Now about Aristotle
Right then, now about Aristotle. If you’ve kept up, the story so far is this. He has a suspicious lump on his leg which was checked a few weeks ago. The results were inconclusive, but could be a spindle cell tumour. Because he’s old (11 ½) and because he has a heart condition, Mum and the vet concluded we would monitor the lump rather than having it removed at that stage. Mum was tasked with measuring it every week and going back if it changed in size. He also had what we thought was a wart on his nose that he’s had for a couple of years.
Changes
For the first couple of weeks of measuring the lump on his leg there was no obvious change. Mum carefully recorded 5mm in her file, gave him a hug and sent him back into the garden. Then before we went to the Lake District Mum came back scratching her head. It’s really hard to measure a lump on a moving dog, but she thought it was fractionally bigger. She also thought the lump on his nose had got a little bigger.
We missed a week of measuring with being away. Then when Mum sat down with Ari to measure his lump last weekend there was no question on whether it had changed. It had grown by more than 50% and the surface had changed too. The one on his nose had grown at the same time and so had how it looked, quite apart from it bleeding.
What next?
To cut a long story down from being a complete shaggy dog tale, the vet yesterday advised that we now go for them to be removed and then sent to the lab for full analysis. Ari’s lymph glands in his neck are not swollen, which is good, but he has lost weight, which is not so good. Annoyingly he has lost more than me and he hasn’t been on a diet! It may be down to lack of apples to supplement his diet but Mum is concerned.
The soonest he can have his operation is Thursday next week. After that it will take him a little while to recover. Unfortunately, that was when Mum and I were going on our little trip together to Cornwall. She has made quite clear that she would do the same for me, and that caring for us comes before everything. We’ve cancelled our trip away and will be here to take care of Aristotle and hold his paw until he’s fully recovered.
Now we’ve just got our paws crossed that Ari will come through the operation all right and that the lumps will turn out not to have been serious.
Love
Wilma
Discover more from Alfie's Diary
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
