Fibrosarcoma - 16th November 2009

I woke up feeling hungry and knew immediately that I was heading to the vet - no breakfast! The vet is across town from us, at least an hour in the traffic going through the city and about 45 minutes if we travel via the Gateway Motorway. I like the trip through town better because I get to stick my head out the window. But we're going Gateway, and the window is up... Bummer.

Our pathology is back. The tumour is an Oral Fibrosarcoma, one of the "big four" oral tumours. It is a local type of tumour, in that it rarely forms secondaries. Even so, because I have had a melanoma (which does form secondaries) I need to have a chest xray and an abdominal ultrasound before we go too far. Just in case.

Mum feels relieved that the tumour is not a melanoma, but doesn't know anything about fibrosarcomas. Dr Rod explains that he can remove the tumour by cutting away part of the top jaw (Premaxillectomy)  - save the canines but remove all the teeth forward of these. He will take wide margins, which means he will try and cut out a wide enough area that any small tumour cells in the tissue are also removed.

I am booked in for surgery on Thursday 19th.