The Final Report is in

THE FINAL PATHOLOGY REPORT for Noodle has been returned -- I'll begin with saying that just prior to the surgery to amputate his leg, an oncologist looked at Noodle's x-rays and suggested that the cancer may be in his knee joint, and was not osteosarcoma (bone cancer) like we had thought. This gave us something to hope for. 

And those hopes were raised when the preliminary biopsy report made no mention of bone cancer, but  instead, mentioned synovial cell sarcoma -- I'd never heard of it, so I looked it up. 

**Synovial cell sarcoma, also known as joint cancer, is a soft tissue cancer that affects a dog's joints. The best treatment for synovial cell sarcoma in dogs is amputation of the affected limb. The surgery must be wide and deep to remove all of the tumor tissue, and a large margin of healthy tissue should be removed around the visible mass. In some cases, amputation may be the only way to be curative.

With that, all we could do was wait for the final report. And the final report confirmed what we were all hoping for, that Noodle's cancer was confined to his knee joint - With clear and extended margins from the amputation with no signs that it metastasized, and no signs of osteosarcoma, we are confident that Noodle's surgery has been curative. 

It was truly the best news. I cannot express the relief and gratitude I am feeling - That feeling of gratitude also extends to the rescue for their deciding to do the amputation surgery when we were so unsure of what the outcome would be. It has, without a doubt, given Noodle a bright future.