Renee Alsarraf has been a veterinary oncologist for 29 years. In Sit, Stay, Heal, she sensitively shares how her own battle with metastatic cancer added a new dimension to the level of care and treatment she provides for beloved pets and their devoted human caretakers. The practice of veterinary medicine requires detective work: "Our patients can't tell us what's wrong, so we have to go on a systemic hunt." This fact often challenges Alsarraf's medical proficiency while expanding her compassion.
An accommodating cocker spaniel with lymphoma serves to augment the life of a wheelchair-bound nine-year-old. How much treatment is enough? A man fighting colon cancer elects for prostate cancer treatment for his loyal beagle. Will he or the dog die first? Should a growing tumor be radically treated in a search-and-rescue police dog who successfully sniffs out and stops crime? Woven throughout these and other sympathetically rendered case studies is the story of Alsarraf's own dog, a boxer with genetically acquired cancer. How Alsarraf manages her pet's long-term treatment directly influences her own cancer experience, not to mention her job, her relationships with an attentive husband and son, and her body and soul.
Alsarraf's deeply moving, informative memoir demonstrates how pet-human bonds bring out the very best in people. Sit, Stay, Heal is a positive, powerful witness about celebrating life to the fullest, despite the prospect of a limited time on earth. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines