Conversations and Revelations With Amy

So, when my baby 13 year old shih tzu was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in her jaw, there was almost nothing out there to help guide me in my decisions. Nothing. Had no one gone through this before? Had no vet written about this? I was at a loss. The vet coldly told me that Greta, my shih tzu was older so I could always put her down. I was offended and almost freaked out all over the walls of the tiny exam room. How dare you be so insensitive to suggest that? Of course I knew that was an alternative, but in my fragile state, I wanted to strike her and hard. This was my child, you imbecile. Tell me my options before even say that I could just cut her life short.

We opted for surgery. It was a removal of part of her jaw. Many dogs had gotten by just fine after this surgery. During the surgery, they called and said that it had spread and that it would be almost all of her lower jaw to be removed. We gave the ok. We had a hard time after the surgery. She looked so different and was in pain from the surgery. Why was there not more out there to tell me how to deal with this? The cancer specialist/surgeon had not prepared me at all. Their suggestions on how to care for her were way off. We found our way and finally got through it after figuring out what Greta needed. After a week, Greta was happy and eating. Thank god. We had had so many bottles of wine trying to figure out if we had done the right thing that night we brought her home. I finally had found a happy rhythm of how to feed her, clean her and make her happy. I had no guidance but my strong will to make sure my baby was happy and adjusting.

After this period of recovery and adjustment, I wrote a long piece online about my experience. It was sharing how I decided to have the surgery, how I cared for her, and how I found a way to feed her and make her happy. I posted this into a site. I wanted to put this out there for anyone going through this hardship. Since then I have had 12 responses thanking me for my story.  The responses were from people who had questions and wanted my input. My husband even spoke to someone on the phone who was struggling with this possibility and needed our input. I am truly touched by every email thanking me for sharing and telling me how it helped them through a tough time or how my story helped them find a way to feed their animal when he would not eat. I saw how much we needed each other. We need people to share their different stories online so that we may find our way in difficult times.

If you have gone through something where you learned some lesson, share it. It will help more than you know. Thank god for the internet. Use it to reach out. What do you do when you are diagnosed or find out that a certain situation is staring you in the face? You google it. Be the voice of experience for someone. You never know when you will need this online community to help you through a new and difficult time.