Sing a Song of Samson

First, the fun news.  Evelynd loves music.  She sings and dances every time she hears music.  She can even match pitch now.  She still gets excited when she see pianos and harps and likes playing the piano with her feet.  She has four books that play music and she loves to read them all multiple times per day (thank you Nana and Grandpa Evans, Nana and Papa Dassow, and Jipping family).

Now, the sad news.  Samson has cancer.

Finally, the whole story.  Yesterday was beautiful.  Clear and pretty mild temperatures.  So I took the whole crew out for a walk.

Every time I have ventured out with all three, people stop, stare, and say something along the lines of, "That's a lot for one person to handle."  Yesterday was no exception.  And I was thinking the same thing.  I thought of how any combination of two is fine, but the third makes it very difficult.  Unfortunately, later that day I found that I may end up with two sooner than I would like.  I had called the vet that morning because Samson was straining every time he tried to poo, he kept biting at his bum, and there was blood left under where he had been sitting for a couple days.

Thursday afternoon was our vet appointment.  Evelynd immediately said, "Cat!" when we walked into the exam room and she saw pictures of cats.  The vet tech was surprised and asked how old Ev was.  When I told her, she said, "Wow!  My daughter's 19 months and not talking yet."  Yes, I have a little chatterbox.

Then, the doctor came in and examined Sam.  There was a very large tumor that was visible to the naked eye and hadn't been visible at his last exam three weeks earlier.  He had also lost another pound and was leaving blood on the vet's floor.  Poor guy.  She said that this was almost certainly malignant and that we could talk about surgery/radiation/chemo with the animal hospital in Portland or consider euthanasia.  I told her we would take him to Portland to get a better idea of our options, but had very little hope.  I called Peter and he took Friday off so he could be there with Sam on what we thought would be his last day.  The vet gave us some antibiotics and stool softeners to help Sam until we could get more information.

We left to head to lessons.  I cried and tried to call my Friday students to cancel between sobs.  I also called a few of Sam's special friends to let them know and give them a chance to say goodbye.  Lessons were hard, but Evelynd always loves to play with Talia Tuggy.

  When we got home, the Jippings came by and brought ice cream.  I got Evie in her pajamas silently.  I usually sing to her, but I was too close to tears.  She looked at me and said, "Ee-i-ee-i-o."  I smiled and sang "Old MacDonald" for her.  It was very sweet of her since the Jippings were there and had given her that book!  She's been singing "Ee-i-ee-i-o" a lot since then.

Today started with a visit from Ed and Lowell Thompson who wanted to say goodbye and get pictures.  Then Carolyn Fu came for her lesson with dog toys, but only pet the dogs instead of playing harp.  Then she took Daisy for a run as we got ready to head to Portland.

We arrived at the vet around 12:30 p.m. and checked Sam in.  It was the same vet where Gino had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died.  Sad memories there.

We met with the vet who did an exam, agreed that it was malignant and said it was a bigger tumor than she had ever operated on.  We discussed our options and decided to have x-rays and an ultrasound to see if the cancer had spread.

While they did this, the humans went out to lunch.  We sat next to a nice man and his 1- and 4-year-old children.  He told us that parenthood only got easier and more fun.  I believe it, although he hasn't hit the teenage years yet.  As soon as we got in the car, we got the phone call.  The good news: the cancer has not spread to Samson's lungs.  The bad news: it has spread to his lymph nodes.  The question we have now is whether we want to have surgery to extend his life a few months, go the full treatment for about 1 1/2 years, or do nothing until his quality of life is really suffering.  We sure love this little guy.  He is incredibly patient and sweet.  We'll have to pray and keep thinking.