Decisions...decisions...

When faced with an emergency situation and you must make a life-changing decision quickly without much time for rationalization...what would you do?
Last week we found ourselves in this situation. After two weeks of visits to four different vets, one an emergency hospital on a Saturday and a second visit back to one of the four vets, we discovered that our beautiful Lola had a tumor in her small intestines that was blocking her ability to eat and go to the bathroom. The options were remove the tumor or put her to sleep pretty much immediately.
Our first response was of course to operate! We made sure that there were no visible signs of tumors in other organs including her lungs and after so many other vet visits and every imaginable test that came back perfect we thought why not. The problem was that the vet who found the tumor on the ultrasound didn't have staff that would stay over night, so we were referred to an emergency hospital about 1 hour and 15 minutes away. The dilemma...the cost of the surgery literally tripled. Now I believe in getting what you pay for. So it made perfect sense to me that because of their expertise, their certified staff, over night care, etc. that they have bills to pay and Lola would be in the best hands possible.
Without much thought we said "do it".
The surgeon called us after the suregery. He was able to take the large 10 cm tumor out which was causing the blockage; however he found smaller tumors that were not detected on either ultrasound that could not be removed because of their connection to a major artery. So here we stand waiting for the biopsy results with the sick feeling in our stomach that the cost of the surgery was only part of the total cost we will incur to give Lola the best chance at surviving whatever this is. Further treatment will be required.
If you were faced with vet costs of a minimum of $5000 and upwards cost of $8000, what would you do? How far would you go to save a beloved member of your family in an emergency situation with no guarantee of the end result? Please leave your comments below.