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| Elaine and Dr. Tran in July |
Elaine Tran is Dr. Tran's own 11 year old pit bull mix. Even though
Elaine seemed fine (she had been acting fine, eating fine, etc.) in
September Elaine had a blood test administered as part of a routine
senior and pre-dentistry check-up. Some of the results were somewhat
abnormal but since Elaine was otherwise fine, Dr. Tran decided to
postpone the dentistry and re-retest her a few months later.
In January Dr. Tran proceeded with the follow-up diagnostic tests.
Unfortunately, the follow-up blood test was much worse. It was now
obvious that Elaine, still acting "fine on the outside," was having some
type of serious medical problem. As a result of that follow-up test,
Elaine had an xray, then an ultrasound a few days later. The xray seemed
to show some sort of round mass in her abdomen; the ultrasound
confirmed the mass to be a "splenic mass." Even though the splenic mass
did not appear to be at risk of rupturing, Dr. Tran elected to have it
removed as urgently as possible. Elaine's liver also appeared abnormal
on the ultrasound (which was not surprising considering the abnormal
liver values on her blood test); so the initial plan was to biopsy (to
get some samples for testing) her liver during surgery.
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| Lateral (side) view of Elaine's abdomen. Red arrows outline the round mass on her spleen. |
Less than a week after the ultrasound, Elaine was admitted to Animal
Emergency and Medical Center in Torrance for her splenectomy (surgery to
remove her spleen). Surprisingly, her pre-surgical blood test showed
an anemia that was not there a week ago. The reason was revealed when
the surgeon entered Elaine's abdomen. The splenic mass had developed a
small crack and had started to bleed. The surgeon was met with another
surprise when he checked the liver --- a large mass occupied one of
Elaine's liver lobes. In addition to removing the spleen, the surgeon
had to remove 2 of her liver lobes to completely remove the mass.
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| A 4 -inch mass in Elaine's liver |
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| A 3-inch mass on Elaine's spleen |
Indeed, even though Elaine was "acting fine" on the outside, it is
conceivable that had she not had that surgery, she would, at the
minimum, have developed a hemoabdomen (blood in her abdomen) as her
splenic mass had started to bleed. Or she would have developed more
complications from the liver mass.
The surgery proved complicated and long, but was successful. Still,
her recovery was somewhat difficult. She wouldn't eat or drink and she
remained very weak. When she finally had an appetite, she would vomit
anything she ate the first couple of days. It's been 2 weeks since her
surgery and Elaine is finally showing glimpses of her normal self.
The growths themselves were tested. The growth on Elaine's spleen
was a benign mass -- surgical removal was curative. The growth on her
liver was a well differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma. Although we
have to monitor her other liver lobes (via ultrasound) for recurrence,
the overall prognosis is good for Elaine. We could not have wished for a
better outcome.
Today (February 14th) is Elaine's 12th Birthday.
Thanks to the help from AEMC, we hope to have Elaine with us for many
more to come.
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| Elaine just a couple of weeks after her surgery, February 2013 |
