Wednesday, March 11, 2009
I was having a lot of fun taking pictures of Henry in the yard the other day. If the sun is out Henry is usually not the ideal subject because he is unable to stand if he feels the warm rays of the sun. Instead he just rolls around in the grass. But, the other day he was cooperative and he managed to sit up for about 4 minutes before eventually succumbing to the FL sunshine.
On a different note, Sol continues to do very well. She goes back next week for her post surgery follow-up appointment. I will be curious to see how things are healing in her mouth. We haven’t been able to sneak a peak in there to see how things look. We thought about trying, but decided we should leave that to the experts.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Henry must of had a request for Santa yesterday because he started carrying around a little stocking plush toy. Looking forward to your captions in the comments.
Monday, March 9, 2009
The theme for this weekend was rest. After we got Sol home and got her settled and I fixed dinner, I was out. I don’t even think it was 8:00 PM yet. I was just simply exhausted.
Sol has been resting, but I am pleasantly surprised by how well she is doing. It doesn’t appear that it is taking her much time to get used to her “new mouth”. She shows no hesitation when eating or drinking and her appetite is as healthy as usual. She still follows us from room to room and is always present whenever there is action in the kitchen. We had burgers on the grill on Saturday and she nearly went out of her mind. You would have never known that just two days earlier she had had part of her jaw removed.
Seeing how well she is doing just days after the surgery really helps me know that we made the right decision. I was very worried about her quality of life and that she may never adjust to having part of her jaw removed. However, she is doing remarkably well. It is like she doesn’t even notice.
Thank you all for your thoughts and well wishes through all of this. It really meant a lot to us. And I can’t even put into words how grateful I am to those who made contributions towards Sol surgery. Your generosity is simply amazing!
Check out the fantastic card that Penny from South Africa made for Sol. How awesome is that? Thanks Penny!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Well, it turns out I had planned on taking the fashion forward pics for this week during that hour I lost last night. I will be sure to get something up next week, but in the meantime, I thought I would post some pictures of Sol after her surgery.
She is recovering amazingly and has been doing great this weekend. The surgery, slightly altered her jawline, but from across the room you really can’t notice a difference. If you look at her up close you will see that her bottom lip sticks out past her upper lip giving her the cutest little pout. More details tomorrow, but I could not be more pleased with how well she is doing. She is a trooper.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
This week’s flashback: Piece of Cake
Since we have a patient at home, recovering this week, I thought it would be fitting to flashback to a previous patient - Luna. Today’s flashback was posted shortly after we brought Luna home from her eye surgery.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Great news! Sol gets to come home today! Our appointment to pick her up is at 3:30PM this afternoon. They said through the night she ate, drank and peed! There was no doubt in my mind that she would eat. She is a pug after all. They also said that she slept, but she was also a little whiny during the night. The girl does not like to be in crates at the vet! She would much prefer a little dog bed in the corner somewhere.
The main reason we can't pick her up until 3:30PM is that we are waiting for a delivery of liquid medicine to arrive. It should be delivered in the early afternoon, so they scheduled our pickup for the evening. After I get her home, which could take awhile since it is Bike Week and there is a race at the track this weekend, I will be sure to post an update.
I had no intention of doing this, but I have received several emails and requests from pug lovers asking for my PayPal email address so they can make a donation towards Sol's surgery. First, this just blows me away. Your generosity and support for Sol has been more than anyone could even imagine and we are so very lucky to have friends like you. The reasons I wasn't going to post anything is because, um, the economy sucks and I am always asking you guys to support a pug cause. I'm sure I will ask again in the future so I try really hard to pick and choose wisely and not to be the girl that is always asking you to donate, donate, donate. However, I know what it is like to want to help and decided to post my PayPal address for those of you that emailed and commented and want to make a donation to Sol's surgery. Please don't feel obligated to make a donation. Right now, we are on the hook for $3,500 for the surgery alone, so every penny will help a tremendous amount, but the last thing I want to do is put the burden on your shoulders. No matter what we will get through this. So after that very long winded explanation, here is my PayPal address: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! I will definitely have a big update on Monday letting you know how Sol is doing. I will be very happy to see that little girl, home, sleeping in her puff ball bed.
Update: I have been getting a lot of questions on how to use my email address to send a contribution to Sol. If you have a PayPal acount you can login and then click the Send Money tab. For the recipient, you would enter my email address, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) To make things easier though, here is a button that will allow you to make a contribution to Sol.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Update 6:30PM: We called and got our last check-in of the night to see how Sol was doing. They said that Sol was “zonked” out and sleeping very soundly. I can just imagine. She had a very long day and I bet the little girl is exhausted. One of the vet techs is a pug lover, so they told me Sol was getting a lot of attention. It made me feel good that there was a fellow pug lover on site! Later in the night, they are going to offer Sol food and see if she will eat it. If she eats and drinks tonight they said that it is very likely that we will be able to pick her up tomorrow. My money is on her eating. She has always had a very strong appetite. The next time we can check-in on her is at 8:00 am tomorrow morning. After I get the report, I will let you know how things went through the night. Have a good night everyone.
Update 3:30PM: Sol is out of surgery! She is alert and doing well. The surgeon was very pleased with how the surgery went and that Sol had suitable tissue left to close the incision. While she was under and they were working in her mouth, they also shortened her palette and removed her satchels. They took this precaution to prevent any complications during the recovery period as it might pose a problem since pugs are a bracycephalic breed. We are going to call around 6:00 pm to get an update to see how she is doing. After that we will call in the morning to get a report on how things went through the night. Right, now we are scheduled to pick her up at 10:45 am on Saturday. There still is a small chance that we will get to bring her home tomorrow afternoon, although she will have to have a very good night to make that a reality.
A huge thank you to everyone for all the well wishes! Hopefully, the mammary tumors are nothing to worry about. Frequently, they are not an issue, but not knowing Sol’s history could be troublesome. We believe she is spayed, which will increase the odds that the mammary tumors are nothing, but at this point we aren’t sure. She is quite a furry girl and they could not find an scar on her belly. Although, our vet said she was spayed during her initial exam. They may need to do an ultrasound to be sure that she is spayed, but at this point we are just going to wait the 24-48 hours for the pathology report. We are going to tackle one issue at a time and let the little girl recovery from this hurdle before we start testing and getting exams done on the next.
Update 1:00PM:We just got the results of the CT Scan. Things look very good. Very little of the jaw bone will need to be removed which is fantastic. The surgery plan is that they will need to remove about 2-3 cm in all directions. This is really the best news possible. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to hear that. I would be on cloud 9 right now had it not been for a little “but” in the conversation. When they sedated her for her CT Scan they noticed a very small mammary tumor! They aspirated it and sent it off to the pathologist. When they told me that my heart sank. Just when we thought we were out of the woods. In any case, it could very easily be nothing, but I feel like we are back at square one again. I am doing my best to stay positive.
On an unrelated, but positive note, Sol was quite charming this morning. She was making friends with everyone at the office.
I will give another update as soon as Sol is out of surgery.
Well, today is the day. The day I have had such mixed emotions about for a week. Sol didn’t get to eat her breakfast this morning and she was none too happy about that, but we had spaghetti, one of her favorites, last night for dinner so she did get a nice treat the night before her big surgery. The procedure will require at least one overnight stay at the hospital, possibly two or three nights depending on how far the cancer has spread and how much of her jaw they need to remove. I am really hoping that she will get to come home Friday evening or Saturday morning. However, I am bracing myself that she might not be able to come home until Monday. They are staffed 24/7, I know for sure because I asked 5 different people, but I would just feel a lot better having her home. However, I know being at the surgery center is the best place for her.
I will do my best to keep everyone updated throughout the day. The first update with be the CT Scan results. Bad news on the CT Scan would mean that Sol doesn’t even have the surgery.
Thanks again for all the well wishes! I will keep you posted.
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