Boyd's surgery scheduled.....

Blogger etiquette says I should break this up into several small posts. Well, we will see.

Saturday we took Boyd to the vet at Green River Veterinary Clinic for his "second opinion" on the supposed tumor which I continually said looked like a Colon polyp. Dr. Smith and Paula were both so nice. Dr. Smith took the time to pet Boyd and kind of Bond with him before examining him, which I thought was nice.

He did a rectal exam and immediately found that his glands were full on one side again, and then found the "mass" which he looked at and said "It's a polyp!" and I was like (to myself - see, see see! my Almost 4 years in healthcare and around the endoscopy unit and my free Medical Terminology Classes paid off!) and then he went on to describe his recommended method of treatment. He said instead of doing surgery, with an incision, in such a sensitive area, we should probably think of strangulation methods instead. He said that inside the rectal cavity is an area highly prone to infections and healing in there would be difficult and could pose problems that would be dangerous to Boyd's health.

I know when he said strangulation I was right with him, my years in agriculture and as a farm kid with cattle, we used (and still do) a method of castration that includes a rubber band at birth and eventually it just falls off. Now to you city folk, this must seem alarming, and to you PETA people, just plain go away. It's actually the most painless and uncomplicated method of castration. So anyway, sidebar.

Boyd will get put under, then they will make a tourniquet around the polyp, and it should fall off and shed itself, due to lack of circulation. And all of this is "outpatient" and he can go home the same day and return in about 10 days for a follow up exam to see if it has shed itself. Next came our discussion about price. $35 for anesthetic and $150 for surgery. That's all under $200. We decideds not to send the sample away because doc agreed with me that even if it was cancerous, we wouldn't want to put him through chemotherapy. Dr. also thought that from the type and size of the polyp, that it isn't the invasive type and is likely not cancerous. He said that we should remove it, both for comfort, and because if it is cancerous and we just leave it, it will spread and cause a quicker death and more problems.

So his price quote was about 1/3 that of the other veterinarian office. And his demeanor was great, and his office staff and vet assistant are great, and so ladies and gentlemen, we have a new vet! That makes us an official family of Vet whores. So June 5th, Monday, Boyd goes in for surgery at 8am.

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