What a Week!

I've thought about posting to my blog about a dozen times in the last week or so, but have never had energy AND time simultaneously... so it has just had to wait!

This last week has been amazing, chaotic, awesome, difficult, sad, and stressful week I've had in a long time. So much went on that I'm gonna have to break this up into several blog posts just to cover everything!

Let's start this whole thing with the dog update. It all started last Friday by dropping Ellie off at the vet for surgery. See, the girl is getting pretty old- she turned 11 on May 12th. (seriously, that's 77 in dog years!) The vet has been 'encouraging' us for the last year or so to have her teeth cleaned and do some other general 'maintenance' work before she gets to the point where we don't want to put her under any more. We decided that the time is now... so we took her in. She had two rather large tumors- one on her neck and one on her side. We knew that the one on her neck was just a fatty tumor and was not dangerous at all, but the vet was unable to determine the nature of the tumor on her side- he would have to take it out in order to know for sure what it was. She also got a tooth extracted, her teeth cleaned, her glands drained and her toenails trimmed. Things went well with the surgery and we were thrilled to find out that the tumor on her side was also a fatty tumor. I picked her up Friday night and brought her home. Apparently Friday night was not totally pleasant for her (I was actually gone and Joe stayed home with her and the kids- that's ANOTHER post). In fact, I guess Joe even had to show her how to lay down because she was SO out of it.

By Saturday she seemed more like her usual self- wandering around the house with her cone knocking into every wall and doorway. The rest of the weekend went well- so Monday, the kids and I took her back to the vet to have the drains removed from her rather large incision on her side. They took her back and before long the assistant came back to let us know that they could not get the drain out. After much discussion, we decided to leave Ellie there overnight- and have the vet look at her in the morning.

Tuesday, the vet calls to let me know that he has tried 3 times to remove the drain and is unable to do so... and will have to put her under again and go back in through the incision to see what is wrong. He does that... is able to get the drain out... and she's back on the road to recovery.
She's doing well now... still a bit groggy, the cone annoys her to no end and she is really bummed that she can't swim, but I think we accomplished our purpose in making these last few years of her life more comfortable and enjoyable- even though this week probably hasn't been the most pleasant week of her life! Joe and I are a little poorer after this whole event... but it was worth it to keep our girl feeling her best.

She'll need two follow ups to take out her staples... one for the ones on her neck and one for the ones on her side (since they were taken out and put back in- they need a little more time to heal)... so the drama will continue for a couple more weeks, but soon she'll be back to her 'old' self.

Have a wonderful Friday....
C