Kona’s Journey

As many people know the story about Kona, I’m here to briefly explain the story to those who don’t know. Last Thursday January 10th I discovered a lump, that was rather big, on Kona’s left cheek. We took her in to the Watford City vet clinic immediately and they sedated her to look inside her mouth and figure out what was causing this, they sampled the lump and they didn’t find anything so they took some xrays to which they found part of her jaw bone was deteriorating. They said it could possibly be cancer. They would schedule a biopsy Monday morning to find out for sure. Well being sent home Thursday with that news wasn’t gonna cut it for us, if it was cancer we wanted to know now. We were terrified. We called into the vet in my hometown about 3 hours away and they were able to get us in that next Friday morning. So we drove there Thursday night. They tested her lump and didn’t find much different than what the vets in watford found. Which was fine, we were glad to get a second opinion. No one seemed to have time for a biopsy on Friday as it was so last minute but we were determined. We called around and got into Minot. They said they would have time for a biopsy. We thought that was crazy for them to be able to get us in so last minute. So we called back to confirm a biopsy before we made this drive to Minot. They said yes. So we took off. Once we got there of course they too didn’t have time for a biopsy. We were frustrated but at this point we were so tired and exhausted from crying and being heartbroken that we didn’t want to argue and just wanted to go home. So we went home. Later that night the vets in watford said they wanted us to bring Kona in for a CAT scan Saturday morning. We said heck yes! Let’s get some answers. So we brought her in to be sedated again for the CAT scan. They had to send the results in to someone who could read them properly and then get back to us. But they still wanted to go forth with this biopsy Monday morning. We were told from the looks of the CAT scan, that it’s looking a lot like cancer.  So we took the rest of the weekend to get some extra snuggles in with Kona and pray for some good answers. Monday rolls around and we take Kona in for her biopsy. She was there all day. We picked her up around 5pm and got to enjoy more time with her until we heard back about the results. Couple days go by and we finally get a call Thursday that Kona’s biopsy showed that it was in fact cancer. But they were very confident that they would be able to get at it with an aggressive surgery. Kona will turn 2 years old on February 7th. So she’s very young. One of the main reasons we all pushed for answers and solutions for this situation. It was hard news to digest, cancer is not a fun word to say. But they had all of Kona’s information and results sent to a surgeon in Butte Montana. She would be able to do this aggressive surgery for us and we were told she’s very talented at what she does and very familiar with a case like Kona’s. So we definitely wanted her to do it. The vet in watford happened to be driving to Butte that night and offered to bring Kona with him so she could do this surgery Friday, January 18th. We knew this was meant to happen so we said yes. It was extremely hard sending her off with people she doesn’t know. We cried so much. But we knew we wouldn’t regret this. So Kona went into surgery. They were able to remove all of the cancer and then some. They also removed part of her bone that was deteriorating. It was a very successful surgery and they LOVED Kona. She is done and resting, she will be resting for quite awhile before she comes back home to us. It’s going to be quite the recovery but we are just so thankful the cancer was removed. 

With that being said, please don’t feel the need to donate anything. I told myself I’d go into debt for this beautiful pup of ours. We are thankful enough for prayers being answered and people following our story. We don’t expect anything but I have had people reach out offering money. And I’m here to assure you anything that gets offered to us is going straight to our beautiful girls vet bills. We needed to do this surgery otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten close to another year with her before the cancer takes over. The vet bills have stacked very quick in the last week. Anything will help. It’s hard enough for me to do this. I don’t wanna ask for people’s money but I know there’s a lot of people who care and are willing to donate even the smallest amount which we would be truly thankful for. 

Thanks so so much for reading this story. Dont feel the need to donate. We will pay whatever we need too.  But the option is here. Thanks again.

With love, dog hair, and muddy paw prints,

Karson, Karly, Kona and Kuzy