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Waiting for the doctor at the CSU Cancer Center

Last week we took our first trip to the CSU Cancer Center. What an experience! After working in health care for a long time it's amazing to see how similar our hospitals and an animal hospital work. I have been telling people, imagine one of our waiting rooms and just attach a leash with an animal to each patient. The hospital really is a zoo!

Taylor officially has a case number and received a cute patient collar (just like the patient bands you get at the hospital). We were assigned a wonderful student Allison and oncologist Dr. Beckwith. Just like human hospitals we got to do a lot of waiting and reading.

They visited with us to learn Taylor's health history, about the tumor and what we expected from this initial consultation... I happily shared that we wanted to understand our treatment options and determine next steps. We chose to run an additional chest x-ray and aspiration of the site to better understand what we were dealing with. We left Taylor at the Cancer Center for a couple hours for these tests and to visit with all of the specialists.

During that time, Jim and I were able to enjoy a break at our Alma Mater - Colorado State University. After getting lost (although I still stand that I pretty much knew where we were), we found the clothing at the bookstore so I could update my tattered sweatshirt from my sophomore year. Then back to the vet hospital to pick Taylor up.

It sounds like we have three primary options that will be considered when making the recommendation for next steps:

1. wait and watch
2. exploratory surgery (since the tumor is currently gone)
3. radiation

I was hoping to leave the Cancer Center with a complete care plan. I am coming to terms that I'm not going to get a plan, most likely just a next step. Now, we just patiently wait for the call from Dr. Beckwith with their recommended next step (and I'm still hoping for a plan).

Patience... not that's something I'm not really good at!