Tate’s path report is in, the diagnosis is histiocytic sarcoma. Good news is, she got 2 cm of clean margins!
Here’s what I know about histiocytic sarcoma: Someone did a retrospective study of synovial cell sarcomas and reclassified the biopsies. Some number of them (over half, I think) were actually histiocytic sarcomas and the outcomes for these was worse than the true synovial cell sarcomas. This is roughly accurate but I don’t have the paper here. Plus I’m not a vet.
Okay, so here’s my philosophy about statistics: Acknowledge them and then discard them. Duly noted, now let’s move on. Two main reasons for this:
1. If they tell you 95% of dogs do well and your dog is in the 5%, that statistic does you no good at all.
2. On the flip side, statistically speaking, my mom should be dead by now. When she was diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer, they told us the 2 year survival rate was 30% and that was with chemo. We stopped her chemo early because she was dangerously close to “failure to thrive”. Two years later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which we chose not to treat at all. And that was almost 2 years ago now. So like I said, she should be dead and she’s not. So there! : )
On the home front, I think Tate has turned the corner. Woke me up early (4:15!) to eat, laid under the tree outside enjoying the great outdoors until the thunder started and I had to bring him in. No panting, no stress, moving pretty well once he got the early-morning kinks out. So thank you for all the positive juju headed his way, keep up the good work!
great news!!! good to hear tate has turned the corner and is feeling more like ‘normal’. sounds like your mom is a fighter too – must be a family trait!! we need a picture of tate under that tree!!
charon & gayle
Yea for Tate!!
I agree with you on stats- after Maggie’s amp she was given 6 to 9 months. She lived almost 4 years, and DID NOT die from mast cell cancer.
You stay positive until there is a real reason not to be. Good for your Mom too.
Karen and the pugapalooza
great news on Tate! And I wholeheartedly agree with not following the statistics! Wow on your Mom! 🙂
Tracy, Maggie’s Mom
Don’t you know, 9 out of 10 statistics are wrong!? 😉
Love it! Tracy and I’s father is the same statistic. Prostate Cancer out of the prostate for about 13 year now. Should be dead. Not! Second cancer, Renal Carcinoma….try to find the survival rates on that one! He’s had no treatment for it, he should be dead…that was about 10 years ago……and actually the last MRI showed it kinda disappeared….hehehe And this is after an MRI was done every year to measure it and confirm it was still there….hehehe
Oh, but he’s very active, eats good foods (less now that he’s 84 years old) and loves the fact of living…..:-)
Love the 9 outta 10 comment Admin! 😉
woo-hoo! You show ’em, Pop! You da MAN!