Mike Heasley

Last month one night, Sasha was up all night coughing and occasionally trying to throw up. It may have been the luckiest night of her life.

She went to the vet the next day where they performed some tests and monitored her for a few hours. X-rays revealed air trapped in her esophagus¹, which was probably the cause of the coughing. Far more importantly, a tumor was discovered on her left lung.

Probable cancer.

The cough went away in a few days, but we had bigger things to tackle. Just like her dad, she went in for a CT scan² that confirmed the mass. Click the image to see an animation of all the CT slices (3.4 MB):


(click any image to enlarge)
It was good news, though: only a single, solitary mass could be seen in the CT, dramatically reducing the chances that anything had already spread to other parts of the body. We had caught it early, so she would be an excellent candidate for surgery.


Sasha came home the day after surgery, wearing a cone of shame, missing a good bit of the fur on her left side, and minus a piece of lung. While there was some evidence of pain the first few days, she took it well, as the medication seemed to be helping. In fact, we were surprised at how soon she was getting around at normal speeds. The vets said that dogs heal very quickly, and they weren't kidding.


Just three days after she came home, Sasha was able to rip the bandage by scratching with her hind legs. I took her back to the surgery center to have them re-bandage her, but they said the wound looked great and just took it off.


To prevent further scratching and bothering the wound, we changed strategies, replacing the cone of shame with something a little more human(e).


Hey, nice shirt!


Today she got the stitches removed, two weeks after surgery. Everything's looking good.


Never before has Sasha's Livestrong collar been more appropriate.