Relieved

Kristin was petting Annana on Sunday night when she discovered a small lump on Annana's abdomen. I went over and felt it too and it was definitely not something we had noticed before. A quick check of the "Dog Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook" informed us that lumps such as this on the abdomen could possibly be a tumor, and not necessarily benign. We took a deep breath, each of us silently thinking to ourselves that we knew this day might come. Annana is 8 years old and in seemingly good health, but detecting this lump suddenly had us second-guessing everything she's done lately. Kristin commented that she thinks Annana was peeing more frequently. I commented that she seems to spend too much time alone. We were worried.

The doctor we usually take our dogs to see wasn't available on Monday and although Kristin was ready to schedule with anyone, I was able to convince her to wait for the doctor we and our dogs know. After all, it's not like an extra day or two would make a big difference and the doctor Kristin originally scheduled an appointment with was one we already had a bad experience with. This could end up being something really serious and it was important that we didn't start off with the wrong doctor.

So I took Annana to the vet this morning (she doesn't mind going, the hard part is getting Kimo to stay put while I try to leave without him) and Dr. Chan came in the room with Annana's chart and asked if this was about the lump she found in Annana's belly in April.

"I don't think so, I never heard anything about a lump found on her in April."

"Yeah, it's on her chart."

She then started feeling Annana's belly and confirmed that yep, this was the one she apparently told us about back in April. It's just a fatty deposit, much like the one on Annana's chest (she's had that one most of her life). And sure enough, she did write it on the chart back in April.

Kristin took the dogs for checkups and shots before our trip to Utah and, apparently in the commotion of getting ready for the trip, Kristin completely forgot about the lump detection. Which is understandable since Dr. Chan assured us it was nothing to worry about.

So, when all was said and done, we had our first semi-scare regarding our dogs' health but it ended up being nothing to worry about. I wasted 5 minutes of the doctor's time, and about an hour of my own, but at least we have peace of mind now. Through it all though, it was nice knowing that we do have health insurance for the dogs for when this isn't a false alarm. Which I hope we never have to use.

Clean bill of health!