Apologies everyone for the typos in my original post and for the lateness in my follow-up. It hasn't been that great since I originally posted this. I'll try and keep this shorter than the first post!

Charlie spent last summer being the same old goofy dog we've always known. Barking to be included in everything, never wanting to get out of the water, and trying to figure out why we still had a loud hairless puppy (my infant son at the time).

The surgeon who had performed the amp finally got news that the tumor was most likely, >80% chance to be specific, fibrosarcoma and not osteosarcoma. The data on fibro is weak since most of the times it's missed diagnosed apparently. Regardless we knew it was the best outcome we could hope for. We elected not to do chemo. In my original post it reads we could afford both surgery and chemo, we can and could not. Plus after what he had gone through with the surgery our goal for as long as it took was to make the rest of his days the best we could.

I'm going to skip ahead a bit to New Years day of this year. We had apparently entered an eternal winter in this part of the country. Charlie loves snow almost as much as he loves the water but unfortunately all we really had was ice on top of snow for most of the winter. New Years day Charlie got out of his chair and went to head outside when we noticed he wasn't using his back left leg. To say after the surgery we became paranoid (or neurotic) about this dog would be an understatement. So off to the emergency vet we went. No obvious signs of injury, no urgent condition could be found so some pain meds, and a follow up with our regular vet the next day  or two for what we thought was arthritis. 

We couldn't get in right away to see our vet and he seemed to be doing better so we didn't prioritize it as much as we should have and about five days later things didn't seem to be going well. I'm a stay-at-home-dad during the day (freelancer at night) and that day my son seemed to be getting ill. My wife was recovering from the flu so we just figured our little guy was coming down with it. Charlie also seemed off. He was having issues with his leg again and generally acting different.

We take the kid to his doc and he turns out to be just fine, probably teething that day. We get home and start to figure out what could be up with Chuck. I stayed up with him that night, getting more and more worried. He was restless, couldn't get comfortable, moving from one place to another every 30 seconds or so but never too far from me. He'd just stare at me like something was wrong but I didn't know what I could do for him. My son at the time was still in a crib but we had a twin bed for him when he got older. I brought that mattress downstairs for Chuck hoping it'd bring him some comfort. It never seemed to work. All night we played out this loop of him going from chair, to floor, to couch, to bed, to chair..at one point I called the ER vet to ask about gum color. We set an appointment up for that morning. I went upstairs in the middle of the night and my wife woke up to see him. While I was upstairs she was down with charlie petting him, talking to him. She came back up and said he seemed fine. I thought she was nuts.

Just a few hours later, Charlie still visibly uncomfortable and acting strangely, we got ready to take him in. Not knowing if this was cancer, a bad injury, infection...we were stumped.

I was tired. Like super tired but knew I had to pull it together to get him in and see what was up. I sat down on the couch to put my jacket on and couldn't life my cell phone up to my pocket. I then noticed my breathing was off. The next four days I spent in the hospital, three of which in the ICU. Above I mentioned I had T1 Diabetes. I'm on an insulin pump. A pump basically is a tiny pager-sized device that holds a cartridge of insulin which as a thin tube that goes to what's called an infusion site...actually it connected to a plastic piece that has an adhesive part to it which sticks to your skin and a tiny cannula is what's stuck in you for a couple days to deliver insulin. Anywho, that part. The part that actually sticks in your skin had failed the day before and I hadn't caught it. Too tired, too concerned about my son who I thought was coming down with the flu, and my dog who I had no idea what was going on to notice that I was getting sick, very, very sick. 

When you don't get any insulin for a length of time you can end up with what's called ketoacidosis which is what happened. I'm not going to get into details but there comes a point where you have so much ...poison (ketones) in your system that your body begins to try to expel them with your breath. Nurses, doctors, people who know that smell will smell it from a few feet away as they did that day in the ER. When I left the house for the ER, it was relayed to me that Charlie went over to his bed and fell asleep for the rest of the day. 

He knew I was getting sick. He could smell I was sick. It wasn't him that was ill, it was me and I didn't clue in on it. The afternoon I was released from the hospital we took Charlie to the vet still thinking something was up. That's when we found out he was fine albeit some arthritis. The rest of the winter was spent trying to find a balance between his love for frigid air (thick double coat), and what's good for his hips. 

In the last few weeks things have taken a bit of a turn downwards. We're going in tomorrow for a consult with his surgeon. He's operating more as a bi-pawd than a tripawd at the moment and not eating that great. The last few weeks is a bigger story than I have the energy for right now as I'm quite concerned about him again (but I'm doing ok this time). His quality of life isn't what it has been, he's not eating, and he barely gets up. On the other hand he has moments where he seems fine...we're at a loss of what to do next so we're trying to get some answers. I wrote a little more about the recent stuff here: http://tripawds.....ood-ju-ju/

Thanks to everyone for their responses, its' amazing how connected pets can become.