Dog Surgery/Cancelled WI Trip in 2019 Amazing Stories!

Guys, I’m sorry I haven’t given an update on the dog. So much to update! This will be long, you’ve been warned.

Surgery was Monday (gah cant keep my days straight). I dropped him off at 8:30 and the vet said he’d most likely be ready to be picked up at 4pm. At noon, she called me to tell me that she just finished up the surgery, everything went well and that it appeared to be a fatty tumor that grew underneath a layer of muscle and that’s why it was giving off the appearance of a large, hard, immoveable tumor from the outside. She said it weighed 3 (!) pounds, and she was able to get almost all of it out to be sent to the lab for testing. She gave me the dimensions, but I really don’t want to make those public for fear of “how did you miss that?!” comments. She said it wasn’t bloody at all and that was a good sign. It sounded like an overall positive report card, so I asked her if they’d call me around 4 to let me know he was ready to go or if I should just show up at 4. She said I could just show up.

Well. I showed up at 4. For a bit, they held me in the waiting room with “they are just wrapping a few things up” sort of comments. Then they pulled me into one of the exam rooms to let me know that he actually started bleeding pretty bad once he woke up and started moving around. She told me (in more professional terms) that he looked pretty bad. He has a drain in his leg, a 6 inch long incision (to give you an idea how long the tumor was), 2 layers of stitches (internal and external) and his entire right rear leg up to his midsection is shaved. His skin is yellow because of stuff they rubbed on after they shaved off his hair. She went over the surgery and how he’ll be bleeding from the drain for roughly 5 days. I was thinking “I wasn’t expecting to be dropping off a bleeding dog at a friend’s house right before my trip home” but kept my thoughts to myself because I still hadn’t seen him yet with my own eyes.

Then she sent me back to the waiting room where I waited for awhile. They one of the techs eventually came out with a ziploc bag full of meds, two of which I had to sign off on because they are controlled prescriptions. She apologized for the wait and explained she needed to receive authorization to give me the meds because the two are controlled prescriptions and that adds extra layers to the process. I didn’t mind, but I was getting antsy to see the dude. Then she went back to her work and I went back to my waiting room chair, where I waited....and waited. And waited. they finally brought him out, and I got a glimpse of his cone of shame before they gave me a look of sadness and said “we have to go back, sorry.” Anxiety: Triggered!

Turns out every time they got him to stand up and ready to go, he started bleeding too much from his drain to release him. Anxiety: Skyrocketed! I kept thinking “should i even be taking him home tonight at this point?! I don’t want the responsibility of a bleeding dog who’s not passing the bleeding test for release.” But they eventually brought him out for me to take him home and gave me free pee pads and a blanket (also free) so that he didn’t get blood in my car. They reassured me over and over again that bleeding would be a normal thing and that I could call everyday this week except for thanksgiving if I felt he was bleeding to much. They gave me the emergency line for a 24 hour hospital if I felt like he needed to see someone on thanksgiving. I left feeling not overly confident, 90 minutes after schedule pickup time due to the bleeding complications. He also was limited with movement on getting in the car and getting up the stairs once home, but we managed. He basically passed out once he got up to the apartment, and I realized that there was no way I could pawn him off at my friend’s house over Thanksgiving if he was going to be bleeding for 5 days.

I also had therapy scheduled for that night, so I went and had a ginormous melt down. I’m mildly annoyed that she seemed mildly annoyed by my meltdown, but I haven’t been thinking too clearly these past few days, so I’m trying not to think too much of it. On the way home from therapy, I stopped at Walmart and bought a jumbo pack of XL pee pads thinking stairs were going to be problematic. I covered the entire kitchen floor (only non-carpet surface besides the bathroom) with them so he could do his business as he needed. (He’s currently barricaded in the kitchen with a tipped over futon as the barrier). Dude refused to use his pee pads for their intended purpose, and after him holding it for way too long, we braved the stairs. And we continue to brave the stairs and wipe down the stairs afterwards. Nothing is more attention-grabbing than a trail of dripped blood that leads directly to someone’s door. The pee pads HAVE done an amazing job of catching the blood though!

And honestly he only bleeds when he stands up, and it’s like his leg is having a period. best way to describe it. It was easy to keep him laying and sleeping the first few days, but today he’s beginning to get some of his old energy back, which is a good thing, but its a lot of popping up onto his legs and “period” bleeding. I sent my family pics of the drain, incision/stitches, yellow skin and the “period stained” pee pads. My sister said my kitchen looks like a murder scene. I change out the pee/blood pads daily, but yeah, its bloody.

So I was supposed to fly to Minneapolis Wednesday morning. MSP got hit with a snowstorm the night before, and I was REALLY hoping that my flight would get cancelled and I could be totally guilt-free about not flying. It got delayed, but it did fly. Now I’m hoping my return flight gets cancelled; they are scheduled for a second blizzard, so it’s possible.

BUT ALSO: The lady who agreed to watch my dog had to admit her 13 year old daughter into a psych ward for a 5 day stay very recently, but didn’t want to tell me because she didn’t want it to affect my trip. her husband is currently working in Japan, so she was going to have her son watch my dog while she was visiting her daughter. The short of it is that she has A LOT on her plate right now, and I felt bad that she didn’t want to tell me. But once she told me that I was like “I can add that to my list of reasons why I can’t go for my family!”

Between the surgery recovery/the horrible weather in Minneapolis/friend’s personal life, this trip just wasn’t meant to be.

His drain comes out Tuesday and his stitches come the following Monday. The purpose of the drain is to prevent fluid buildup (and therefore infection) in the now 3lbs of “free space” in his groin area, while the area heals from the inside out. It seems to be doing an amazing job.

I’ve been so freaked out by the bleeding thing though that I often completely forget I’m waiting for biopsy results of “the thing”. I should have result by end of the day Saturday.

Last updated November 29, 2019