Ups and Downs and an Omen

I can't believe we are only on Day 4, post surgery. It seems a lot longer. Probably because of the lack of sleep. I think, on the whole, we are having more ups than downs, but still, the downs are not fun. 

On the "up" side:

• She gets around pretty well (except for the stairs - see "downs" below!);
• Mostly doing OK with sitting and laying down (as evidenced by yesterday's cute pic of her sitting);
• Her appetite (which has never been great her whole young life) is surprisingly good - at least most of the time (probably due to the fact that she is being hand-fed canned dog food, cottage cheese, provolone, peanut butter, dog-jerky treats, salmon patties and Flying Dutchmen, instead of her usual same-stuff-different-day dry kibble);
• Her incision looks like it's healing up OK;
• We had our first post-op poop (although it was a fiasco...) and she seems fine with the whole 3-legged squatting thing.

 On the "down" side:

• She has screamed or cried a couple of times (which is so horrid and pitiful), like yesterday when I wrote about trying to help her off the bed. Because of that, we put our mattress on the floor last night, so that we could be next to her bed. (Crazy, huh? Unfortunately, it also had pluses and minuses: the pluses being she got in and out of bed with us very easily; the minus being she got out of bed at 1 and wandered off. More on that below.)
• Getting up and down the stairs is literally a pain. Last night when we were trying to go up to bed, she started crying after the first step. We can't pick her up, but I used my little sling I made and we took it very slowly, with lots of resting in the landing of the stairwell, and eventually made it up. Can't wait til she can cruise up and down more easily!
• The last 24 hours or so she's been very aloof, e.g. instead of cuddling on the sofa with us last night, she went and flopped down on the tile floor in the other room, which is kind of crazy because it had to be very cold. But then, maybe it felt good on her boo-boo. (She sleeps on it a lot, which I find surprising. I mean, if you had your arm cut off, do you think you'd be laying on that side right after surgery? Yowzaa. I think not.) Then there was the whole thing last night with her getting out of bed at 1 and sleeping at the farthest possible corner of the hall. Couldn't coax her back to bed (we ran out of provolone!) so had to just leave her there. Checked on her at 4:30 and still no go. Finally I think about 6 I was able to get her to come back in bed with us, and she laid there shivering like crazy, poor silly little thing. I'm assuming the aloofness is from the pain and/or the meds. There's a discussion board on the Tripawds site, so I posted a question to see if others had the same issue. 

To end on a good note, I forgot to mention earlier the good omen we had the night of her surgery. When we moved her from the vet's office to the ER for the night and were waiting to talk to the vet there, this woman came in with a little tripawd dog. It was very wiggly and happy and ran up to us (ignoring other folks who were there) to say hi. We took it as a good sign that Abby will soon be wiggly and happy. 

The little Tripawd was wearing a T-shirt that said: "Missing Leg 1-800-CALLME!" We are thinking of having one made for Abby that says: "It tasted like chicken." I know the other day Patricia suggested a "Bad to the Bone" shirt. Any other suggestions for custom made T-shirts?

Tomorrow: the drain comes out!

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.

Flying Dutchman!

You may be wondering what a legendary ghost ship has to do with our Tripawd's recovery. Well, it turns out the Flying Dutchman is what you ask for when you want a beef patty for your dog from In-N-Out burger. It's actually 2 patties and 2 slices of cheese. Here she is enjoying it last night. At first she picked it up all in one piece. I was afraid she was going to inhale it in one gulp, so reached out to help break it into smaller pieces. Apparently she didn't trust my offer for "help" - she growled at me! Normally, I'd be a bit annoyed with her growling at me, but we were happy to see some spunk! 

She made it through the night pretty well, although we didn't sleep great, listening for her. At one point she got out of her bed and we let her up in the bed with us. This morning we are laying around. She's sporting a new T-shirt - pink for the cancer fight. Here she is in full tripawd stance, and also watching TV with Daddy.

 

To answer the question posed in the comments from the last post, no she will not be wearing her Chargers shirt today. She is very disgusted with them and says they play ball worse than a two-legged dog! (Also, her drain is still oozing - and we don't want to ruin the shirt, on the off chance they would ever start to play well again... I know. We can dream.)


The one bad bit of news is that I threw my back out this morning, trying to run around and keep up with her and keep her in her sling while we went out to potty and have a bit of fresh air. I took a muscle relaxer and have her doped up, so she and I will lay around while Mike goes for a bike ride. 

That's all the news from this morning!

[If anyone is a blogger expert - I can't get the Followers "gadget" to work. I can see it sitting there in the "design" view. I've tried removing it and re-adding it, but it's still not showing up on the page. A few folks said they tried to follow the blog, but got error messages. Don't know what the heck is wrong. Very frustrating. Any ideas?] 

Just In Time For Halloween

[Warning - posted pics not for the squeamish]

Our little Frankenpup is home, just in time to scare the neighborhood children. Excellent.

Mike says we should post a pic of her. I thought maybe it was a little too gruesome, but if my bro can post a pic of my nephew, Jake, from the ER the night Jake broke his face in half in June '09, then I guess we can post a pic of Frankfenpup, Abby. (In case you view the scary pic of Jake, rest assured that just a number of weeks later he was looking practically like his young handsome self again and was recovered and ready to go off to college as planned by the end of the summer. Young kids - they heal fast. Hopefully young pups do too.)

Before I post the pic, I just want to say, when you talk to the vets and look up info online about folks who have tripawd dogs, they all say how great they do on three legs. They do not say how scary the dog is going to look when you first pick him/her up. We were expecting a big ol' bandage, but they said she didn't need it. So, here she is in all her stapled up glory.

In the pic, you can see under her the sling I fashioned for helping her get around and go out to potty. I took an old blue bath towel, cut it down to size, and then sewed it up with some handles. The handles are made from a dog collar a friend gave us when her dog Buzz passed away. The color was a little too muy macho for a collar for Abby, but it worked great for the handles. (A little shout-out of thanks to Buzz in doggie heaven.)

She started trying to lick her scary incision, so we had to put her in her new fancy-schmancy soft cone. I'm not sure if this is an upgrade from her usual plastic cone of shame or not. She looks like a giant blue daisy. She didn't look super comfortable in it, so we just put a t-shirt on her instead. Since we got her home, she has mostly just crashed, big time, in her new bed we got her. So glad we ordered it! It's a cozy, comfy little spot for her. It has a big label on it that reads: Deluxe Deep Dish. For some reason, every time I walk by it, I have a craving for Chicago-style pizza. 

Here she is below, in happier days in her brand new bed. So hard to believe that is a mere 10 days ago, back before we knew about the stupid cancer. The other pic is her, sleeping in her t-shirt, in front of a piece of cheese.

She's actually done pretty well with eating. Had almost a whole slice of provolone and had several big spoonfuls of Blue Buffalo's Backyard BBQ. (Really, to me it doesn't bring to mind BBQ. There's no red sauce, no corn on the cob. I think it should be renamed Sunday Night Family Pot Roast.)


You cannot believe how fast she is already getting around. When we picked her up at the overnight ER, we hadn't even brought a leash, because we thought we'd be carrying her to the car. The "nurse" said, "No, she's way beyond that already." She loaned us a leash and out we went to the parking lot, Mike manning the leash and me on the sling. Damn! She bolted for the grass and I couldn't even keep up with her! She face-planted when her back legs got caught up in the sling. Poor thing! But now we know. She jumped in the car on her own, like it was nothing. (Although getting out at home was a little more unstable...) When we got her home, I took both the leash and the sling and had to trot alongside her to keep up with her. 

I think in a few more days time we may have a hard time keeping her quiet! Supposed to only take her out on the leash for pottying for the next 13 days!  


Tonight, we are planning to spoil her with a burger patty from In-N-Out. :)

Our Poor Sweet Frankenpup

So, we ended up not bringing Abby home tonight. The vet called me before we went to get her, to warn me we might want to consider not bringing her home just yet. He said we could come get her, see how she was doing, and if we thought it seemed like more nursing than we could handle, they would help us load her up and then we could take her to the ER hospital for the night. So, that's what we did.

He warned me she looked like Frankenstein's dog - but I thought he meant under the bandages. But, no - there are no bandages! Her big ol' gigantic incision - which looks sorta like one of those radioactive symbols - is just hanging out there. Poor Sweet Pea!

When we saw her we were a little (okay, a lot) freaked out. She wagged her tail when she saw us. She was breathing very heavily - they said from the excitement of seeing us. The vet and the vet tech said it would be better for her to go to the ER since they could keep her on an IV drip for fluids/pain meds and she would be more comfortable, so that's what we did. We will bring her home in the morning, as long as the vet there says she's good to go.

We have to keep her quiet for 2 weeks. She can only go out to potty and has to be on a leash when she goes. She looks so scary, poor little thing. Just in time for Halloween. Going to set her up outside and scare the crap outta the neighborhood kids. 


Mike says we should post a picture of her tomorrow - but it's pretty rough to look it. We'll see. More tomorrow.

Tripawd Update: Check!

Got the call from the vet that Abby made it through surgery fine. If all goes well, we can pick her up in about 2 hours. 

In the meantime, thought I'd post a few pics of her and tell folks who haven't met our sweet pup a little bit about her. 

The first pic is from the day that we brought her home from the shelter, where they were calling her Smooch. It was a good name for her, as she is VERY kissy (thus the name of the blog), but we just couldn't see ourselves calling her that. Instead we named her Abby Louise. (Yes, she has a middle name.) We named her that because it uses all the letters from the name of our sweet beag that we lost last year: Bailey.


She was hard to get decent pictures of as a pup because she was always running around. Finally held still for a photo op the day she climbed into my kitchen cupboard! I guess she thought it was cozy. 



She definitely wouldn't fit in the cupboard anymore. She is a very tall, although very skinny, girl. Here is a picture of her with her cousin, Lou. My sis and her husband were dog-sitting for us and they dubbed the pair of them Stubs & Stilts. Stubs can walk right under Stilts.

It's that skinny little right front leg that is now a goner. (Stupid tumor. Stupid cancer.) We've been telling her she doesn't need it, as it is just a little chicken wing of a thing anyway. Luckily she has a very narrow chest (she's like her Mama - all hips, no chest) so I'm hoping she will be OK with only one stilt there.

Here she is sunning herself yesterday. This shot shows what lovely big ol' ham-hocks she has for back legs. I'm glad one of those bad boys didn't have to come off. They are very strong and muscular and I think she would have missed one of those more than that spindly little front leg. (At least that is what we are telling ourselves.)

As you can see from the photos, Abby is not much of a smiler. Not like our beagle Bailey, who smiled a lot:

Here's one of few pics we have of Abby smiling. It's because she's at her favorite place, Fiesta Island (with the San Diego skyline barely visible there in the background.) Hopefully she'll be able to go back there again soon!

Dropped Her Off; Feeling Surprisingly Calm

I dropped Abby off this morning for her update-to-tripawdness procedure. I thought I'd be feeling very freaked out about it, but I'm feeling pretty calm. I think there are a couple of reasons for that:

• This morning she was limping very badly and standing around on 3 legs, so I just keep repeating the tagline on the official Tripawds website: Better to hop on 3 legs than limp on 4!
• I'm excited about that the fact that just a mere 48 hours ago her lung xray looked clear, so we are moving very quickly to get rid of that nasty big ol' tumor. (OK, and her leg with it, but that's the way it's gotta be.)
• I can tell that she is oh-so-tired of being doped up. If we weren't doing all this, she would have ended her days being drugged the whole time. Hopefully we are now on the road to her being happy and, maybe within a couple of weeks, off the pain meds.

I know I'm going to probably lose it when we pick her up tonight, and I see her sad, doped up little face and her 15 toes (counting dew claws - she still has her back ones) where there used to be 20, but for now I'm keeping it together. 

Later I'm going to post some pictures of her and also explain the blog name - a little homage to our sweet pup.

(Pardon me while I experiment with my font sizes here. "Small" seems tiny to me and "Normal" seems huge and there's nothing in between... I also can't figure out why the "Follow" button is not showing up. Just lost my blogging virginity yesterday, so still trying to figure out how this all works...)