The news we never wanted to hear ...

We got the dreaded phone call from our vet late yesterday (Monday) afternoon. As soon as I saw the number on caller ID, I just had a sinking feeling in my stomach. As I feared, our sweet boy has hemangiosarcoma, an extremely aggressive cancer of the lining of the blood vessels. Since we have blood vessels throughout our bodies, this means that the cancer can spread anywhere. The vet said that the pathology report confirmed that the splenic tumor was low to intermediate grade, but we don't know yet if the cancer has spread anywhere else. We can only hope that it hasn't. The vet said that we probably only have a matter of months left with our boy, depending on how much the cancer has spread. The vet recommended that we meet with an oncologist to find out how advanced the cancer is, and figure out where to go from here. I have also had several recommendations -from folks who have lost their furbabies to this terrible cancer - to look into meeting with a holistic vet, who will work in conjunction with our oncologist. All of this is very overwhelming, and we feel like we're spinning in circles right now.

The most important thing is that Tucker does not know (and never will know) what hemangiosarcoma is, and he has no idea that he is sick. He is just a happy boy who seems to be feeling great right now. He has had such a good week since the surgery last Monday. He has renewed energy that we haven't seen in months, his appetite is fantastic, and, despite our efforts to keep his activity level at a minimum (to allow him to heal from surgery), he has been running around the backyard and rolling in the grass like a puppy. It is wonderful to see him like this, but it makes it seem so unreal that this ugly cancer beast is wreaking havoc inside his beautiful body. I hate this helpless feeling that there is nothing I can do to stop the cancer. We just need to keep him feeling good for as long as we can, and that's where the oncologist (and holistic vet, maybe) will come in.

We are going to continue enjoying every minute with our boy, and we will take this a day at a time. I will update again soon, after we meet with the oncologist.