Riley is sick. Really sick. He’s going to die soon.

I’ve been dealing with excruciating abdominal pain — mostly bowel hell and random pelvic floor muscle spasms that cause scary vasovagal HR and BP issues.

Yesterday, I was so beat down from the untreatable and unpredictable and relentless abdominal pain, I said to my husband that I just wanted it all excised: hysterectomy, oophorectomy, proctocolectomy, cystectomy… just take it all… And then I had new deep, low cramping start on top of the usual; I was sitting silently in pain and fear, unable to identify the organ, not knowing how it would progress. It felt remotely like menstrual aches, but I haven’t had proper cramps in years and haven’t had my period in months.

After I went to the loo and saw some spotting, relief hit me like a tsunami. I came out and sat at the top of the stairs and sobbed with happiness that there was a REASON for this pain. The emotion was so raw and honest, I couldn’t control it. Just utter relief that I knew why and what it was and I knew it would leave.

Riley, hardly able to walk, one foot out life’s door, somehow through his deafness heard me crying and staggered up the stairs to lean his full emaciated weight against me. As he’s done for 12 years, but especially the last 9 years of my illness. Tuned in to my every emotion, pawing at me, licking my face, barking and playing with toys to distract me, and lying on the end of my bed day after day for the years when I didn’t have the ability to leave it much.

Even as we try to save his life, he is still trying to save mine.