As many of you know, roughly 4 weeks ago Ike had surgery to remove the sack around his heart. This was done because of the rapid and repeated fluid build up around his heart.
He has been recovering quite well. Not to 100% of his old self but, to be honest, I don't expect that.
A week ago Tuesday, I was in the kitchen and I noticed that Ike's left pupil was almost completely dilated. Icould only see the tiniest sliver of his iris. I already had an appt w/DrB that morning for Joey's annual. So, I took Ike instead...by the time we got there, his eye had returned to normal and he wasn't displaying any other symptoms.
DrB said that without further symptoms we can't relaly know what happened not can we really know were to begin testing. We were supposed to be scheduling another echocardiogram to check on the suspected enlargement of his heart and one of his valves. We decided that, givin this "eye" incident, it would be better to hold of on the testing, as they would have to sedate him.
Flash forward to Saturday morning. Ike is all curled up on the dog bed... licking his bum (sorry, gross but, true) I tell him to stop and then I see what looks like a bloody smear on the pillow. It is blood so I lift up his tail to investigate. I see a bloody mass on tissue protruding from his anus. Off to the Drb's! DrB tells me that it is a growth on his rectum and that it's probably been there for a while. We schedule it to be removed on Tuesday. DrB says that most likely ('I've come to LOATHE that phrase!) it will be benign.
DrB called me with the biopsy results yesterday afternoon. These are the results:
MICROSCOPIC FINDINGS: COLORECTAL MASS: COLORECTAL POLYPOID
ADENOCARCINOMA, FOCALLY INFILTRATIVE, WELL-DIFFERENTIATED, LOW GRADE.
PROGNOSIS: Fair to guarded.
DrB said that at this point you can't help but add 2+2 and come up with 4, referring to all the medical problems that Ike's had recently. Problems that have been, essentially, without cause.
He asked if we wanted to scope him, probe for other growths. I told him no. There will be no probing, or surgery or chemo or radiation for Ike. I'm not even worried about that follow up echocardiogram...maybe later but, in the great scheme of things, it just doesn't seem too important anymore.
Ike will be spoiled as usual, kept as comfortable as we (and meds) can make him and when those things no longer provide him comfort, we will let him go.
For all we know, he might have YEARS left. I'm not overly optimistic though... his body seems to be cratering on all sides.
But, for now... he's happy. He doesn't hurt anywhere and he's greatly loved.
