We got the biopsy results last night. His tumor is malignant. We're probably looking at something like three months, unless we choose to do chemo--in which case we might get five to six months but there are complications for that option as well and the nearest place to have it done is a three hour round-trip.
We haven't made a decision yet. For now, we're focusing on getting him recovered from his surgery and back to his normal old goofy self. We have a follow-up appointment with his surgeon next week Thursday in which we'll discuss more fully what possible next steps might be.
Meanwhile, he is recovering well from his surgery. He's feeling good enough now that he's not keen on his restrictions, but he's still such a good boy. He could easily bulldoze his way past the chairs I've got set up keeping him limited to the family room but he doesn't. He lets me put his cone on with no argument whenever I'm not going to be right at his side to keep an eye on him. He's being okay about being on the leash to do what he needs to do outside even though he sees his tennis balls spotted about the backyard, beckoning him.
He does, however, whine pathetically if I leave the room for any length of time, which is creating some issues with my work life. I have a small laptop I can use for some things but it's difficult to do what I really need to be getting done this week without access to my full computer and large monitor in my office, so Sam and I will need to come to a compromise of some sort. He's also not keen on the heat pack I need to put on his wound four or five times a day. I put one together by stuffing one of my hand-dyed bamboo socks (the only one I have big enough) with rice, knotting the end of it, and microwaving it. I'm careful about the temperature, so I think for him it's mostly the feel of anything up against the incision. The way his wound is situated, I prop it on the floor against the incision while he's laying on his side, but I have to sit on the floor right next to him and hold him down (mostly by petting him but it's a "firm" pet) for 20 minutes to keep him from wiggling away from it. I'd like to say it's a bonding time but we're both tolerating it, at best. We'd both rather be playing with tennis balls, for sure.
I won't be doing any more full updates like this, but you'll likely still be seeing him pop up on my feed on occasion. I'm anxious to get him well enough that I can take him for walks on the canal on my rest days from my 5k training. I miss having my buddy with me when I'm running the canal, but he wouldn't be up for the pace I'm currently at. But he needs to be able to greet his canal path fan base again.