Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Aunt Annie's Comment Starts A Brawl

So Suzi reads me Aunt Annie's comment regarding Luke to which I respond, "honey, it's not sore joints. It's the tumor behind his leg. It get's sore from getting knocked around for a couple miles." All 4 children are standing in the room when this exchange takes place. They all know he has those lumps, and maybe they have heard me talk about the tumors, but maybe they have never put two and two together.

Sam asks "does he have cancer?!" All 4 kids eyes on me, and I answer "no....well......I don't think so. The vet say's probably not."

Sam states "you should get it removed." Hannah "yeah dad get it fixed." I answer "well that would cost thousands of dollars, and I don't think I want to do that."

I then make the mistake of saying "listen if he has cancer it won't make a difference, and if he doesn't I don't want to have it treated because it costs a lot of money." (FYI he has more than one tumor.)

Sam then tears up and says "Does he have cancer or not! Dad it's LUKE. You have to get it fixed!" Hannah falls down and starts crying. Georgia is getting teary too, and Patrick does what Suzi does when she gets nervous. He leaves the room. Hannah askes "what are we going to do if he has cancer?" I shouldn't have answered that question. Not smart. Hannah "Why would you put him down!" Me, "listen, he doesn't have cancer! I don't think....so let's not worry about that."

It takes me a good 10 minutes to get everyone calmed down and reassured that Luke is going to be ok. Everyone is still convinced I'm a bad guy. I make a statment to calm things down "listen guys, if Luke is relatively healthy and the tumor becomes a big problem we'll get him taken care of." Now looking back at it, I'm sure I will be held to that.

2 comments:

Andrea said...

So sorry to start the brawl.

You know I am a HUGE dog lover so anything that can be done for the furry members of the family...I say "go for it". But that's me. After all....you are soooo close to UC Davis -- one of the primo vet/pet medical schools in the nation.
Wishing health & happiness to Lukers!!

R. Jeffrey Davis said...

I swear that they was a tv sitcom that had this same situation. I can't remember which. Anyhow, it is a predicament. For what's it's worth I'd gladly pay for surgery for the family dog over the crap that I have to fork out money for.