Max's 1st Biopsy

We left at 6am the next morning after Max's diagnosis to head back to Animal Surgical Center for Max to have his 1st biopsy.

We had to drop him off at 8am and we couldn't pick him up till 4pm. Thankfully we had family in town visiting us for a few weeks so they were able to stay with Sammy Lammington while we were gone all day.

The drive up was a tear filled trip as we processed everything and let our hearts rip open before God. We still couldn't believe what was happening.

The biopsy for today wasn't invasive. Max would get sedated because they would need him to be very still. The doctor would use a live ultrasound to guide her to the right spot where she would insert a needle and draw out cells that would then be sent to a pathologist for testing. We would get the results in a few days.

We left Max and had 8 hours to kill so we drove around trying to find something to do. We realized how close we were to Bronners (Christmas Store near Frankenmuth, Mi) so we decided to head that way. Every year we go to Bronners around the holidays to get personalized ornaments made for both boys. We thought it would be too difficult to get this done later, not knowing what would lie ahead in the months to come, so we took the opportunity now.

If you didn't know this about me - I am a Christmas
fanatic. I love everything about the holiday

season and try to embrace all there is from the Christmas music, to putting up our tree on Halloween (This has been a decade long tradition) so that I can enjoy it for as along as possible. I usually do a "12 days of Christmas" with the dogs, hanging signs around their necks and putting silly hats and clothes on them. They put up with me and do it for the treats. :)

I have always loved the feel and the hustle & bustle of the holidays and going to Bronner's Christmas Wonderland has always been something I've looked forward to every year.

This trip was very different. We walked around the 320,000sq ft building in a daze. There was nothing exciting or fun about it. Even the Christmas displays and piped in Christmas music did nothing for us. We walked around and tried to hold back our tears with every step we took.

Walking by the baby ornament section has always been difficult for us and when we see it in the distance, we take deep breaths and then start a quick conversation so as we walk by as fast as possible, and be focused on something else. The same sadness and grief happened as we entered the pet section of the store. We held hands and looked through all the dog ornaments looking for the pawfect one for our Maxie, knowing it would most likely be the last one we'd buy for Max while he was still with us.

More tears. We picked out a few ornaments and stood in line to have them personalized with their names and once the artist was finished, we were ready to go. We didn't want to meander and stay. We just wanted to leave and get back to our Max.

We drove around for a few more hours and then called around 12pm to see how Max was doing. He hadn't had his procedure done yet. Deep sigh. They said they were getting him prepped and should be done around 1pm and then we could pick him up at 4pm.

We went and found a restaurant and ordered some drinks and spent a few hours researching what we could about his cancer and what others had experienced. This was the start of what would be extensive research on TCC (transitional cell carcinoma).

Finally, we were told Max was ready and that we could come back and pick him up so we headed that way. We could hear Max coming before he even got to our room. He was so excited to see us but incredibly groggy and out of it. His back legs didn't work too well and he looked more like a dog that was just coming off an all night binge.

Max only had a small puncture near his private area where the needle had gone in. He didn't need any stitches or medication and once his sedation wore off, he should be back to normal. He was super groggy and slept the entire way home and for the rest of the night.

Now, we hurry up and wait.

We had to wait to get the results and pray our hearts out to God that the doctor was wrong and that it is indeed just a bad infection that needed some help.

So we waited.

1 day
2 days
3 days
4 days.

We waited.

During our wait, our entire family that were staying with us from out of town all got sick. Like really sick. We had to take all 3 of them to the urgent care and this began 2 weeks of having a house full of sick people. We had everything happening with Max which was taking an emotional toll and now our poor family caught something awful from the airplane and they were all so sick.

I am convinced my family took one for the team, and that God had that happen to help keep us from going insane while we waited for Max's test results. We were too busy taking care of our family and Max to really have any time to worry.

God always knows what we need when we need it.

Colin had taken 3 weeks off work while his family was here and his first day off was when we had gotten Max's cancer diagnosis. He went from being a Network Engineer to a care-taker and nurse. It is difficult when 1 person in your family gets sick but when you have 3 adults sick, 2 with already compromised immune systems, it takes care-taking to a whole new level.

We were thankful our family was there for support and thankful they were there during our wait.
Colin and I were VERY intentional about keeping our hands clean and sanitizing the house so that we didn't get what everyone else had. We couldn't get sick right now. We just couldn't. We had too much on our plates and we had others to take care of.

We were washing our hands so much that they were cracked and bleeding. We were popping vitamins and zinc, trying to stay healthy and focused on the needs of everyone, including Sammy Lammington, that had taken a backseat to everyone else's needs.

We needed to stay healthy.

We were doing well and everything was fine.... until it wasn't.