Breakdown: Week 16 & only 7 miles

Normally, my breakdowns are done by day so I can describe what I've gone thru during the week. For Week 16, not so much with the running, so it's not really "worth" it to do that sort of breakdown. Instead, I'll explain my situation.

I logged some t-mill miles Monday & headed off to the gym on Tuesday for my routine weight session with my trainer. Tuesday evening, Mr. X & I noticed our Big Dog wasn't really interested in food. He was also limping slightly; we figured he'd slept on it funny because he was able to walk it off.

Wednesday, I came home from work & was going to log a few more t-mill miles... but I had the house to myself (Mr. X was on a 24-hour shift) & got lazy. Figured I'd take advantage of having complete control of the TV remote. So I made a small dinner & loafed around. Big Dog needed a nail trim, so I did that... after which, he finally decided he was hungry & ate a bit. When I let him outside to use the bathroom, I saw his back right leg: it was the width of a golf ball. It was incredibly swollen & icky looking, but with no visible trauma. So I loaded up Big Dog into the Murano & headed to the veterinarian.

Now, one of the very cool/worst things about Italy is their wonky business hours. Commercial business usually has crap operating hours, but medical facilities are open in the evening. So, taking a dog to a vet at 7 PM is no big deal here... it's routine. The docs took one look at Big Dog's leg & put us in a room immediately.

There's more to the story... lots of tests, 2 more visits, 8 different needle puncture sites... but the short of it is that Big Dog has been diagnosed with lymphoma. We've got 2 more tests this Wednesday to help gauge where the disease it at, but we're obviously dealing with a lot of stress right now. This is our first time thru this type of ordeal, so it's pretty tough for us. Needless to say, I'm not logging a lot/any miles right now. Eating properly has flown right out the window because neither of us want to cook or have any real appetite. 

I'm going to try & pull it together this week & log some miles. Saturday is supposed to be my big 20-miler, but I'm going to play it by ear. Maybe I'll be up to it, maybe I won't. But this whole thing completely sucks.

Monty in the Garden

Monty as a puppy