Hi guys, it’s Alex (Agui if you know me from work). First off, thank you for caring enough to even get this far and end up here. I appreciate that because I don’t really ask others for help and in this instance, I am setting my pride aside because I want to keep my best friend here and in the best manageable health as possible. Speaking of which, let me tell you about my best friend, Jake. If you have me on social media, you should be familiar with him. He’s the handsome and well-behaved good boy who has a heart of gold and a very soft nose. I ended up becoming his dog dad through unusual circumstances… (A girl I matched with on Bumble 9 years ago adopted him from the animal shelter, where she quickly found out in a day that she was allergic to him.)

Understandably, she was going to return him, but I crossed his path at the right time and adopted him from her. Since September 2017, I have had the pleasure of being his dad. And just like I saved him from going back to the shelter, he saved me from myself. Throughout my professional career, which began just about a month before I adopted Jake, I have seen, done, dealt with, and experienced the worst sides of humanity and what they’re capable of. The one thing I can say without a doubt has kept me together emotionally is Jake. He reminds me that no matter how messed up life can be, there’s good. He is my best friend and truly the most loving animal I’ve ever met (and if you have met him, you would too). He’s been nothing but the best.

Let’s fast forward to last month. I took him to his checkup. They did an x-ray and told me he has a heart murmur, but everything was normal and if he exhibits abnormal behavior to return.

Earlier this week, I noticed his appetite for solid food wasn’t the same. And then came the last couple of days, where I noticed his breathing was labored. This morning I took him to the vet and they told me to take him to the ER after taking an x-ray and determining that there was liquid in his chest.

I took him to Miami Veterinary Specialists, who’ve been extremely helpful and communicative but also clear on his status.

Jake has a mass on his heart that somehow has gone undetected and was clearly causing the heart murmur. He’s got liquid in his chest, which made him have severe difficulty breathing.

I’m currently waiting on them to drain the liquid, do a biopsy, and see if it’s cancer, and then sonogram the rest of his body to see if there are additional masses.

I’m not naive; I can see what’s on the horizon. However, my responsibility is to give him the best care I can and that’s what I want to do. I want to get him through this hurdle and diagnosis and try and continue to give him a quality of life experience.

I’ll be clear, if he has cancer on the mass on his heart, I won’t risk losing him on an operating table and not being by his side. If he has cancer, I won’t be putting him through chemotherapy, which will undoubtedly make him sick and have a rough quality of life for what remains.

My goal is to medicate and manage him the best I can pending the results, which will be provided in real-time, and try and enjoy what time we can with him, while not being at his expense.

Any help is appreciated. I’m about 7 hours into his visit at the vet and about $6,200 have been paid on my end already just trying to diagnose his condition.

Thank you for your time and caring to make it this far.