I don’t even know where to start besides putting my pride aside, and asking for help. This is going to be rather lengthy, so if you read until the end, THANK YOU. For those who really know me, one would know I never ask for help and would rather figure it out on my own, but this is the scenario where I need to not be selfish.

Our sweet Bruno boy is a WARRIOR. About a month ago, we took him to the vet because we noticed he was having a hard time getting up on the bed and his back legs seemed very shaky. We were concerned something was going on with his hips because he has been through two ACL surgeries on both his back legs. The vet told us he was experiencing pain in his lower lumbar, so he was put on pain meds. About a week passed, and we noticed he was getting worse so Patrick took Bruno to the ER, and gave us the same response that his back was hurting him so he was given more pain medicine. Another week had passed, and Bruno was rapidly declining and not wanting to walk, but still semi-able to walk. We took him back to our vet in which they now gave muscle relaxers. About another week later, I called our vet and told them he was no longer walking. Bruno wanted to put no pressure on both his back and front legs, and at this point Patrick was carrying Bruno inside and out to go potty. I had scheduled an appointment for noon, but then received a call and said they didn’t want to waste our time, nor money, and told us to go straight to Metro.

We arrived at Metro, and Bruno had to be taken in on a stretcher. At this point we moved forward with having an MRI taken, because it hurts to see your baby not get up and move to do tasks like going potty, or even getting up and getting a drink of water. This is where our worlds crashed… We had learned Bruno has a decent size mass on his pancreas. The doctor was not convinced this would be causing his inability to walk, so she suggested doing a CNS (Central Nervous System Test), spinal tap, and a CAT scan. We never expected to take him in and learn he may have cancer on top of his inability to walk at the moment. We moved forward with all tests as we wanted answers as to how to make our sweet boy more comfortable. CNS test came back that he has an elevated cell count within his CNS. CAT scan shows there is no mass anywhere at the moment other than his pancreas, and we are still waiting on results from the spinal tap to see if there is fluid within his spine that would be causing it to be inflamed.

At this point, we still don’t have a lot of answers, as this seems to be a huge question mark for the doctor as well. Bruno will undergo surgery, Monday January 28th to remove the mass in pancreas in which we will send it out for testing to see if it’s cancerous, but with the size of the mass, it is more likely than not to be cancerous. They believe his inability to walk is somehow neurological, but can’t pinpoint the reasoning yet. We would simply do whatever it takes to help our sweet boy. Removing the mass is just as important to us as it is to find out why he is not walking, whether that is a contributing factor or not. This is going to be a long journey not only for us, but for Bruno as well as he currently needs 24/7 care.

In simple words, to know Bruno is to love him, and he truly is the best dog anyone could ever cross paths with. If you’ve made it to the end, thank you. Please keep Bruno in your thoughts and pray surgery goes well on Monday, we need our sweet boy to be okay.