Jakey Boy

Well, we've hit a bit of a rough patch with THE wonder dog. We learned yesterday that our boy is pretty sick. After noticing that he wasn't himself on Sunday, I called the vet (I'm not so good about waiting for normal office hours and of course, emergencies never take place from Monday-Friday during business hours). The vet met me and did a quick check on Jake and said that he felt that he was stable, but wanted to see him first thing Monday morning to run some tests. His belly was swollen and his gums were pale, but his temp was stable. Vet suspected a tumor on his spleen because it is so common in goldens and that there would be a 50/50 shot of it being cancerous.

So, yesterday when I took him, I expected to get a phone call about surgery. Instead I got one saying I needed to meet with the vet and that Jake would be discharged. Not good. He did have a large tumor....a very large one in his stomach. Looked cancerous, but not positive. Plus, there was fluid, most likely blood, in his belly. I was given two options. We could euthanize Jake before the tumor ruptured and caused immense pain or go into surgery to see if the tumor was cancerous and if it could be removed. A decision needed to be made though and time was not on our side. Best case outcome, not cancerous, just attached to spleen and could be removed for total recovery. Worst case, cancer that had spread everywhere and inoperable. The vet feared that he wouldn't make it through surgery but said if we tried then we would know we had done everything possible. We agreed.

Well, we sent him in this morning and got results in the middle. He survived the surgery (YAY!!!!!), but the tumor was larger than our vet's fist and it is nasty and looks cancerous. The vet estimated that it weighed 10 pounds. Plus, it had ruptured, which means it's aggressive and was causing him pain. He did not see any signs of it spreading (double YAY!!), but with the way this normally works, it most likely has/is spreading and we are on limited time with Jake. However, Jake will feel MUCH better (triple YAY!!!) now.

So, we got a gift today. The gift of time with my boy. As many of you know, he is not just a dog to me. He is a part of this family. Trey and I have had him since he was 8 weeks old and I have always adored him. He blends well because he's happy, personable, mischievous, a food lover, and obsessed with sports (ok...retrieving balls and swimming). And, he is so very loyal and sweet. So, we will be spending some quality time enjoying life together in the upcoming days, weeks and months. It is extremely hard on my heart, even though my head knows the answer to what is coming. So, I'm going to take it one day at a time and enjoy the simple things.