Precious's Pals
In 2021, my dog Precious developed a small bump on her stomach. We did an initial test and the results came back benign and our veterinarian believed it wasn't a problem, especially since it wasn't bothering her and she was able to continue living her life like normal.
A year later and the small bump, now known as The Bump, had grown into a larger mass on her stomach. While still not overly concerning to our veterinarian, I elected to have it surgically removed since it was persistent and had grown in size. After being sent off for analysis, we got a diagnosis that turned our world upside down: what had appeared to be a harmless mass was actually a medium-grade small tissue sarcoma.
The next step in our journey was to visit a specialist who performed a second surgery on the area to revise the scar and remove more surrounding tissue to extract any remaining cancer cells. The second surgery was a success and before long Precious was back to her healthy and happy self, and living her best life.
Every additional day I've had with Precious has been an absolute joy and gift. Not everyone is as lucky as we were when having to deal with a cancer diagnosis and things could've gone very differntly if I hadn't elected to have the mass removed when I did. My hope is that through the efforts of Czar's Promise, we can further the research surrounding animal cancer to improve treatment and prevention, and increase awareness so it can be diagnosed earlier and increase the likelihood of survival in animals so more people are able to have full and happy lives with their pets that Precious and I could've so easily lost.
