The Jibbus

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my dog has been very sick.

I got up on Tuesday morning last week, had a shower, and went out to start the coffee.  Jib followed me out into the kitchen like he normally does, and I stopped to scratch his head and say good morning like I normally do.
But this time when I pulled my hands away, they were covered in blood. I kneeled down to inspect him and found that his neck was bleeding everywhere.

I leapt into “Crisis: Go Calmly” mode and cruised into the bedroom to grab my shoes and get him in the car for a trip to the vet.  Which is when I saw our bed:

jibbleeding

Long story short, I get him to the vet who becomes very concerned that what burst in his neck was a hemangiosarcoma  (read as: dog cancer), and that the cancer was now coursing through his veins throughout his body.  He suggested we take him for surgery to have it removed and biopsied and, in the meantime, he wraps a bandage around his neck and prescribes him some antibiotics.

jibbandage“I don’t mind saying, this has been a terrible day for Jib…”

He went in for his surgery on Thursday, and we brought him back home on Friday afternoon, cutting short our anniversary lunch/Heights trip.  Which seemed appropriate, given what our life is like these days.

And he’s been at home ever since, doped up on Tramadol and antibiotics, and letting these HUGE slices in his body heal.

 

IMG_1216“Okay. Jib thinks today is worse than that day…”

You might’ve noticed that giant shaved/stapled area on his side.  That was actually a giant lipoma that I told them it was okay to remove while he was under.  And if I’d known how big the incision was going to have to be to do so, I would’ve told them to forget it.

And this is where we’ve been for the past week.  Waiting on the results from the lab; hoping for the best.

The surgeon actually called me yesterday afternoon to let me know that the culture they took before sending it to the lab had been responding well to antibiotic treatment, so cancer seems less likely at this point.  He did, of course, caution me to wait for the results from the actual biopsy.

Hopefully they’ll be in touch soon.  Because I’ve been carrying this with me all day, every day…
And it’s starting to get heavy.

j.s.

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