Gabi Update – January, 2009
Gabi Hits the Three Year Mark
It has been an eventful year for Gabi on her way to being a three year cancer survivor. Last April we went to Columbus for her 27 month post-radiation check up and they noticed the lump near her left eye, where the original tumor ended, was getting larger and had a soft lump on top of it. The biopsy came back positive for cancer but in a very low grade form in its early stages.
We then stayed the night and I brought Gabi in early the next morning for surgery which removed the tumor and a decent size area around the tumor. Everything went great and we came back home the evening of her surgery. The hardest part of her recovery was trying to keep her from scratching her staples near her eye which she successfully reached once and pulled the one stitch she had into her eyelid. That gave us another trip back to Columbus to get that taken care of.
We couldn’t do and chemo or radiation again in that area so the after surgery treatments were done by her holistic doc, Dr. Alex, in New York. We upped the supplements she took and changed them around a bit to give her immune system a boost to help fight off this re-occurrence.
Her energy and attitude was great all summer. We spent a lot of time at my travel trailer that was parked at a campground on Lake Monroe for the year. She made lots of new friends, dogs and people, and got to play quite a bit in the water and trails around the area.
In late August I was scratching Gabi back on her right rear leg area when I noticed a lump near her back leg. We went the next day to the Stoney Creek vets and had Dr. Kunkler check it out. Her test came back inconclusive so we scheduled another visit to Columbus fearing the worst.
The next day, in Columbus, the biopsy came back as cancer but, once again, it was caught at the very early stages and was a very low grade tumor. We had surgery the next day where they took a large portion of her tissue around the mass to help control any spreading it might have done. It seemed to be very successful. The mass around the tumor showed no cancer cells so it had not spread to the surrounding areas in her leg which was good. We went home the evening of her surgery.
Her recovery from that surgery was very quick and she was ready to go play the following day after her surgery. Since then we have been going back to Columbus once a month for check ups and they all have come back good. Her latest round of blood work by her holistic doctor showed her to be stable as well.
Thanks again for all o f the support she has received from everyone over the past 3 years. She is the reason why DogDayz was built and continues to do her job of greeting everyone who comes through the doors. She looks forward every morning to coming in, seeing everyone and making all of you give her some scratches. It is her world and we just occupy part of it.