8/25/03 Evening: Before bed, I gave Syd 2 more Tylenol 4's. He whined a little and my husband laid there with him. Then once he fell asleep, my husband got up to work on his computer. About 3:30am, Syd woke up with a scream and crying and my husband ran in and comforted him and laid down with him until he fell asleep again. So we've gone from screaming every 15 minutes to screaming every hour to screaming once a night with whining/crying/moaning every once in awhile. Of course, he still occassionally screams when trying to get up, but I noticed yesterday he would get up and not a peep was heard, so it must be healing. I did catch him scratching the incision with his back paw, so I've been cleaning it with a warm washcloth.
8/26/03: This morning, the other dogs woke me up to go outside about 6:30am. I opened the ramp to let everyone out, hoping Syd would follow suit. I went in to work on the computer and he hopped into the ramp room without being asked to! I was SO happy. I tried to get him to go up the ramp, but he just laid down. He laid there for awhile and then I went upstairs to get everyone's breakfast fixed. I went outside the ramp room door in the garage and told the rest of the dogs that were downstairs to come outside to go potty. I opened the outside door of the garage and there was one other male in the basement besides Syd that needed to come up. I called for him and asked Syd if he wanted to come out. He acted like he wanted to get up but didn't. So I heard the boards creaking and thought "Oh, boy, Syd is coming up on his own". But then I saw it was Blue instead. About 30 seconds later, I heard the boards creak again and looked (thinking one of the dogs had gone back downstairs and was coming back up) and lo and behold, it was Sydney who had gotten up on his own, jumped up on the ramp on his own and was making his way outside! He went outside and peed for like 2-3 minutes! He then went back into the garage and laid down. I then fed everyone and then sat down to clean his incision site up. He seems to like that, plus it makes him probably feel better if it's cleaner. After awhile, I asked Syd if he wanted to come downstairs now. He surprised me again and got up and squeezed through the ramp door and stepped up on the board and didn't trip, per se, but started going a little too fast, so I just got in front of him to slow him down and told him to take it easy and he came down the ramp, jumped off the end of the ramp (about a 1" drop) and I told him to go see daddy who was in the other room. He surprised me again by hopping almost to the room before laying down. I was SO proud of him! That was a LOT for one day! Of course, he started oozing a little more so I cleaned him up again and he almost fell asleep while I was doing it.
I left to go run some errands and saw a voicemail on my cell phone. It was my vet who said he'd gotten busy yesterday but wanted to touch base with me to see how the Tylenol 4 meds were working. I asked him about the oozing and he said that's normal and wanted to know if it was pus-ey looking or was it pinkish liquid. I told him more pinkish. He said that was serum and sometimes that will burn the skin slightly and that's why he's so anxious when he feels it (besides the tickling effect). He said on his equine patients, he uses vaseline just below the incision and that protects the skin. I asked him about using anything like Liquid Bandage, Neosporin to help the areas of the skin where he had razor burn and leakage and if it was safe to put it directly onto the wound. He said yes, they all would be fine and that we needed to get the rest of the incision site healed up. The bottom part has started to close up nicely, but he can still reach the top part with his back paw and that's what's keeping it raw. But if I keep it clean, it seems to be doing better at healing.
He said he would be calling K-State today to see what the plan was to start chemo. I told him I preferred to wait until Syd's incision is all healed up and I wouldn't expect that until late in the week or even wait to start it next week. (Last week after surgery when my vet talked to the K-State Oncologist, she wanted him up their like Thursday which was only a week after surgery!) So I guess he'll try and let her know that Syd has been having some difficulties and is just now starting to heal up. I got some Phisoderm liquid cleanser and cleaned the area of the incision and under it. I also sprayed some pain relieving antibacterial spray onto the incision and other areas where he's been scratching and had razor burn. I noticed that his stomach around his nipples below the shaved area is extremely red, so I washed and sprayed that as well. Should I be concerned about the redness on his tummy area? It's not all over, just in the middle inbetween his nipple line toward the lower part of his abdomen. Or is that probably just irritation of him laying down so much?
Syd will moan and cry and whine if he's in another room and I'm in another. When I go in there to see what he wants, he's wagging his nub tail. So I know while he probably in a little pain, I think a lot of it is he just wants me near him. I tell you what, I'm glad I called the vet Friday to insist on stronger pain meds for Syd. Since we've given Syd his Tylenol 4's, while he has still screamed on occasion, it's much better than even Saturday. He has gotten some rest (and so have we) and he's starting to not be too bothered by getting up on his own and being more mobile. Although he doesn't run or go too far before having to lie down, I'm pleased with his "baby steps". He's a big dog and it'll just take a little more time for him to get used to lugging that weight around on 3 legs. Deramaxx wasn't even touching Syd's pain so I'm very pleased with the Tylenol 4. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with they know their leg is gone. But I'm sure the healing process is painful as well with all the pulling/tugging on the incision site. And I think it has also helped that we've been stroking the incision area since day 1. We noticed that Syd, even the very first night, would calm down a lot if we stroked the area above his incision (the shaved skin). Even in the next few days when he would flinch if I even came near the underneath side of his incision, I could still lightly stroke the area above it. He would just close his eyes and you could see him relax. The past few days, I've taken a warm washcloth and lightly dabbed his incision and the area underneath where he had been oozing. As the days go on, I'm able to rub lightly (still try and dab more than anything on the sensitive areas). I also massage his other good leg too, especially in the shoulder area. I think this helps him get some stress relief and I'm thinking that maybe it stimulates the nerves a little in that amputated leg area and maybe helps them realize the leg is gone, but it's okay. And I've always heard that when you're in pain, you're not as apt to start healing.
Anyway, that's my wonderful news, that Syd has done more on his own today than before and I'm so proud of him. Keep taking those baby steps, Syd! |
