From Worse to Heartbroken
The Cascades shrinking in the distance as we move further east. - Near Easton, Washington
Having just been run over by the bicycle trailer, Dogzilla appeared a little banged up but thankfully had no obvious life threatening injuries. Nevertheless, I knew there was a very real possibility that he had internal injuries and that his adrenaline was masking them, so I made it a priority to get him back to the car and to the emergency vet as quickly as possible. We were approximately 7 miles from the car, which was downhill, and made progress a little faster.
I gingerly put Zilla back into his harness, making sure to tighten it enough to fully restrain him, but at the same time, just loose enough that it shouldn’t put any unnecessary pressure on his body in case he had suffered any broken ribs in the accident. I then took two quick photos to document his injuries should the vet need them for any reason and we were on our way. On the upside, we had already ridden this portion of trail and were on our way back to the car when the accident happened, so there was no need to stop to take photos. If I hadn’t already taken them, I would not have stopped as I was much more concerned about getting Zilla checked out by a vet than taking photos.
(click photos to enlarge and see descriptions)
As we hurried towards the car, Zilla’s adrenaline wore off and he started acting a little out of character. He was no longer standing up in the trailer and he wasn’t vocalizing like he normally would, but otherwise seemed fine. When we made it back to the car, I let him out of the trailer and he began hobbling around with a pronounced limp; we were still a 3 hour drive from home. As we drove, I decided to stop and get the dogs the perfect treat for a hot summer day, ice cream. Normally, Dogzilla loves ice cream, but when I presented it to him, he ignored it entirely and went to sleep. This got me extra worried and made me redouble my efforts to get him checked out as soon as possible.
After 5 hours of waiting at the emergency vet, X-rays showed that nothing had been broken and he was just battered and bruised. They gave him some pain medication and told me that I should reschedule his upcoming dental visit that had been set for the following week, as the anesthesia might interact with the temporary pain meds that he was on. The vet would be examining the bump over his eye, as well at the dental visit, so that was also delayed.
Still shaken by the accident, I needed some time away from the bike, so the dogs and I took some time off…. longer than I could have anticipated…
After a brief road trip to the Oregon coast to recuperate and reflect on the numerous adventures and misadventures of our bicycle tour, it was time for Dogzilla's rescheduled dental appointment and lump exam. Little dogs are notorious for bad teeth and Zilla was no exception and had to have 16 of them pulled. The vet also removed the lump from Dogzilla’s eye and said they wanted to run tests on it. A week later, I got an email:
”I received results back from Dogzilla's mass this morning and wanted to touch base with you. Unfortunately this was a cancerous mass, and the results were consistent with a soft tissue sarcoma. Soft tissue sarcomas usually require a margin of 3mm of tumor-free cells on all of their margins to be considered completely removed because the cells that make up these masses (called Spindle Cells) have long arms that can extend up to 3mm. This means that Dogzilla's mass was NOT completely removed and cancerous cells were left behind. Though not unexpected given the location of this mass on top of the skull, I am disappointed! The really good news is that Dogzilla's mass is very low grade; these masses are usually graded on a scale of 1-4 (1 being low grade/less invasive, 4 being high grade/more invasive) with their potential for local invasion and spread to other organs taken into consideration. Dogzilla's mass was a grade 1, meaning it has risk for re-developing in the same location, but far lower likelihood of spreading to other organs. Additionally, the bloodwork and chest x-rays we had done showed absolutely no evidence of spread at this time.
Sometimes if masses are not completely removed we have the option to go back and take wider margins. In Dogzilla's case this would not be possible because it is so closely associated with the skull and there is not a lot of extra skin there to close the area.”
I cannot even begin to describe the level of devastation that I felt while trying to read this email. My tiny little cockroach who had been through so much in his life and always bounced back now had cancer too. A cancer that even surgery couldn’t fully remove from his body. Obviously, I was happy that it was the lowest grade possible, but at the end of the day, it’s still cancer and still potentially fatal, so it was little reassurance. To make matters worse, I got this news while we were at my parents’ house in Illinois to celebrate my dad’s 75th birthday. Zilla’s health instantly changed the mood of the day for my entire family; I’m very lucky to have been there with them for their support. At the time, I was still coming to terms with Captain’s cancer ordeal, so to have my other best friend diagnosed as well was unfathomable.
We tried to salvage the day and still went out for his birthday dinner. When we got back home, I could hear Zilla shrieking before I even made it through the door. I ran inside just in time to see Captain having a massive seizure and fall off of couch. She was physically unharmed, but completely disoriented for several days. It was all too much to handle.
With the addition of Zilla’s cancer, I needed some time to process things and the dogs needed some time to recover. We took off about two months in total, taking advantage of the summer months to spend lots of time at the beach and even a trip or two up into the mountains. During this time, Captain celebrated her 18 month Canceriversary, though it was a bit muted as Dogzilla started chemotherapy the following day. In consultation with the vet, it was decided that Zilla would have two different types of chemo to increase the odds that it would work. The first type was electrochemotherapy where they basically use electricity to shock the cancer cells which makes them more likely to absorb the chemotherapy medicine. The second was metronomic chemotherapy which is a daily pill he would have to take for 3-9 months. Radiation was not an option for Zilla because of how close the cancer had been to his eye. One downside to Zilla’s chemo pill was that it would impact our ability to travel as it requires refrigeration so we would have to stick to day trips and hotels to ensure his medicine didn’t spoil.
As the weeks passed, Captain had recovered to her new norm, Zilla was back to old shenanigans, and I had finally gotten past the accident and Zilla’s diagnosis and decided it was time for us to get back out and do some more exploring. Staying home and feeling sorry for ourselves wasn’t going to change anything so why not at least be out having fun together and making memories?
It was time to ride!
