A Rough Night, Chaotic Morning, But Great News!

OK - let's start with the great news. During the surgery on Friday, the surgeon took one of Abby's lymph nodes and they sent it to the lab for a biopsy. Got the news back already this a.m. that there is no sign of cancer in the lymph nodes!! Hoorah! 

Last night, however, was a bit of a rough night. She started out in her cozy deep-dish-deluxe-pizza bed, but at midnight Mike heard her up and walking around. We let her get up in the bed with us, but that didn't last very long. She normally comes into our bed anytime during the night once she gets cold, and then she'll sleep curled up by our feet the rest of the night. Well, last night in the wee hours, suddenly she wanted down. We can't let her jump off our bed as it very high up and would be too much stress on the incision and on her good leg. So, I tried to pick her up and help her down. I would swear I wasn't even touching her gigantic boo-boo, but she started screaming! Oh - it was so awful. She sat there trembling for a minute, then hot-footed it down the hall and curled up in a ball. We didn't know why she got up in the first place - we thought maybe to go out and potty, but she wouldn't get up to go outside, and wouldn't come back to bed with us. Finally Mike got some provolone, and with that we were able to coax her back to her cozy bed. What a friend we have in cheeses! Anyway, when I talked to the vet about the lab report I told him about the screaming, and he said it may just be emotional and from the drugs as well. He said it's possible I didn't even touch it, but she was just kinda screaming "don't touch me there!"

Then this a.m., Mike went off to work and I was left alone to take care of her. Around 8:30 she wanted to go outside again - after already going out for a potty at 6:30 - so I thought, OK, this could be the big moment - the first post-op, three-legged poop! Success. A big ol' poop! But then... what with all the hopping to get turned around to head back in the house, she stepped in it! Gooshed it really well all in between her toes. Fabulous! Then she starts hopping back to the front door, leaving little poopy-paw-prints along the front walk. 

I remembered I had a rag right next to the front door for drying off her feet after Saturday's rain, so I thought, OK, I'll grab that and clean her off before she goes inside. But, no, the front door is locked! So I tell her to stay, and run around to the back. Of course she doesn't stay, she follows me, leaving little poopy-paw-prints across the back patio. I run inside, slide the door shut in her pathetic little face and run to get some rags and wet one of them. Now, wiping her feet is usually not a problem. We started touching her feet as a little pup, so she wouldn't mind them being handled. But, the poor kid's already down one leg, so she didn't want me picking up her foot and leaving her with only two to stand on, even though I was supporting her. I'd pick her foot up, and she'd stamp it back down. Of course, one of those stamps-back-down was right on my foot, so my shoe got all poopy. Oy! Finally got her cleaned up and back in the house. We were both exhausted after that and she crashed. 

Also this morning she had a visit from her aunt Terry. Terry stayed with her while I went for my chiro appointment (threw my back out yesterday taking care of the dog). She brought Abby the little Charger-colored blue & yellow stuffed man in the picture.

You can see in the pic she's really bundled up. She was shivering this morning, which I'd never seen her do before. I'm so dumb, I thought maybe it was from the drugs or maybe a sign of pain. I asked the vet about it, and he said, "Is it cold in your house this morning?" Anyone who's been in my house in the late fall/winter, knows how frickin' freezing it always is in here, so I sheepishly said, "yes." He said, "She's just cold." I put a blankie over her and she's been fine.   

Wanted to also throw in this pic of her sitting up, in her cute little tripawd stance. The oncologist said she'd be fine with walking and running, but would have the hardest time with sitting/laying down. But she seems to be doing great with everything! The only hesitancy is going downstairs, but I use my little homemade sling and help her down and that seems to work OK. (She's back in the cone of shame here, rather than the big blue daisy, because I think it's actually more comfortable for sleeping. The daisy is too stiff.)

Next steps: 

1. Get drain removed from her big ol' boo-boo, probably Wednesday. In case anyone out there reading this would ever be going through the same thing, the drain is pretty gross. I guess they have to put it in, or else the fluid would build up in her body, but every time she gets up and hops around or gets excited, it starts to ooze a thin bloody fluid. That's partly why we have her in the T-shirts all the time. We have towels and old raggedy blankets laid out all over the place. The vet said it will gradually be less everyday. Can't wait til the thing comes out!
2. Schedule first round of chemo - possibly as soon as Friday.