Ava at the dentist part 2 - the good news!

[Stacy]

Ava was scheduled for the surgery today to remove a 1cm margin around where her tumor was. And I've been a huge ball of nerves for weeks in anticipation. The dentist assured me that it was pretty straight forward surgery - but so far nothing with Ava has been simple.

So I took her in this morning, already worked up, but trying to keep it low key. I had my coffee and my book and I had decided that this time I wasn't going to leave her, I was just going to hang out there with her.

But when we got there the vet looked in her mouth and found no evidence of the tumor. And he said in the literature there's a small percentage of these tumors that never come back. And that he would hate to do the surgery, send in the tissue for pathology, and not find anything. And that he thought if it was what I wanted to do that it was reasonable to just do monthly checks for a few months and then slowly start to space them out. If the tumor starts to grow we will definitely remove it. But waiting was a reasonable option. And I think I breathed for the first time in days. 

I know the chance of something bad happening during surgery is remote. I reassure people that their loved ones will be fine in surgery on a daily basis. But I just could not shake that horrible feeling of dread. That something would go wrong. That there wouldn't be enough time with this beautiful soul. That I wouldn't have the chance to make up for the life that she should have always had. 

I also think that if we had done the surgery with no evidence of tumor that I would have always wondered if we had really needed to do it. I'm really thrilled with this decision. And I have a good feeling that the tumor is gone forever. Fingers crossed!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Well, this is wonderful news! Fingers and paws crossed here that you never have to worry about this again. 

[Stacy]

Thank you! Statistically it's time for Ava to have something go her way!

[Anne & Mr. Haley]

Great news.  Got all my fingers and toes crossed and Haley has his paws crossed that the worry over this is gone forever.  (Hope I get good news at the dentist today.  I have been worrying for a week now.)

[Stacy]

Good luck at the dentist! I never minded the dentist until a root canal gone wrong, and now it's like pulling teeth (ha ha) just to get me there. 

[Anne & Mr. Haley]

Thanks.  I know what you mean. 

[Amy and Annabelle]

Well that is good news. I hope all the bad stuff is behind her and she can finally just be healthy and enjoy her life.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Great news.  We shall hope the absence of the tumor continues with each check up.