I have a few problems.....

Hello everyone, the following post will be a combined effort between Sam and his dad. Sam has a mast cell tumor growing on the backside of his right-front leg. The surgeon said that there's not a lot of flesh and stuff there to get "clean margins". Currently it's an open wound that's under treatment with Sam's mom changing his bandages every night. Yes "vet-grade" Manuka honey is being used. We do not know whether it's malignant or benign. To find out, we'd have to biopsy and put him under anesthesia. So we might as well do the surgery, if we went that route.

Sam also has a large lipoma hanging from his right front armpit/chest area and the surgeon and vets are suggesting that we remove that as well, if we're going to do the right-front arm tumor.

Sam has a serious heart murmur that's being managed with medication, supplements and whatever else his vets recommend. He gets a cardiac ultra-sound, chest cavity ultrasound and chest x-rays every 4 months to see if anything has changed (gotten worse, fluid in lungs, that sort of thing, etc.). Owen, Sam's brother gets the same thing. My mom and dad's retirement fund is taking a bit of a beating but "WTH" (my dad said that).

Sam also has a collapsing trachea to top things off. So we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. To do the surgery or not.

Sam walked for over 2-1/2 hours this past Saturday and about an hour and a half on Sunday. He's a happy boy and lives for getting outside to walk, breakfast and dinner and being with his family. And for lots of special treats (gee they're all special treats), weekly lasering and monthly visits with his favorite chiropractic vet.

The surgeon is also worried about having to do skin grafts a couple of weeks after surgery (after some tissue grows back first). The doctor says that the skin graft surgery is more worrisome than the tumor and lipoma surgery. I think that my dad's face dropped even lower at that point and he looked way more concerned.

The surgeon is unsure whether my tumor is the really bad kind or not and if the tests come back that it is, then the only solution for that is amputation and my dad said that we'd never do that, ever.

Taking all this and more into consideration, we've decided as a family to leave Sam exactly the way he is right now and allow him to live out the rest of his days, with his family and friends.

My dad says that I'm still a "pain in the ass" but that I'm his pain in the ass and that my dad and mom will look after me. So cheer up. I'm okay. Love Sam.