Quickly impending goodbye

My husband and I have a 9 year old English Bulldog (10 in November) who started limping about a month and a half ago after rough housing with his brother in the yard. We gave him a couple weeks to see if he improved (didn’t get worse but didn’t really get better) but took him to the emergency vet after he was screaming in pain while just laying on his side. They did a physical exam, said it could be IVDD and recommended rest with pain meds and anti-inflammatories. I was able to get him off the pain meds after a few days and his kept with the anti-inflammatory. However, since the limping was not improving, we took him to our regular vet this past Wednesday for an x-ray.

It was there that he said that the issue looks to be bone cancer and referred us to an oncologist, who we see Tuesday.

It’s not good, from what I’m reading. And I’m having a really hard time processing it. He’s still limping but seemed to be getting around ok, but now he’s limping a little worse. Still eating, peeing, pooping, but mostly lays around.

How do you know it’s time? For myself, I’m having a hard time making it through each day without it consuming my thoughts and crying. I don’t want to be home but I don’t want to be away. I struggle with making a decision too early but what are you supposed to do, push them to the max?

I’ve never done this before so I’m just having a really hard time with it