Post date: Jul 28, 2009 2:24:29 PM
If I didn't know better, I'd say that I have the subconscious goal of getting one of my dogs into a veterinary medical journal.
First I had Riggsie, a 2-year-old lab who was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma in his hip (leg bone, technically). Then I had Trevor, only the 5th Golden Retriever in the US to test prcd-PRA "affected" on the Optigen test, and the first pre-symptomatic Golden to have his "affected" status confirmed by an ERG test. That alone should have confirmed my dogs' place in canine medical history. And Optigen, if you're reading this, I'm still waiting for my kickback. Ha.
But that wasn't enough for me. I needed some strong visuals. How about a beautiful young Labrador Retriever with a dent on one side of his head? I don't mean to be facetious, honestly, but sometimes I just have to shake my head in disbelief. Other people have a dog hobby called "agility." My dog hobby is researching obscure canine medical conditions.
Having learned so much about the canine eye through Trevor's PRA and about joint problems from Rowan's elbow dysplasia and OCD, I guess the universe decided that it was time for me to learn about the dog nervous system, which is a whole new level of weirdness.
Anyway, let's cut to the chase. Rowan spent all day yesterday getting tested. Here we can take a moment to imagine my bank account draining away. In my conversations with the neurologist last week, he made it clear that he suspected cancer. What else could be so local to that particular area, and only on one side? Yesterday Rowan had an MRI, spinal tap, EMG, and muscle biopsy. This was the surprising result:
I stress once again that so far (knock wood), Rowan has no symptoms other than the dent on his head. His jaw seems to be working fine. He continues to be my most energetic, happy, ball-obsessed, food-obsessed dog. In a household of retrievers, Rowan is the uber retriever.
They expect to have the spinal tap results back today. As I understand it, the spinal tap's primary diagnostic value is in determing whether he has lymphoma. They expect the muscle biopsy results back on Friday. That is where the neurologist (Dr. Diccan Westworth at the Animal Care Center in Rohnert Park, he has been awesome) seemingly hopes to see some indication of what's going on--theoretically, it could still be some type of myositis--polymyositis, etc. The likely treatment would be prednisone.
Or it could turn out to be an idiopathic condition that will never be diagnosed, that would hopefully resolve on its own. Let's hope for that. Medical obscurity, yeah!
Meanwhile, I'm still in Richmond, BC, where my sister-in-law's condition is steadily worsening. If you're reading this, please say a prayer for her and for the family.
Update: We just got the results on Rowan's spinal tap, and it was completely normal. Thank heavens. One more test to go (muscle biopsy). We should get those results either Friday or Monday.