Daisy and her cancerous tumour

We took Daisy and Annie for a walk earlier in the week, as we sometimes do. She gets so excited going for a walk she barks and barks as we leave the house. She sprints next door, always trying to find Lucy the Beagle that used to be next door. It's been a few years, but Daisy still runs towards the gate to say hello. But not that day - she started running and went through a little hole in the ground and hurt her leg. Given her past surgeries, we knew we couldn't take any chances. 

We took her to our usual vet as she wasn't getting any better. As part of the check-up, they looked her over thoroughly. It was then that Ros pointed out a lump she had felt under Daisy's armpit. They decided to take a biopsy to investigate further.  

When the Vet returned, things were a little off. Given the previous discussions, she wasn't sure how to tell us that Daisy had a "Mast Cell Tumour". What the hell? Like me, it wasn't picked up because they were looking for it, but they found it by accident.

It was all surreal when the Vet told us, Ros burst out crying. The Vet told her it would be ok - they would remove it and then see how things progressed from there. I explained that it wasn't because of just Daisy that she was crying, it was because of me. I told her that in two days, I would be seeing a surgeon about my own pancreatic cancer. The vet’s expression softened, but I could see the familiar look of shock and uncertainty cross her face. After a few moments, she shared that her uncle had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer years ago, but he hadn’t survived. It was a reminder of how common this story is, and how rare the stories of survival seem to be.

Daisy was booked in for Friday morning to have her tumour removed. We would drop her off on the way to my appointment with my surgeon. It felt like we were facing this together, in a way - she definitely is my dog!