PTSD

"You're not the same as you were before. You were much more muchier.  You've lost your muchness." ~ the Mad Hatter to Alice in "Alice in Wonderland"


On Sunday I found a reddish, purplish* lump on Asa's chin (do dogs really have chins?  I guess it's under his mouth and above his neck), which I thought might be a metastasis. Sure, he's a lumpy, bumpy old man, but I've never seen a reddish, purplish one before.  It must be related to his blood-based cancer, right?  I mean, what other reason could there be for a reddish, purplish* lump?  (* Reddish, purplish is my scientific description)  And I'll admit, I've researched his cancer online many, many times over the past 20 months... and what do you know, the low-res pictures of a skin hemangiosarcoma look a lot like his lump.  Or a million other things... Armchair quarterbacking seldom pays off, kids.


Convinced he was going to collapse on me that very day thanks to a 0.5 cm bump, I called the vet school's emergency weekend number, AND I used his oncologist's personal email address to show her a picture.  Overreact much??  I've probably become that annoying OCD client they dread.  But hey, MY dog is the one who has outlived expectations, so I'm ok with being the crazy lady.


Sidebar - as of today, HAPPY 20 MONTHS CANCER-FREE, ASA!!

(Photo by Alecia Lauren Photography)

So I was freaking out and decided to take him to the vet school 1st thing Monday morning. I figured we had 3 potential situations here: 

1. It's nothing and I'm freaking out for no reason (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE)
2. It's a small hemangiosarcoma of the skin and can be removed by simple surgery 
3. It's a hemangiosarcoma metastasis and has internal friends, which could be a dealbreaker

Fast forward.  Yes I overreacted.


They're 100% sure it's not a hemangiosarcoma skin tumor.  Apparently it looks nothing like that, despite my extensive "knowledge" from low-res images on Wikipedia :)  They're 99% sure it's not cancer at all, but since it was irritated and inflamed (which can mask cancer cells), we have to go back next week for another test just to make sure.  I get the honor of putting warm compresses and Neosporin on his chin twice a day until then (not easy with a dog who doesn't like to do anything new).


I'm so relieved.  And I'm also ok with overreacting.  Better safe than sorry, though my blood pressure probably doesn't want another hit like that anytime soon!
Tell me about your experience:

1. Do you get unnecessarily or irrationally worried about little things related to your pet's health?  More so because they've had cancer?  
2. Do you try to armchair QB your pet's (or child's) health?
3. Have you ever successfully armchair QB'd your pet's (or child's) health?