We had a rather frightening health scare last week. Autumn's belly was bulging, and her appetite dropped (which is, you'll probably recall, very strange for her). So I brought her in to the vet, who X-rayed her and said that her spleen was 3 times its normal size, and that she was bleeding internally, and she needed surgery right away, or else she'd die within a few days. I was quite shocked, but I have a good relationship with my vet, and I trust his judgement, so I told him to go ahead. He said that he'd remove her spleen, and at that point it would be either of two things, either (1) it would only be a spleen injury of unknown cause, and she'd recover fine, or (2) we'd find that it's cancer, likely metastasized from somewhere else, and she'd have about 6 weeks left. Well, I went to work after that, and when he called me later that afternoon, he had most excellent news! It wasn't her spleen after all! It was her liver that had a giant tumor, he said the size of both of his fists! He cut it out, and sewed her up, and she'll most likely be just fine! He's sent a sample for biopsy, but by appearance it doesn't look like cancer.
Autumn is home and resting now, and after almost a week, her appetite is recovering... she's back to eating like an anteater! :) horrrff, whorff, hork, gulp... She's supposed to be on limited activity, although she disagrees. That thing weighed FOUR POUNDS! (I weighed her before and after.) That is crazy! I'm sure glad it is out of her, and that I have a vet willing to give 16-year-old dogs all the chances we can give.
Then last weekend, I had a flat tire on a -20 degree morning, and our laundry got stolen out of the dryer at the laundromat! But thank goodness I had thought to get a full-size spare two years ago, we could afford to replace all of our sheets, socks, and underwear, and--most important of all--Autumn is healing well and fine.
The finest blessings don't come from avoiding all misfortune. They come from forging the resilience to cope with inevitable misfortune as it comes.
5 comments:
I'm happy that Autumn is returning to normal. I loved your last few lines about blessings. I've never heard it put quite that way before but I really like it. Thanks for sharing it !
Very smart of you to have a full-size spare. The idea of skidding around on a dinky spare donut in the middle of winter sounds like insanity.
Who in their right minds steals someone else's laundry? Good grief.
So glad you took Autumn to the vet and had a good outcome!
@gina, thank you for your kind thoughts, as always! I love that my little family gets love from someone they've never met!
@Rena, having a full-size spare makes me feel like a GD princess! :)
@BT, me too! Thank you so much! Autumn says hello to her Aunty BT!
What a relief that Autumn didn't have cancer! So glad she's bouncing back:) Love your outlook as stated in the last couple lines. Stuff happens in life & we deal with it, just a matter of how!
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