Here, Dr. Scriffignano shares his personal account of his own dog Rocco’s recent cancer diagnosis. This is Part One in a series of articles that will appear subsequently here in The Doctor’s Corner:

The Other Side of the Examination Table

We have all heard the story of a physician suddenly becoming sick and becoming the patient. The experience of sitting on the other side of the examination table opens up a completely different perspective. Well the veterinary version of that situation recently happened to me.

My personal pet, Rocco, a lab/pit-bull mix that I adopted about 9 years ago, became the patient of two other veterinarians. I will explain the whole story:

Rocco

About 9 years ago, a client called my hospital because she rescued a dog that was injured and roaming the streets of Paterson. She didn’t know what to do with him. My hospital policy has always been that we will care for any injured pet whether owned or not, so she was told to bring him right over.

She brought this 60 pound mix breed dog that had multiple bite wounds, lacerations and bruises. Despite all of this, he had gentle and trusting eyes. My wife Liz, who was working as a receptionist, fell in love with him. We already had a Golden Retriever, Ginger, so initially we tried to find Rocco a home. We brought him to our friends’ house to introduce him to their dog but although Rocco was a perfect gentleman, the other dog just couldn’t accept him. After a few hours of trying to have the other dog accept Rocco, we realized that it was hopeless. My friend, the owner of the other dog, felt that we should bring Rocco back to the hospital because it wouldn’t work out.

My son Paul was with me when we tried to introduce the dogs. He had also fallen in love with Rocco and begged me to just bring him home for the weekend and bring him back to the office on Monday. Rocco has been with us since then.

Rocco is an exceptional dog or I should say ‘person.’ Everybody loves Rocco. I have never met anyone that didn’t like Rocco. Contractors who have worked on my house have all wanted to ‘steal’ him. Kids love him, other dogs love him, and our two cats totally trust him. In fact, Copper, our 4 year-old orange male cat, insists on sleeping so close to Rocco that the look on his face is one of desperation for someone to save him from Copper’s attention.

Two years ago, our granddaughter came into our life. Initially we weren’t sure how Rocco would react to an infant but he instantly loved her and accepted anything that she would do to him. He would just look up when she crawled on him and wag his tail and smile-yes I said smile. When you know dogs like I do, you know that they smile and Rocco loves children.

Vague Symptoms Take a Serious Turn

This spring, Rocco seemed to just not feel well. He really didn’t have any specific symptoms but his eyes told me and Liz that something was wrong. I did every conceivable test on him. He had extensive blood testing done, full body X-rays and a complete abdominal ultrasound that I e-mailed to a veterinary radiologist. Everything was normal. A few years ago, Rocco had Lyme disease so even though a current test I did for Lyme disease was negative, I treated him again but he was still not right.

I didn’t know what else to do and then the problem exploded in my face. I was awakened during the night with Rocco having a major seizure. It only lasted about 3 or 4 minutes but Paul ran into the room and we were both shaken by what happened. I tried to downplay it so that the family wouldn’t be upset but inside I was devastated. I knew that at Rocco’s age, the most likely cause was a brain tumor.

A few days later, Rocco had an MRI done and it confirmed a frontal lobe tumor with extensive swelling of the left side of his brain.

I needed to bring Rocco to a neurosurgeon. I was now the pet owner bringing my beloved dog, Rocco, to another veterinarian to help save his life.

The Vet Becomes the Client

Rocco was examined by Dr. Eric Glass, a neurosurgeon, at the Red Bank Veterinary Hospital in Tinton Falls. Dr. Glass evaluated him and his MRI and determined that Rocco had such severe swelling of his brain that he must have been suffering from severe headaches for a number of months. That was exactly how Rocco acted all summer. I felt terrible that my little boy was sick and I didn’t know why.

Liz and I had to make some major decisions regarding Rocco and the care that he needed. He was going to need a very scary and expensive surgery to remove the tumor. We were worried about the outcome and how he would be after the surgery. Liz didn’t want us to not have our Rocco, and we didn’t want him to be in pain and suffer. Dr. Glass assured us that he would not suffer and that although there were some obvious risks with brain surgery, he was confident that the surgery would be successful. He also told us that, most likely, the tumor that Rocco had would need radiation treatments after the surgery to destroy tumor cells that would be left. If we did just the surgery, Rocco would have a lifespan of approximately another three to four months but with radiation that would extend to possibly a few years.

Radiation was another expensive part of Rocco’s treatment but we really didn’t feel like we had a choice. We wanted the best for him - he was a member of our family, actually like our son - so as long as he wouldn’t suffer from the radiation, we were going to give him every chance possible.

Rocco’s Treatment

Rocco had a very successful surgery performed and two weeks later, he started his radiation treatment. Dr. Siobhan Haney, the radiation oncologist, evaluated Rocco and she explained all the details of the radiation treatment. He would need an initial CT Scan to evaluate his brain since the surgery. And she would make some semi-permanent marks on his head. These would be the bulls-eyes for the radiation treatments. He would need twenty treatments and he would need to be anesthetized for each of them. We were given the option of leaving him each week at the hospital and he would be treated each week day. We decided that this would be best for Rocco.

I drop him off on Monday mornings and pick him up Friday afternoons and he is home with us for the weekend. We were surprised after the first week because although we had been forewarned, the tattoo marks on his head still sort of upset us. We were however pleasantly surprised that our Rocco was himself. He was happy to be home and his old personality was coming back. He has now finished two of his four weeks of radiation treatment and although it is upsetting to see our little boy with these tattoos on his head and shaved areas where he has his IV catheters put in for the sedation, we are ecstatic that he feels good.

My son Paul was originally upset because this was the first time that his father was not taking care of one of the family pets. He really only trusted me with their care but now that Rocco is doing so well, we are all so grateful to Dr. Glass the neurosurgeon, Dr. Haney the radiation oncologist who gives Rocco his treatments, and all the hospital staff at the Red Bank Veterinary Hospital.

As I initially said, this was my first experience as a pet owner with a seriously sick pet that needed other veterinarians to save my boy and I have to say, I have certainly been enlightened now that I have been on the other side of the examination table. (…to be continued)