Oncology Report

Jax's surgery went well on Monday but the poor guy was very sick that night.  The anesthesia combined with the treatment medications (high dose antihistamines along with steroids) really got to him.  He was dizzy and nauseated and throwing up all night.  He looked incredibly pathetic.  I felt awful for him and stayed up trying to comfort him and cleaning up vomit all night.  By morning, he was perking up a bit and by the next day, if not for the suture site in the middle of his back, you'd have never known he'd had the surgery at all. 

We got the oncology report back and for a cancer diagnosis, the results are as good as we could hope for!  The tumor was a grade 1 mast cell tumor.  Grade 1 means that it is well differentiated and is the least likely to spread into other organs.  Even better, the margins on the tumor were completely clean which means there should be no cancer cells left behind.  My awesome vet got every bit out!  That means no chemo or other follow up treatment needed!  It also makes it much less likely for a new tumor to develop there (Statistically, 50% of mast cell tumors that are surgically removed come back in the same area.).

He does have to go back in a couple of weeks, once all treatment drugs are out of his system, and get his blood work rechecked.  There was an abnormality in his liver function test.  We are hoping it was due to the medications or even technical error (like not getting a clean stick when drawing blood) but we have to make sure there is nothing more serious going on.   

We will have to monitor Jaxy closely for the rest of his life for lumps and bumps and have anything that shows up removed immediately.  It does scare me that the disease struck so early in his life.  Mast cell cancer usually presents in dogs at least eight years old.  He will be just four in November.  I understand the nature of the disease and that it may likely return.  But we won this battle!  So, like the dogs do, I am going to live in the present.  And presently, we are Cancer free!