Monday, September 28, 2009

Malignancy Ignorancy

So just a quick note. I've been thinking about this dog that came into work the other week. Before even going into the appointment, I was warned by the receptionist that the owner could be a 'real handful'. Great. Grand. Wonderful. It sounded like something to make my awesome day at work top off the charts. In I go. As I open the door, before me I see two Huskies connected by leash to a mother-daughter owner duo. Basically the first paragraphs out of the woman's mouth are that she's already spent $1500 on her dog to find out what is wrong and blah blah blah. I just smile and say I understand.

So to spare a bunch of details, the woman's dog has a mass in it's chest that needs to be surgically removed. The mass has already been biopsied and came back as cancer. The dog needs a CT scan before surgery so the surgeon knows exactly to what and where the mass is connected. This is a major surgery involving chest tubes and such, and is potentially high risk. It also cost a ballpark of 6 grand.

So the woman is in sticker shock at first, but decides she wants surgery. But wait! No! We're not going to do surgery now, but in a few months, because she wants to use the dog as a stud dog to produce a litter of pups. Well here you go lady, take a handful of the oncologist's cards and pass them out with each puppy that finds its new home, so when that puppy get's cancer, it knows where to go.

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