Roller-coaster ride coming to an end?

I sure do not want to jump the gun on the celebratory happy dance here, BUT what has been a roller-coaster from day one has turned into an amazing survival story.   From the very first day that Sarge broke his leg, our world was spinning with frustration, anger and fear.  Then the DX of Osteosarcoma came and I just couldn’t bare the thought of removing his leg.  Then I came across this site and it gave me hope, hope that amputation could be the right decision.  I can honestly say for the first week post op, I completely doubted my decision on an almost hourly basis.  Then when Sarge started to become more active and strained his back leg, I was completely convinced I had savagely put my beloved best friend, who trusted me beyond everyone else in this world, through a living hell.

Then the seroma started after chemo and I was “doubting” yet again.  Then it was if a light switch went off, or the chemo started working, because my baby is back and he is better than he was 6 months before the pathological fracture!  I am beginning to think, looking back, that some of the lethargy I was observing, could have been due to the un-diagnosed cancer, beginning to wreak havoc in his body.

Sarge is now literally hopping, and jumping and begging to play, which he had not been doing for some time prior to the break.  

I hope someone out there, that finds themselves in the same unfortunate situation as I did, can read this and know that there is hope!  I can tell you that this journey comes with many twists and turns, ups and downs and many doubtful moments.  Had we not decided to at least TRY, I would have always doubted that decision too.  Not every case is the same, not every recovery is the same and not every story has a fairy tale (tail) happy ending.

We have no idea how many days, weeks, months or YEARS we will be blessed to have Sarge with us, but what I do know is I will treasure every butt wiggling minute we have together and his time with us will be the best years of his life.

If only we had the ability to load up and take off on an amazing adventure like Jerry did… Can you imagine a road trip with 5 dogs and 2 kitties!!!! Now that is a picture! 

Author: c1nicolei

Sarge has been the the love of my life since we rescued him in 2007. He was thought to be a carcass on the side of the road in our community park. As I walked over to look at the pitiful dead dog, I soon realized he was still breathing, barely. We rushed him to the vet and although severely malnourished and in a terrible state, with TLC he miraculously pulled through. Snap shot ahead to 6/2014, we decide to go outside to play fetch, he was so excited and full of energy, doing his typical bouncy boxer pelvic shuffle. He took a nasty tumble and the sounds that followed was nothing short of heart piercing. My heart stopped, because I knew it was bad, very bad. I am a PA, not a veterinarian, but I knew instantly the leg was broken badly. I splinted him and rushed him to the vet. What initially was going to be an orthopedic surgery to repair a broken radius and ulna, quickly turned into, "Your dog sustained a pathological cancer, we think he has osteosarcoma". I could not even hear what I was being told. How could this seemingly happy, healthy, FULL of life dog have CANCER?? The BX confirmed my worst fears. This whole process took over a week. In that time I researched every aspect of canine osteosarcoma I could find and I had already made up my mind, we were going to fight this, not for me, but I knew he was not done living!!! Making the decision to amputate was not one taken lightly. We ensured there were no macro mets and that his blood work looked stable. I also decided if we amputated we would also do chemo. Sarge had his leg amputated 2 days ago and I am amazed at his hour by hour improvement. We start chemo in 2 weeks. I will keep everyone updated and love reading stories on here that give me hope that he will be able to be a happy, pain free normal Sarge!!! This is when we joined TRIPAWDS! What a wonderful, reassuring supportive community! I love you TRIPAWDS! View all posts by c1nicolei