A Growing Tumor

As I write this, it's about 3:00 on Sunday afternoon and I'm going swimming as soon as I'm done. I head to Los Angeles tomorrow for a few days and I'm excited because I'm working on several projects plus speaking there. But the trip is tempered by the fact that Daisy's tumor has grown. While we've been doing the Chines herbs and giving her homemade food for the week, it still grew. Tomorrow she sees a new oncologist who we have been told has had good luck shrinking these kinds of tumors. I'm guessing that while I'm gone this week, she will be getting chemo or radiation. It's hard to watch her. She can't decide if she should hobble on three legs, drag the leg with the tumor on her hip, or limp. She tries all three. She is mostly alert and wants to be a part of family life as much as the tumor will allow her. We have been wondering if maybe Daisy hurt her leg on August 30 when chasing Hattie and that caused the tumor to explode. The holistic vet told Joe this was possible. That makes me think that possibly we have been given more time with Daisy, a chance to give her a longer life because these kinds of tumors usually give no warning and are a death sentence for all dogs (I have yet to hear of one that lived longer than two years after diagnosis). It's possible that if she hadn't hurt her leg, the cancer would have spread across her body and it would have been too late for us to help her by the time she became listless from it and found out it had spread into her internal organs. From where I'm standing now, I don't understand why this is happening. I realize that one day I will but it's still a struggle to see why this has happened to such a good dog whose only offense in life was to drag me across the park. My friend Teresa, an intuitive type, believes Daisy was a rescue dog in a past life because any time we have a child in our pool, Daisy is always trying to save the child (usually by trying to grab the raft he or she is swimming on). Teresa suggested that maybe in this life, Joe and I are supposed to rescue Daisy. I'm not sure if that means by my bringing her home as puppy from that 5K race just about five years ago or now with her cancer. We'll know soon enough.