Most people who read this blog probably know this already, but for those of you who don’t …

The end of last March everything was going smoothly and life was good. Raven was settling into the family, and I was looking forward to spring agility trials and starting to think about fall. With Bryce closing in on both his NADAC and CPE agility championships, I was cheerfully trying to determine the best strategy for completing them.

That was also the time of year I have the routine annual stuff done with my dogs and cats – heartworm tests, rabies shots as needed, etc. Last year at his dental Bryce’s kidney values were slightly elevated so I opted to have bloodwork run on him to make sure they weren’t getting out of hand.

What I subsequently found out turned my whole world upside down….

Bryce has cancer.

Multiple Myeloma, to be exact – a profileration of malignant plasma cells, generally originating in the bone marrow. It is not a common cancer in dogs. He has no particular risk factors for it. It’s not an extremely fast-moving cancer. It is treatable but not cureable.

MM is more common in people. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis lost a battle with Multiple myeloma. So did my mother – ironically. right before my birthday and almost 16 years ago to the day that I found out Bryce was ill.

My birthdays suck!!!

The good news, if there is any, is that at present time Bryce has no idea how sick he is. His appetite is as good as ever and he’s been playing with his sisters and generally acting like himself. We trialed through April and May, he finished 2 titles, earned a versatility award, accumulated some points towards his NADAC championship. He seemed a little “off” on a couple of times when the weather was unusually warm, but that may have been my imagination. Or it may have been because he’s nearly 10 and wasn’t acclimated to hot weather yet.

His treatment was delayed due to some intestinal issues, but that’s apparently under control now. Some bloodwork run last week shows that the disease is progressing and there’s a worrisome elevation of one of his liver enzymes so I expect he will go on chemo soon. We are working with an excellent oncologist and also with one of the best holistic vets in the area (neither of which I can really afford) – I can only hope that I’m making the right choices and that my bouncy little boy will continue to enjoy a good quality of life and still be bouncing around with all of us for quite a while yet.