Diagnosis Part II

Up until the point that I was handing Cassie off to the tech to go in for the MRI, I was feeling pretty confident. Or, I was successfully tamping down my fears about where this could be going. The reading I'd done hadn't been promising, but I was managing to avoid thinking about it.

Unfortunately, later that day the neurologist called with results. She started by telling me how well the MRI had gone, and that Cassie was now up and walking around, having shaken off the anasthesia. Silently I was impatiently waiting for her to tell me what the RESULTS were. Finally, she did. Cassie had a brain tumor. The neurologist spoke with a french accent and I tried to write down what kind of tumor it was, phonetically. We agreed that Maxine & I would come in at 4pm to pick up Cassie, go over the MRI images, and talk about treatment options.

I immediately called Maxine and gave her the bad news. Funny how it's easier to just think you're dog is going to die by the time she's 12, than it is to think she has a tumor inside her brain...

I started trying to research the phonetically spelled tumor name. I began to think I'd spelled it pretty badly as the search results seemed to suggest that it was a meningioma. I called back the vet's office and was told that she was out, so they couldn't confirm the tumor type. A few hours later I was able to confirm it.

So, the good news. This is the most brain tumor, for dogs as well as humans. The bad news, it's a tumor.