Lucy's Health Scare

On the evening of Saturday December 20th, while giving Lucy some belly rubs, I discovered a large mass on Lucy's chest wall, underneath her right front arm (sort of in her armpit area, and ranging down her ribs). We called and made a vet appointment as soon as our vets office opened on Monday, and they saw her that afternoon. They did a needle aspiration biopsy, which was a horror show in itself. They took 3 different samples from the mass - on the 2nd needle, when our vet had taken the sample and was about to put the cells on the slide, Lucy wagged her tail emphatically and managed to hit the needle with her tail, sending it flying (or so we thought....) The vet and I searched for it for about 5 minutes on our hands and knees, and finally gave up. The vet left the room to examine the cells that she gathered, and it suddenly dawned on me the one spot that we hadn't checked....and as soon as I glanced at her tail, sure enough I saw the little blue plastic attachment of the needle sticking out of Lucy's tail. The needle had actually gone all the way through her tail, in one side and straight through the other. I pulled it out because she was wagging her tail like a maniac and kept hitting her tail into the wall, the chairs....and I figured that was pretty painful for her. As soon as I took it out it started bleeding out of both sides like crazy, and of course she kept wagging it. It was like a scene from a bad horror flick, with blood flying everywhere and landing on the walls, the exam table, the drawers. Such a mess! After cleaning up the mess and informing the vet that I had in fact found the needle, she gave me some fairly good news. The cells that she examined were plain old inflammation cells - no strange cancer cells or anything scary. She prescribed the antibiotic cephalexin, and told us to apply hot compresses multiple times daily, to try to reduce the swelling. She stressed that if the mass was not gone by Friday or Saturday, she would want to go ahead and remove it on Monday, because she was worried about what could be causing the inflammation.

Well, come Saturday the mass was still big. It may have decreased in size a tiny bit, but nothing significant. So we scheduled surgery for Monday the 29th of December. I was relieved to hear that since this surgery was considered fairly simple, they would not need to administer general anesthetic, but just had to sedate her. She would be breathing on her own, and would not need to be intubated, which makes it a lot less risky. They would be using a sedative called Domitor, and would be removing the entire mass and sending it to a lab to have a pathology report done it, to see what we were dealing with. I got a call Monday morning at about 10:15 from our vet, saying that they had been forced to cancel the operation to remove the mass - here's where the story gets scary :( They administered the domitor to Lucy, and almost immediately, her heart rate went from a normal 120, to 210. She began experiencing ventricular tachycardia, and then her heart rate plummeted. The vet said that they have seen dogs who experience these symptoms die right on the table of cardiac arrest. So, she immediately administered medication to reverse the sedative, and while Lucy was still out of it, she did 2 quick "punch biopsies" to get a decent sample to send to the lab. She said that although the procedure would have been simple and fairly quick to remove the mass, she was too scared to keep her sedated, given what was going on with her heart. Obviously I agree totally with that decision! So, they kept Lucy hooked up to a heart monitor for the entire day to make sure she was alright. Her heart rate stabilized, and although she had some sporadic and brief ventricular rhythms periodically afterwards, she pulled through just fine and was home with us that afternoon. I was at work when Pete brought her home, and although he assured me that she was fine, I was a nervous wreck until I came home and saw her myself. I was instantly reassured when I came home to find Lucy following her pal Wyatt (our 15 month old buddy who lives upstairs) around the house, trying to steal his chicken strips. Typical.

Our vet said that before she can be put under sedation again, or under any type of anesthesia, we need to bring her to see a cardiologist to make sure that her heart is healthy enough to withstand it. In all likelihood, the awful reaction was caused by a sensitivity or allergy to that particular sedative, but we obviously want to play it safe and make sure before having her anesthetized again for any reason. So, we're waiting for the results of the pathology report, and should hopefully be receiving those today or Monday. Lucy has been acting 100% normal and fine at home with us - wiggling her bum like a maniac, knocking stuff over with her tail, and eating like a pig, as usual. Her mass seems to have decreased in size substantially, and we continue to have her on antibiotics and pain medication. Poor Lucy has bald spots all over her from being shaved - her right front leg where her catheter was, her armpit/chest where the mass is, and a big spot on her back where they had the heart monitor hooked up to her. I've assured her that her hair will grow back, but she has insisted on wearing a tshirt for the majority of the time, to avoid being made fun of by the other dogs.

With any luck, the biopsy of her mass will come back fine, and our trip to the cardiologist will confirm that her reaction to the sedative had nothing to do with an underlying heart problem. Please keep Lucy in your thoughts for the next few days while we do our best to get this all squared away and put behind us!

Here are some pictures of Lucy on Monday night - she's sporting her "Red Sox Princess" tshirt, of course.







Here are some more, also from Monday night. Lucy jumped right back in to her role of "baby cuddler" without missing a beat. Surgery can't keep a good snuggler down. The adorable baby in the pics is Maggie, Wyatt's baby sister.