A few days ago, Sandy, my eleven year old golden retriever, started limping on her back right leg. After a day or two of observation, the problem wasn’t going away and I decided to take her to our vet. Upon examination he discovered her knee was swollen and he took some x-rays. Afterwards, he showed them to me and told me Sandy has bone cancer, in medical terminology, “Osteosarcoma”, the new word I learned this week which is basically a death sentence for my poor girl.
I was in shock and really didn’t grasp the idea of what he just told me. He gave me some anti-inflammatory and pain relieving medications and sent her x-rays to a radiologist for a second opinion. The radiologist confirmed what my vet already told me. Sandy has Osteosarcoma and it’s not good. I decided I wanted to have her chest x-ray as well to check if any cancer had metastasized (another new word) or spread to her other organs. Luckily, the cancer has not spread and is only in her knee for now. Next week we have an appointment with a specialist to see what he recommends for treatment. From what I have been learning, there is no cure for Osteosarcoma, but only ways to make the patient more comfortable and hopefully pain free.
Sandy is the momma bear to my other two golden retrievers, Haley, ten and Bonnie nearly ten and I can’t imagine life without her. I live alone as I divorced earlier this year so my girls and I have already had a rough year moving and being on our own and now this. I need help in deciding what is the best thing to do for Sandy as my judgment is clouded because I love her so much and I don’t want to lose her before her time is up. She is otherwise a normal healthy golden except being a little overweight at ninety pounds, the vet would like her to drop ten at least.
I know that the normal standard of care for Osteosarcoma is amputation and chemotherapy, but is that best for Sandy? She is eleven years old as of August, could she make it on three legs at her age? How difficult would her recovery be? What about chemotherapy? How painful would that be? I understand if we do these things then Sandy may live another eleven or twelve months. If surgery alone without chemotherapy she might only live four or five months. If I just give her medication to relieve pain I don’t think we will have much time at all as this is supposed to be one nasty cancer that rapidly and aggressively attacks all healthy cells and spreads to lungs and other organs. I don’t want Sandy in any pain and I don’t want to make her life more difficult than it has to be but I don’t want to lose her.
Please help me make the best decision for Sandy. Her nickmane is Sandybear. She is as precious and sweet as can be. What is best for Sandy?
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