Letting it Out

It has been 3 weeks of training for my 2nd marathon. The past week has been an extremely emotional week. On Sunday and Monday I was able to run up Kelly Road. Sunday I did a little over 3 miles and averaged about a 10 1/2 minute mile. Which for me wasn't too bad, especially since I was running uphill. Monday was even better. Doing the same route and just adding an extra mile on I broke a 10 min/mile and finally hit 9 1/2! I was ecstatic!

I had planned to attend track night on Wednesday. I had to skip out though because I had two punch biopsies done at the dermatologist. One being on my right shin. (Feeling a little light headed the rest of the evening didn't help). So I spent the rest of the week "resting" my leg so the stitches wouldn't pull.

On Friday one of our labs, Hoss had a HUGE belly! He looked like he was pregnant. We decided to take him to the vet (half an hour before closing) and it began a roller coaster of emotions for the rest of the night. The vet initially thought he had either a liver or a spleenic mass that had ruptured and he was bleeding internally. Unfortunately they couldn't get him to calm down enough to get some fluid to determine what it was. Eric and I had to make the decision on whether to sedate him or getting a full ultrasound done in a few days. We chose to sedate. Initially the vet thought she saw a mass on his spleen. I was heartbroken. Since he was still sedated they decided to an xray to ensure that he would be a candidate for surgery. While they did that they also were able to a better ultrasound. They discovered that his heart was "a reverse D" and enlarged. The ultrasound showed that the heart wasn't contracting the way that it should. While he was sedated they were also able to drain off 3 liters of fluid from his abdomen. Both E and I were able to assist the vets in taking care of him. I got to hold the oxygen to his snout and E got to push on his abdomen to help the fluid out.

So a long story short, our dog has cardiomyopathy. It means his life will most likely be shorter than we ever hoped and/or expected. We started him on Lasix (a diuretic) and he has now peed a lot of the fluid that had collected in his abdomen. Tomorrow we should find out what canine cardiologist thinks is going on and what we will do from here.

I really wanted to bail on the team run on Saturday. Friday was a long night, and I was drained. But I pulled my butt out of bed early to go. I knew once I got there it would feel good to let some of that stress out. And I was right. 5 miles to let the emotional stress of skin biopsies and the fear of the life of my dog. 5 miles that I could relax. I felt relaxed and strong after I finished, something that is what I needed to get through this time.

Hoss....our "tubby" :)