Mast Cell Tumor Update

This is a bit of an update from Sam's March 28th post. Sam's out at the moment on his afternoon walk with his mom. He's probably at one of the local coffee bars hanging out with his mom and eating his (more than) fair share of a blueberry muffin or banana bread after hitting up treats from the local shops that know him on sight.

We took Sam in for his usual 2-week exam today and things have definitely gotten worse since our March 28th post. The original tumour has increased in size and it is "angrier" looking and not helped in the least by his licking of it yesterday, displacing his bandages and soiling his bedding with blood when it became too much of an aggravation.

The tumour has spread, forming additional bumps along his right front leg and neck. His attentive vet is cautioning that we will need to be "prepared" but we're at a loss for "how".

He seems to still have the need to go for his walks, often insisting where we go, the routes that we'll take and his reluctance to even "turn" for home. He'd just rather be out there walking. Such an attitude for a mobile two-legged dog.

We're not regretful in the least that we opted not to have surgery performed on Sam back in March/April, the inability to even get clean margins given the location of the original tumour would have given the tumour an increased likelihood of it coming back after surgery.

And with Sam's significant cardiac issues and advanced age and other attendant issues, the odds were definitely stacked against him and so we opted then as we have now, on letting him live out his days in the loving care of his family and his friends.

He can still easily bring a stranger to a halt and a smile to their face. That's my boy. I love him more than anything in this world.

Hey, that nice nurse put a little red heart on my bandage 😀

Hand over that muffin mom!!!