post-surgery – Page 4 – Sunny's Journey

And just like that, at the stroke of midnight Sunny began to vocalize. We went to bed last night around 11 pm and to our surprise and delight Sunny got into bed and went to sleep. I thought maybe we are going to be the lucky ones that got to sleep through the night! However, Sunny had other ideas. Just like in Cinderella at the stroke of midnight Sunny began to cry. From this point on it seemed like he had trouble getting comfortable and I could tell the tramadol was beginning to wear off. Each time he made any noise though I would go over to pet him, assure him he was fine and then get comfortable again so that hopefully he could as well. This seemed to do the trick. At 2 am he got his second dose of tramadol and after our trip outside around 4 am this really seem to kick in and he slept until around 9 am. Pete got up at 5:45 am like normal and had planned to feed Sunny, but he wasn’t interested in eating or going outside so he just let him sleep.

Around 9 am we got up and went outside, ate, and took our drugs. They only sent him home on two drugs (carprofen and tramdol) which has made things rather simple especially since the carprofen is just given with his meals. For the most part Sunny seems to be doing really well. He is doing ok getting around on just three legs and we are eating, drinking and going to the bathroom. His incision also looks really good. Originally I just took the photo below for our reference, but I thought it may be helpful in terms of preparing for those getting ready to go through this.

Sunny’s Incision

My only real concern at this point is carrying Sunny. We are still trying to find a way for him where he is comfortable/supported, but that I don’t feel like I’m going to hurt him. However, that honestly may be more me than him as he doesn’t seem too bothered when we do carry him. We have his harness, but just to be safe we were going to wait at least a week before using it. Given where his incision is I’m fairly confident we can use it without bothering him. He has spent most of the day in our bed napping which is good. I don’t think he is a fan of his new dog bed that we purchased. Maybe I’ll sleep on it? 🙂

We also talked to Dr. Winkler today to find out more about the biopsy they took during surgery. There must have been some miscommunication between the surgery team and the post-surgery tech because all they did was re-biopsy the lump on his foot. They just wanted to confirm that the initial diagnosis was correct and that he would need no further treatment which is their standard procedure. Otherwise, Dr. Winkler told us everything went great and looked good. That’s comforting to know. Although that also now has me hoping the initial diagnosis was correct so we didn’t take off his leg for no reason! In the end though, it looks like we will get our happy ending of a cancer free Sunny…

This morning as promised Dr. Winker called to give us an update on Sunny. He said he was doing great and had already been walking some without any major issues. Hooray! They also told us he could leave anytime after 10 am. That was a surprise! However, since we both had to work today we told them we would come pick him up this evening. Thankfully, I have an amazing and supportive boss who is allowing me to work from home or take off as needed to take care of Sunny until we are comfortable leaving him at home alone during the day.

I ended up leaving work a little earlier than normal so I could get home and finish getting the house ready. When Pete finally got home around 5 pm we did a little more prep work and then decided to head over and pick up Sunny. We were both excited and a little nervous about how he would look. Since it was already around 7 pm by the time we got there we met with the tech who had been caring for Sunny during his stay. She said he had been doing well. The only thing of note was that they found some other suspicious tissue that they decided to biopsy. They also removed a little more than normal around his hips as a result. We should have those results back in the next day or two. Unfortunately she didn’t have all the details so I’ll have to wait until the morning to ask more about it. That said, we are optimistically assuming that since it was not mentioned to us by Dr. Winkler that it is more a precautionary measure than anything else. For me it also confirmed again that we made the right choice since we would not have known about said tissue if we had not done the amputation. One other interesting thing she asked us is if Sunny howls at home. Apparently a couple of times during his stay he would howl until someone came over. They would then talk to him, he would tilt his head an listen and then go back to sleep. We told her he does the same thing at home especially when he is trying to get everyone to come join him in bed, at 2 pm. 🙂

A few minutes later our little boy came hopping into the room. He was the same Sunny we dropped off, minus one leg. He was wagging his tale, exploring the room, etc. We were prepared for the worst, but got the best. Below is a photo of him once we got home. It’s not the best quality since it was already dusk and he kept moving! From this angle it doesn’t look bad, but he has a pretty big incision.

Sunny’s new look.

Once home he picked up his new squeaky toys and just started doing what he always does. I think he may be more active now than he was before surgery. He also figured out right away that he should follow the path of bath mats. At this point we are just trying to get him to lay down and rest a little. You can tell he is still adjusting to his new gait, but I am optimistic that we will continue to make progress with each day. All and all it has been a pretty good day and we are just happy to have Sunny back home. I know it is only day one and we have a potentially bumpy road ahead of us, but in some ways I feel like we are at our new beginning. Now, who wants to get up at 2 am to give Sunny his pain meds?

Category: post-surgery (Page 4 of 4)

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