Sunny Girl, 28 months post cancer diagnosis, 2 years post amputation
I thought I’d write about Sunny in honor of the second anniversary of the amputation of her right front leg. Although her leg was amputated on May 5, 2009, she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma of the ulna in January of 2009. When we first found out she had a bone tumor, I knew no one who had experience with a 3-legged dog, and I had never met a 3-legged dog. I wasn’t aware of any resources such as tripawds.com where I could go to find out about amputation.
Since the tumor was in the ulna, the smaller of the two bones in the “forearm”, the surgeon said he could just remove the tumor and part of the bone, and Sunny would be able to support her weight on the radius only, since that was the main weight-bearing bone anyway. We still didn’t know what type the tumor was, so we opted to save the limb and not amputate. Well the biopsy was positive for osteosarcoma, so Sunny started chemotherapy a few weeks after surgery. When the final biopsy came back, we were told there were microscopic cancer cells in the proximal (upper) margin, so were give the choice of amputation or removal of 2 1/2 inches more of the bone. We chose the latter since she did so well after the first surgery. Chemo was delayed a little to give her time to recover from surgery.
Sunny had a different color cast each week
A week after completing her chemotherapy treatments, when I arrived home from work Sunny wasn’t putting any weight on her right front leg and she was sensitive to touch, so off we went to the emergency clinic and she was found to have a spiral fracture of the leg near the elbow. I brought her back home with a cast and after discussing with the surgeon the next day, we decided to first see if the leg would heal on its own. Well, after 4 weeks, the break got worse and the bone actually separated, requiring amputation.
By the time of her amputation, I believe from chemotherapy and the stress of the broken leg, Sunny was losing fur from around her face and “privates”. She started to look like she had 2 black eyes. She looked very unhealthy and had absolutely no appetite. I had to hand-feed her to get her to eat something, if at all.
2 days after amputation
Sunny’s amputation went well, but her central nervous system reacted in a strange way and she “screamed” no matter where you touched her. After 10 days on neurontin to calm her CNS, she started to get around better. It was a long, hard road, but after the initial recovery from all the surgeries and chemotherapy, she started to bounce back and become my playful, mischievious Sunny Girl again.
Over the last 2 years, Sunny has regained her strength and can pull on her leash just as hard as she could with 2 front legs, she digs craters in the yard just fine with 1 leg, and runs just as fast as she could when she had 4 legs. If I had known then (before Sunny had her first surgery) how well she would do with 3 legs, I would have opted for amputation from the very beginning so she wouldn’t have had to go through all that she did. I just hope we will be able to help ease the minds of others facing amputation.
Sunny is always ready to play!