. He was fine until I started crying, and then he became a nervous mess. I got myself under control, but the damage was done. Milo is the most sensitive dog we have ever had, and if he senses that I’m upset, he is beside himself.

Dr. Sorenson is going to remove the entire tumor, which will leave a hole in that area of his leg (since there isn’t a lot of skin to pull back over the site), and then we are going to help Milo through a couple of weeks of healing. We are just so grateful that he won’t be losing his entire leg.
He is so trusting and sweet and it broke my heart seeing him being led away to the back. Anesthesia always makes me nervous because you never know how a body will react biologically, but he is in God's hands. He's going to be out for about an hour and a half. Please keep him in your prayers.

I can’t get the image of him being led to surgery out of my head, his little rump bouncing along. Is there any sight more heart-wrenching? I remember feeling this same way when Nick was going through chemo, and when my Dad was wheeled away for his surgery last July. The image just keeps replaying in my mind, over and over and over.

I’ll be watching my phone like a hawk waiting for the news that he’s up and all went well.