Evening 8-26-03: Syd was starting to whine/cry so I gave him some pills and when my husband got home, we were lying in bed and Syd started to cry/whine when we were watching TV. He started moaning and we asked him what was wrong. All of a sudden, he got up and came over to my husband's side of the bed and laid down beside him. He slept (at at least didn't scream or cry) all night! My husband even got a decent nights sleep for the first time in a week and slept until 7:30am! (which is unusual for him).
8-27-03: In the morning, I walked up the ramp to open the door and asked everyone if they wanted to go outside. When I turned around to go back down the ramp to let them have room to go up, I looked back and had to laugh. Reminding you I have Syd and 5 other rotties that are just as big as he is. When I turned around, there was a line of rotties standing behind me, there were 3 on the ramp waiting and 3 more in line behind them waiting for their turn, then Syd was lying behind them (guess he got tired of standing there waiting for his turn)! If I would have had a camera, it was kind of like at the airport tarmac when planes are waiting to take off. Kodak moment and me with no Kodak handy! I opened the ramp door and everyone went outside including Syd all by himself. He seems much more comfortable going up the ramp, doesn't hesitate at all. Pretty much now has started "running" up the ramp, then goes outside to potty and comes back in to lay down. After resting, we have to help him down the ramp as he steps up that small step onto the ramp and gets to going too fast. When he does that, I stand in front of him and tell him to slow down and today, once I got him to slow down, I have been increasing the distance between me and him and he seems to be getting the hang of going slow after that first step as he had to only be assisted maybe once or twice coming down! Oh well, he'll learn.
Today was the first morning that he has actually eaten something substantial. The only thing he's been wanting to eat the past 3 days has been a cut up chicken leg/thigh, one in the morning and one at night. He looks like he's having difficulty in eating too much because of maybe his stitches on his jaw. But this morning, I tried fixing him canned down food with some dry food wetted down and he scarfed it right up! But tonight, I fixed the same thing and he ate just a little but not all of it. I also had the vet call me to ask me how he's doing and I asked him about him not pooping since surgery. I told him he hasn't been eating much since that first day and he said he should be eating us out of house and home and so he's not too worried about pooping since he's not gotten a lot to eat. He said to mix in some canned pumpkin to give him a little fiber and that should help him. The folks on the CBC list had told me because a dog just got out of major surgery, they might not eat as robustly as normal, thus not having to poop for maybe 5-7 days after surgery. It's just a little scary thinking that he might be all "packed up" and feeling uncomfortable because he's too sore to get up and go outside. So I'll patiently wait a few more days.
This morning I had to go to work for a few hours and when I got home, my husband said he had gone to the main level to do something and came back to the basement and said Syd was halfway up the 13 stairs. I'm not sure if it was seeing my husband and becoming scared or if he suddenly became not as brave, but he panicked and froze. He tried to turn around and started trying to figure out how to go back down and my husband got in front of him and had to literally move one leg at a time to get him down. The last 4 steps of the stairway doesn't have a handrail and he almost fell off the side. So maybe when he's alone, he's more confident, but if we're watching, he's more self-conscious (remember, he went up the 13 stairs, hopped 30 feet, out another door, make a tight corner, went down 5 steps to a landing, then down 3 more steps on his 2nd or 3rd day after surgery). So hopefully he's not too scared. I think if he wants to try steps, we may have him try getting back into the main level (once he stops oozing and since it's supposed to have a cool front move through and be in the 80's instead of triple digits the next few days!) where he'd have to go up 3 steps to a landing, then 5 steps up to the main level. At least that would be shorter. He can always use the ramp to get to the basement.
This afternoon, I was sitting on the couch in the basement and he was whining/crying and being vocal. He was oozing a little so I laid down beside him and he just wanted petted. I got up and sat back down on the couch afterwhile. He started whining/crying and being vocal again but it was a different type of whining/crying (it was more like he was annoyed and wanted to get up). He suddenly got up and hobbled over to me on the couch and sat down in front of me. One of Syd's normal things he always did when he sat down in front of you if you were sitting in a chair or on the toilet was to put his paw up to be petted. He would then flex his foot to curve around your knee or thigh and once you started rubbing it, he would slink to the floor and lie down. So as he was sitting in front of me, you could almost tell he was looking at me trying to figure out how to give me a paw and not topple over. As I watched him to see what he would do, I swear I saw the corner of his incision toward the top move slightly as if he was trying to move his non-existent paw up to my knee. I touched his shoulder and said "thank you" and he slid down into a lying position! I then moved into the computer room (next room over) and he whined and cried and finally hopped over and laid down beside my chair. He then went to sleep. As I've mentioned before, he's been so adamant about having someone with him or else he cries. For those of you that had an independent dog before and a clingey dog after, does this get better with time? Just curious.
As I said earlier, my vet called to ask how Syd's incision was doing. He mentioned he still needed to talk to K-State and he thought they might want him tomorrow or Friday morning to start chemo. I told my vet that I'd much prefer to wait a week (which would be 2 weeks post-op) because he was still healing and wouldn't be healed in 2 days and didn't want him to go from one thing into another without getting over one first, in case he has problems with chemo. So I'm still waiting to hear back. He also said that he got both biopsies from K-State and University of Colorado and they confirmed osteogenic osteosarcoma. I told the vet I was glad to hear that....not glad to hear he has confirmed OS, but just somewhat relieved in a way knowing my decision to amputate Syd's leg was justified, since we did it before the biopsy was done.
So every day is getting a little better. If Syd would stop oozing, go outside and poop and be able to be more mobile (going to the main level up stairs and getting around more), that will be more than I can ask for. I know it's going to take some time and my vet was pretty amazed that 4 days after such major surgery that such a large dog is able to hop up a ramp to go outside to potty. So I'm pretty proud of him, even though I still know there is a long road ahead of him from the surgery and hope that he doesn't have too many problems when he starts chemo. |
