TulsaPets Magazine September 2023

September / October 2023 • TulsaPets 27 Precious Overcomes Her Physical Challenge Story and photos by Nancy Gallimore I glanced down at my phone as the call came in. It was 10:56 a.m. It was entirely too soon for this to be good news. I answered to hear the tone of a heart monitor beep-beep-beeping rhythmically in the background. That meant this was a midsurgery call. The ever calm voice of one of my trusted veterinarians, Dr. Dennis Henson, returned my greeting. “Hey, Nancy, we’ve run into a little prob- lem.” From there the news wasn’t great, but also not entirely unexpected. About a year earlier, I had had a very similar conversation with Dr. Henson. Precious, ironically named to offset the American bully dog’s stocky, tough-looking exterior, had had a tumor removed from her back right knee. It was a tricky spot for the surgery, but things had gone well. Dr. Henson was able to get the tumor excised with decent, though narrow, margins. The tissue was then sent to the lab for testing. The report detailed findings of soft-tissue sarcoma, a type of cancer that isn’t famous for metastasizing but is notori- ous for returning to the original scene of the crime. At that moment, however, our little speckled chunk of a dog was healing nicely and was hopefully cancer free. We were op- timistic about our spunky girl’s prognosis. Making an Inevitable Decision Fast forward about 14 months, however, and history unfortunately repeated itself. This time the tumor appeared to be more aggressive and was obviously causing Pre- cious some discomfort. As is often the case with this type of cancer, we had to head back into surgery to debulk the tumor to try to keep it in check. I dropped my always wagging dog off at 8:30 in the morning for her preopera- tion prep. True to her name, she greeted everyone with a big tongue-lolling smile, oblivious that this was anything but a social call. I knew there was one surgery scheduled ahead of Precious, so I thought I would probably get a recap call around 11:30 or 12:00. But when the phone rang at 10:56, I knew things weren’t going as planned. The tumor, Dr. Henson explained, was very invasive. To successfully remove enough of the mass to give Precious some relief and improved mobility, there was a real possibility of causing nerve damage, perhaps compromising Precious’ ability to use her leg at all. As we talked through options, the answer became obvious. “Do you think we just need to move forward with the amputation?” I asked, not wanting to leave Precious with a leg that might end up in worse shape than when we started. I had known amputation was a possibili- ty and, in fact, an eventuality. I just always thought it would be something to consider in the future, and I questioned whether Precious was even a candidate for life as a three-legged dog. As mentioned, she’s not a petite little flower, and I harbored doubts surrounding one stubby rear leg trying to support her hippoesque physique. “I think she’ll surprise you,” Dr. Hen- son assured me. “I think she can handle this.” A canine friend shares bed space with Precious.