Pet Health and the Risk of Loving

Misty, as you recall, had surgery last month to remove a couple of lumps. I never did come back and post about the pathology results. For all the puppy lovers, my mini-schnauzer had a hemangioma and a melanoma, both of them benign.

The hemangioma was in her neck, blood filled, but not visible like a birthmark. It was more like a fluid filled lump, below the skin that kept growing over the past year.

The melanoma was black and almost circular. It had started out flat and even with the skin, but over the course of the year, it too increased in size and raised above the skin.

She is fine, and her scars are healing well. The hair has already grown over them, and they are no longer visible. Since the surgery, however, I have trimmed her coat, and darn if I didn't find two more flat black places that look just like the one that was removed! I see another vet visit for her in the future.

I did a little research on the melanoma in dogs. Here's what I found out:

"Melanoma is more common in dogs with heavily pigmented coats. Airedales, Scottish terriers and spaniels are reportedly predisposed; in our study, Schnauzers had more than four times as many melanomas as expected."  (Dr. Margaret Miller, University of Missouri)

Misty does have a darker pigmented skin and coat. She's almost a dark grey beneath her coat of grey. Apparently, it isn't as much related to exposure to sunlight as it is for humans. Seems to be a genetic thing, more to do with an error during cell division than exposure to sunlight. 

Dr. Jaime Modiano writes "Melanomas also can occur in the mouth, toes, or behind the eye. In general, skin melanomas tend to be benign, and those in the mouth, toes, or eyes tend to be malignant. However, there are many exceptions to this rule."

Interesting.

What I don't know about canine health would scare me if I knew! The things that can make our puppies sick and take them away from us are often not an inkling of a concern when we first become a pet owner.

I think most folks don't research pet predispositions to diseases (I didn't) ... I think most of us find a breed we like, or just fall in love with those big brown (or blue, or grey) puppy eyes and wagging tails. Sure, we'll get them fixed, we'll keep their shots up to date, and we'll spoil them rotten. But they can have serious diseases, just like we humans have, and then some.

If I had known of these things, would I have made the commitment and brought them into our lives so that we would fall in love with them and become attached to them, just so we could feel the pain of their loss when they died?

That leads me to all the things that can go wrong in the course of having a baby and raising a child. If I really knew how fragile this life is, would I have conceived? If I really knew (when you are young, you really don't think about those kinds of things) how devastated I would be if my baby were to die, or if my child were to die while I was a young mother, I probably never would have conceived or given birth. If I really knew.

I would have been too scared to risk that kind of loss, that kind of pain.

I've known others who realized the truth of that risk, and they did lose a child. They tell me it is the nightmare that I only imagine it would be. There is no getting over it. Life goes on, but you don't really get over it.

While losing a pet may feel like losing a child, losing a child is not like losing a pet.

But I didn't know the risks of loving and losing. I conceived and gave birth, and he was healthy. He had a good childhood, and I had a great motherhood experience. His life brings me great joy to this day. If I died tomorrow, I'd be happy, no ...  I'd be grateful, for the life I was given, and for the privilege of being his mother.

I think about my sister becoming a grandmother for the I-don't-know-how-manyth-time, and Jackie (SiennaStar) experiencing a rebirth of her own with Garrett. I realize that we take that risk every time we fall in love with our new babies. Whether our children, or new grandbabies, our friend's babies... we fall in love with them because that's what mothers do best.

I have fallen in love with babies born to church members, and at their Baptism I experience that same kind of feeling: that now I am responsible for some part of their living and growing up. I am responsible for loving them, guiding them, teaching them, watching them, and watching out for them. As the years go by, I may be on the sidelines or in the shadows of their lives. The child may never really be aware of it, but I am there ... loving them, praying for them, encouraging, supporting, and guiding them.

As we all do for other children in our lives. Some of us do it naturally, and others do it with sacrifice and effort. Just the same, someone is watching over the children in our lives.

But what about the children not in our lives? Who is watching over them? It's easy to think "Well, someone else is doing that." or "Their community is doing that... there are other villages raising those other children."

That's not always true ...no, that's not always true. It's whispered in our minds, but we don't want to know about that. Why? Because it's painful to think about. We know what those far away mothers are feeling for their babies in harm's way. It hurts us to think about it, so we don't.

I didn't realize where I was going with this entry. I thought I was going to merely update about my dog's health. Then it led into my concern over their health, and wanting to maintain their health. Which carried me into thoughts about the fragileness of life, of bonding with babies, and taking care of the children in my village versus other villages.

This is going somewhere, and I know where it is going, but I'm really not able to expound upon that tonight. I will address it again another entry.

Who is responsible for taking care of the children of the world?Please e-mail me or leave a comment.