I'm cross posting this onto both the FML and the FHL.
 
As you all know, I lost my boy Socks April 22.  The preliminary autopsy
report stated huge adrenal mass.  In January Socks had adrenal surgery,
and it was the right adrenal, the largest that the vet had ever seen.
There was no way to take it with laser surgery and so they did cryosurgery.
Socks responded well, grew coat back, gained weight.
 
On 4/22 he was gone.  He didn't look good the 20th, the 21st I got him to
his vet at Purdue and onto antibiotics, the 22nd I lost him.
 
I've faxed the report to both the surgeon and to Dr. Williams.  The surgeon
called me and told me (Dr. Williams I hope I get this correct) that the
adrenal, although it looked fine on the outside, was totally invasive to
the vena cava and surrounding area, and spread cancer into Socks.  From the
sound of it, this was also what was causing his lung problems.  His last
few hours, besides the cancer, were compounded by liver failure, a back up
of enzymes into his system.  The vet told me there was absolutely nothing
I could have done for him-that I'd done my best by having him go through
surgery.
 
Now I notice that Alix' tail is thin.  My question to any one who cares to
respond, and I really hope you do is this.  If you have your ferret taken
into surgery, and it's like Socks' tumor-huge, absolutely positively huge
(it had even caused the blood flow to move), and the tumor looks normal,
would you allow your ferret to wake up from this surgery knowing that
something this size and degree is possibly cancer?  Having gone through
this with Socks I now have all sorts of doubts in my mind.  WHat if I take
Alix into surgery and she has the same type of tumor as Socks?  Do I give
her a couple of more months to possibly die in the way Socks did, or do I
just let her pass to the Rainbow Bridge, knowing that this may not possibly
be cancer, but afraid to let her suffer anymore?  I am so torn by this.  I
even asked the vet if I did the right thing, did I do the wrong thing by
putting him through surgery?  I knew from the ultrasound how huge this
thing was.  You could see where the blood flow had re-routed itself.  But
I didn't know it was cancer, although with something this huge and this
invasive I perhaps should have.  But this was my first time dealing with
adrenal.  Fang had her surgery, and thank God it was the left-no problems,
not all that huge, laser took it all.  But now there's Alix, my little girl
with the partly broken spirit.  I don't know that this is adrenal, but just
in case it is, tell me your views.
 
For the folks of the FML-I'm asking this in an open forum-I don't want
flames, blames, whatever.  Think rationally, answer rationally.  Yes, what
I've asked is emotional, it's gut wrenching.  I know-I've just gone through
it, and even though it's been over a month, I still cry for Socks and
wonder if I really did do the right thing for him.  So please, don't get
hyper or bent out of shape, start flinging barbs, accusations.  That's not
what this post is about.  It's asking for your views.  I know deep in my
heart that I will probably have Alix go through surgery if necessary, and
no doubt will let her wake up, even if it is a terrible tumor, but please,
tell me your views.
 
Rebecca & the Crew of Merry Mayhem
"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy, and =
 taste good with ketchup"
[Posted in FML issue 3437]