The journey of Mast Cell Cancer in MY dog.

This is Halo.  I've had her since she was 4 months old.  I got her at a flea market for $40.  It was love at first site.  She tackled me out of the surrounding crowd and the rest is history.  We are best friends and my dad says we were always meant to be together.  She's a very happy girl filled with love.  Halo was 4 when we discovered she had heart worm.  We survived the long agonizing journey of that, and she has been a healthy, happy puppy on Revolution ever since.  Halo is now 7.  She was at the vet in April for her normal heart worm test, vaccines and a checkup.  She was healthy, heart worm free and the vet said everything on her was perfect.
Fast forward 2 weeks.  It was a Sunday.  Halo woke up with a giant mass on her back.  I didn't really think anything of it, but maybe an insect bite.  I googled stuff and no results really came up that red flagged me.  It really seemed to me that it was an insect bite of some sort.  She likes to sleep under the bed and I expected that maybe a spider had bit her.  Since she is my baby, I immediately thought to take her to the vet just to make sure it wasn't anything that would affect her.  I got her in Monday, since they were closed Sunday, and they wanted to do a fine needle aspiration to see what was inside of the mass.  I really never expected what was to come.

Halo's first Surgery

A few days later the vet calls me and tells me my baby has Mast Cell Cancer.  My heart dropped.  I had never heard of this before and immediately went to the web for answers.  I saw so many different results.  Some positive, some negative.  I finally was a little optimistic after doing the research, but I was still scared.  It IS cancer and cancer is scary.  It isn't a death sentence usually, but it was going to be a long, rough road to put my baby through.  This type of cancer is very unpredictable.  Is all I could do was hope for a good prognosis.
The vet wanted to remove the mass immediately.   We scheduled surgery for her May 13th, 2013.  They would cut the mass out and take 2 cm in each direction from the mass to make sure the cancer wasn't in the surrounding tissue (margins).  She made it through surgery and we played the waiting game again.  The surgery went well and Halo was her usual happy self the next day.  She had a nasty cut and a big bald spot, but cuts heal and hair grows back.  I don't care what she looks like, just as long as she's healthy!  I was hoping that since the mass just popped up and hadn't been there unnoticed for long, that it would be removed and she would be on her way to recovery with no more surgery.  I got a call about 3 days later telling me it was a Grade 2 Mast Cell Tumor and that the margins were all clean except for the deep one.

10 days after the first surgery.   She just had her stitches taken out.

I really didn't know what this meant so I talked to the vet about it and she gave me my options.  A) let it go and hope the mass doesn't come back, which was a 50/50 chance, or B) Halo would need to undergo a second removal surgery that would be way more abrasive than the first.  I wanted the cancer gone so I decided to get another surgery.
This time the vet would remove an additional 2cm in each direction.  We had to wait a month for the first surgery to fully heal.  In this time Halo had to get blood work and a full body x-ray to discover anymore possible tumors in her body/organs.  She checked out good and there were no signs of anymore masses.  GOOD NEWS!

Halo after her 2nd surgery

June 24th, 2013 would be her second surgery...  By more abrasive, they weren't kidding.  It's nasty.  Halo had her surgery on Monday.  I took her in at 7:00am and was told I could pick her up at 6:30 that evening.  Now Halo isn't the most calm dog.  She gets VERY excited to see me.  She gets VERY excited when anyone shows her a leash, and gets VERY excited to leave the vet.  By VERY excited I mean her entire body wiggles and she runs around making the most ridiculous noises you can possibly imagine.  I love that about her!  I LOVE that she is so full of life all of the time, ESPECIALLY after a major surgery.  The bad thing about her liveliness is that she doesn't know when to not be so hyper.  Anyways, we were in the room to pick her up and it was taking them forever.  She had gotten so excited that she ripped open the incision and was bleeding everywhere.  It looked like a murder scene.  We were allowed to see her, but the vet recommended that she stay overnight for observation.  I'd be without my girl overnight, but I'd rather her be under the supervision of professionals while bleeding.  The vet stays late and there is someone who comes in early.  One of the main reasons I love my vet.  Her incision was huge.  It was scary looking.  She was covered in blood.  She ended up staying until Wednesday due to the bleeding.  They thought maybe her being at home would relax her and she wouldn't keep ripping it open.. That was not the case..  Thursday she was bleeding a pretty good amount, so I had to take her back.  They bandaged her up with non stick tape and then wrapped her up.  This held all day Friday.

On Saturday we got an early phone call.  Her biopsy results had come back and the mass had been completely removed.  She has clean margins in all directions!  Good news again!  She did have another check-up today too.   They just wanted to do a routine check.  They said it looked perfect, but it's still bleeding a bit.  They want to see her frequently for check-ups until the bleeding stops.  Her entire belly is also black.  They aren't sure if it's from the bandage being too tight, or the surgery.  However they don't seem too concerned.  Keep in mind she is acting perfectly fine.
Today, Monday, she will go back.  She is still acting great even though Sunday wasn't too good for her.  She is rubbing her back on all things possible and has split it wide open once again.  It's bleeding a little, but enough that I'm comfortable controlling it until she goes back in tonight.  We've gone through old t-shirts and towels like you wouldn't believe.  Nothing seems to stay on her.  The tape from the vet worked for a day, but it ended up sticking to her fur and hurting her when it came off.  She decided to rub her back against the walls and furniture.  I can literally see her insides through the middle of her incision. 
That is where we stand now.  I'll keep this page updated through her journey.  I still have so many concerns and worries thanks to the internet.  As of right now though, I have a cancer free pup.  I really hope she recovers from this surgery and can get back to normal soon.  I can't even tell you how grateful I am for the vet too!

Monday's update!

2 weeks post op!  She's healing!

It's been a week since her surgery.  I came home from work to find more of Halo's "guts" hanging out.  She reminded me of a zombie.  I really don't deal with blood and guts very well.  I took her in for her checkup and the vet wasn't too happy about her wound.  She made the decision to staple her shut.  Totally grosses me out thinking about her being stapled, but I didn't have to see it at least.  She has to wear a shirt around, but I can honestly say she looks sooooooo much better stapled shut.  She also got all the blood cleaned off.  Not really a big update, but we're still at every other day checkups.. She'll be back Wednesday.. Hopefully then we can get once a week checks..  Bad thing about having a vet 2 cities away from where you live!

Wednesday the vet just kind of looked Halo over.  She said she looked pretty good.  We got more antibiotics.  $27 for 10!  Yikes.  Vet wanted to see her again next monday.  5 days without going there!

Monday's update (2 weeks post op).  Well she got her staples out!  She held together nicely.  She's finally looking really good.  Her hair is starting to grow back and Sunday I was able to give her a semi bath.  I got most of the tape and dried blood out of her fur, so she looks a lot better and cleaner.  She also smells better!   The vet said she won't need to come back now!  Her belly is also turning back to pink (it's normall color).  The bruising has gone away.  There is still a little bit, but her entire belly isn't black anymore.  However, I discovered another lump about 3 inches away from her incision.  The vet said it's way too small to even get anything out of at this point, but if it grows at all I'll have to take her back in to get another fine needle aspiration.  She said it might be from a clip they used, but I should definitely keep a close eye on it.  Hopefully we won't have to go through this again.

I'll keep this updated as needed.  Hopefully only good updates.  I'll post pictures when she grows all of her hair back.  

Halo's first bath 2 months after surgery!  Still missing a lot of hair!

It's been almost 2 months since Halo's last surgery.  She had to go back to the vet last week for internal stitches that got knotted inside and will have to go back one more time to get the last of them out.  She's got one little piece of scab left where the stitch is still in, but other than that she looks great.  A tiny pink line.  Her fur is taking forever to grow!  She has pretty thick hair for being a short haired dog!  I gave her her first full bath post op.  The other lump I talked about earlier seems to have gotten a little bigger so I will be asking the vet about it when we go back.  Hopefully it's nothing to worry about..