I took Porter in for his yearly exam on Saturday March 19, 2011. He'd been limping just a little on and off for a couple weeks so I wanted the vet to check that out as well. Our vet, Dr. Murphy, thought it might be arthritis flaring up and decided we should get some X-rays to check out his right front leg as well as his hips to check out the condition of his existing arthritis issues. We chose to come back on Monday for the X-rays because we had plans to go visit Grandma and Grandpa after our vet visit.
I dropped Porter off at the vet in the a.m. and headed to work. When I returned to pick him up, Dr Murphy sat me down to go over what she found in his X-rays. She didn't get right to the horrible news but I have no recollection of what she said up until she put the nasty looking tumor X-ray up on the light board and said something to the effect of 'it looks like a tumor.' It looked like his bone had exploded right in the middle. There was this big ugly black glob of stupid cancer right there on the picture in front of me. I'm no radiologist, but even I could tell it wasn't good. She stated that this was very unexpected and I sat dumbfounded as she went into some info about our options. I vaguely recall here discussing the fact that there were a lot of possible paths forward including chemotherapy, amputation, radiation,...Luckily she kept the information coming freely and I didn't need to ask questions right away. She was so wonderful. It has to be just horrid to give news like that to anyone. I kept my composure for about 5 minutes or so, then the tears just up and started gushing. I think I lost it when she said the dreaded word 'amputation.' I asked as many questions as I could come up with having been blindsided with an initial diagnosis of cancer. Of course I asked about life expectancy...I think she said between 4 months to a year. I've heard several variations of this since and still really have no idea how long Porter will hang out.
Dr Murphy referred us to a veternary oncologist, Dr Lecroy, here in town. I remember asking how soon I should take action...whatever action that may be. She said 'pretty quickly.'
Man, I was a wreck. I don't have any memory of driving home except that I wanted to drive really, really fast and that I passed my exit. I spent the next several days crying and thinking non-stop
about losing Porter. My director at work was very compassionate and told me to go home after I explained through tears what I had learned the previous day. I left. I went and grabbed the dogs and spent that whole day with my folks. God, I would be lost without them. I've definitely learned that a support system is very important to have in life and that an excellent one really improves quality of life. Thanks Mom and Dad for being there for me and helping me through all the awful, gut-wrenching decisions I've had to make in the last several weeks.
about losing Porter. My director at work was very compassionate and told me to go home after I explained through tears what I had learned the previous day. I left. I went and grabbed the dogs and spent that whole day with my folks. God, I would be lost without them. I've definitely learned that a support system is very important to have in life and that an excellent one really improves quality of life. Thanks Mom and Dad for being there for me and helping me through all the awful, gut-wrenching decisions I've had to make in the last several weeks. 
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