Midori...

Don't worry, Midori is still alive and kickin'. We had a rough couple of weeks with her too though. The same vet appointment that sealed Mister's fate also brought some news I wasn't expecting for Midori. She had just recently come up lame, which is not like her at all. She also had a small bump on her belly that had just recently gotten bigger. The vet wasn't particularly worried about the bump, but offered to remove it with a simple surgery and send it in for testing, so that's what we did. We did a lameness exam and concluded it was either an abscess or bruising. I left with antibiotics because of the surgery and instructions to soak and pack her foot, in case it was an abscess. Goodie, my favorite.

She trotted out sound after just a day, so that made me happy. Must have been bruising. The vet appointment was Thursday afternoon. The vet said she would probably have results back on the bump on Monday. Saturday afternoon I received a rather panicked sounding voice mail from the vet asking me to call her back as soon as I could. I honestly don't remember much of that conversation, other then the lump was a fibrosarcoma which is a malignant tumor. After some good ol' internet research, I was pretty much freaking out thinking my horse was dying. Everything that I read said that it is a very aggressive tumor that is difficult to get rid of unless caught early and removed entirely. It spreads quickly and there is really not much to be done about it. Great. Fan-flipping-tastic.

So two weeks, Christmas, a bunch of swelling, a second round of antibiotics and a whole lot of freaking out later, we went back to the vet on New Year's Eve to get her stitches out and have "the talk" in person. I was afraid to hope for good news and trying not to think of the possible bad news. I was pretty darn nervous.

Luckily, the news was all good. Great even. The lump was dermal so it shouldn't have spread internally. The margins on the removal were good, so it was all removed and the vet was confident that we caught it early. Of course I will still need to keep an eye out, there is always a chance that it may come back, but for now, that was the best news I could have asked for.

Better yet, she said I could ride her "immediately". I just needed to use my "best judgement" on how hard I ride. Well, I'm pretty sure her "immediately" and my "immediately" were a little different. She probably had a different idea for "best judgement" as well. Oops.

As soon as Midori was awake enough after being sedated, I loaded her up and headed straight to the arena. She was still a little drunk, so we just walked with a little bit of jogging. She had been pretty wound up before the vet, so it was probably a good thing she was still a little doped up, no funny business. Even though we took it easy and she was still a little drunk, it was one of the best rides I've had on her. I was so stinking happy that she seems to be okay!