The visit and the tests lasted more than in the past. Usually I was out at noon, this time they let me go at 2:30 pm!
The vet who runs the CT scans listened to the story of Pallina, from the hyper-T diagnosis, to the therapies and to the I-131 treatment, and was astonished to hear that someone, the first she had ever known of, had gone along that path.
She read all the reports I had with me, then Pallina was taken to the X-ray room. I was her assistant in the process, they gave me a lead robe to protect me from the radiations and helped her hold Pallina on the table.
The image showed a large mass behind her sternum and according to the vet that was an enlarged lymph node. It was many times bigger than the one shown in the ultrasound scan of the past week. In her opinion it had grown quick and that was really bad.
Then they gave Pallina the anesthetic and the CT scan began, I couldn't be there and had to wait in the waiting room.
An hour later the vet came back to me and asked me to follow her to the scan room where she showed me the mass in the chest on the computer screen. It wasn't a lymph node, it was a large amount of fluid that she had drained a few minutes before, 120 ml this time, much more than the amount the other vet drained last week.
This fluid is building up faster and faster!!!
From the scan the only thing that she found was the same lymph node that was detected with the US scan, same size, same position. No other nodes are visible anywhere from the nose tip to the tail.
She made a needle aspiration from that node and we're waiting for the result. She also prepared a sample of that fluid for a special test with a difficult name. They don't do that test in house, so while we were waiting for Pallina to wake up, she sent me to the Veterinary University where they can do this test. The university is about 20 minutes from the clinic.
The doctor at the university was waiting for me, took the sample and told me that tonight or tomorrow morning we should have the report.
This report, along with the needle aspiration, should give us the name of what Pallina has, because the CT scan wasn't enough to understand her problem. So far they don't think it's a lymphoma, but don't know what it is.
She prescribed me a diuretic to allow Pallina to get rid of those fluids, the name of the med is Dimazon, tablets.
When we got back home she started breathing strangely, like a rasping breath from her throat. But it wasn't constant, in some moments I could hear it, in other moments I couldn't.
I suppose it is something to do with the vent tube they put into her mouth/throat during the scan.
If when I go back home she's still rasping then I'll take her to her usual clinic.
That's all.
What a day!
... legwarmers?
