 |
| Time to wake up and have some lasagna. |
Day Four!
Here's my puppy dog this morning. We are four days post-op. He slept through the night, although I didn't trust him to be good all night until 12:30 AM. When I went to bed I was happily surprised to see he slept through the night. I got a full eight hours of sleep. Oh how wonderful.
The hospital called this morning to check on his progress and to see if he had any problems. I spoke to Dr. Alexander, who runs the hospital, and she was very happy to hear everything he's been doing. She says it sounds like he made a lot of progress, and is doing really well. They moved up the bandage removal to Wednesday instead of Friday, because the bandage is slowly moving down his leg exposing his thigh.
He may be ready to start dropping down on pain medication. The vet said to drop one pill and see where his pain threshold is. He still has to take the anti-inflammatory and the antibiotic, but the painkiller has a side-effect of constipation, so she says I can lower that dosage to see if that will help him. I asked about him bending his knee with full pressure on it, and she says it's not for me to decide if that hurts him or not. She says she loves to hear owners who worry a lot, so if he's ready to put pressure on it he should be fine. I'm still not okay with it, but we'll see how he does.
Lucy still keeps her distance from him. She comes over to smell his leg, gives him a few kisses, and see how he's doing, but otherwise just hangs out by herself. I did not expect that of her at all. It hasn't been fun without a kitchen, but tonight Joel is coming over to seal the tile. Once that is done it should just be another day to move the kitchen back in and hook up both the stove and refrigerator.
Since Charlie needs to take seven pills every morning and seven pills at night, he is getting little pieces of lasagna for breakfast and dinner. I don't want to leave Lucy out so she gets a bite every meal too. They may have some adjustments to get used to in the coming weeks when life returns to "normal".
Right now they're both fast asleep, and I can hear Charlie snoring over the TV. That's a really good sign.
Afternoon update:
Well so far so good. Casey came over after football practice [the poor thing was starving and I have no food to serve with the kitchen completely disassembled]. "Sure, come on over and I'll cook up something for you. Oh, well, how about a Dr. Pepper?" My entire kitchen is in my living room, dining room, and/or bedrooms.
I told him to come in very quietly and not to make a sound. He's so great. He went so slowly that Lucy was growling at him as if he was a prowler. Charlie desperately fought me to get up and go attack Casey for hugs and kisses, but finally I got him to settle down. Casey and I went over his football plays in the bedroom while he chowed on some pizza and Dr. Pepper, then he went out in the living room to play some video games and watch NetFlix. We joined him and Charlie stayed in his pen without a fuss. Joel is coming over tonight to seal the tile, so I told him to text or call me too before he arrives. Charlie is sleeping on his surgical leg now so I have to be extra careful that he doesn't jump up when he hears someone coming. It's not a fun life as nursemaid. My nerves are on constant edge. Wow, I thought my job was stressful.
I've been reading that part of week one TTA surgical post-op recovery is to ice down the leg. Apparently some dogs don't get the big cast-looking bandage that Charlie has. It seems pretty common on the sites I've seen when researching this, but if they don't get one you should ice down their leg to reduce swelling and help with bruising.
Today I got a glimpse of what's under that bandage. It's starting to slip down his leg far enough to see a lot of thigh. And behind that thigh is a lot of bruising. The back of his thigh is bruised throughout and somewhat swollen. I can't imagine what is knee looks like.
But the icing was a good move. He had no problems with the little pack of peas on his sensitive skin. I had a small little leftover bag of peas that I used to ice down his upper thigh and all around the area that was shaved. It's also recommended to massage the leg, so I tried to massage his outer thigh. He really liked that. It should help with blood flow too, which helps in healing. The vet told me before surgery that the knee will need regular blood flow to the wound post-op. Hopefully this will help.
I was concerned last night when he didn't go pee all evening, and then before going to sleep. He hasn't pooped either since Friday [sorry, maybe too much information], but the doctor said that the pills may prevent that for at least five or six days. I'm totally fine with that because I can't stand the idea of him bending his knee and putting that much pressure on his knee just yet. But now all day today he still hasn't peed once. It's around 24 hours. Now I'm starting to wonder if there is something wrong there. There really is no end to how much you can worry about. This is all new territory for me. I don't know worrying. Now I have a lot more empathy for Mom and Mike. I don't like this one bit, yet I can't stop worrying about EVERYTHING.
Tomorrow I may have a bigger problem. I'm in desperate need of hot dogs or sausage. We're down to the last bit of lasagna. He may not have enough for all seven pills tonight for dinner. That could be bad. The early attempts of shoving the pills down his throat have been duly noted and are no longer successful. I'm not comfortable enough to leave him alone to run to the store yet. It would be so easy. But if anything happens in those 20 minutes ...
Evening update:
He peed! Wow, who knew that could be such a relief for me. Things are very different from six months ago if Charlie peeing is a big success. More success: Joel came over tonight and sealed the floor, so tomorrow the kitchen goes back in. Thank GOD. Unfortunately I still have to run out for some food or it won't matter. Charlie may need an Ace bandage before getting his surgical bandage off though. I can see the staples on his leg. The bandage has fallen so low his wound is going to be exposed soon. He has given me a whole new problem now though. He HATES his medicine. This is the dog that inhaled food. Literally, he inhaled it. I don't think he has actually chewed anything that I've ever seen other than bones and toys. So I figured I could easily tuck his medicine into some lasagna, some hot dogs ... Unfortunately he turns into a stage actor at the moment he smells the pills. He sniffs them out like a bomb smelling dog, or chews the daintiest little bites until he uncovers the hidden nuisance. That's when the real act begins. He starts to froth at the mouth, shake his head violently, tries desperately to get away from the food. It's like it's trying to kill him. Who is this dog? I have to try and sell the "poison free" hot dog just to get him to take any food. He hasn't eaten two fulls meals since Friday. He has his appetite, but has lost trust completely in food and refuses to eat "the tainted cuisine." I need my old trusting food inhaling Charlie back soon.
 |
| It's hard to cook for a teenager with the kitchen undone. |
Well so far so good. Casey came over after football practice [the poor thing was starving and I have no food to serve with the kitchen completely disassembled]. "Sure, come on over and I'll cook up something for you. Oh, well, how about a Dr. Pepper?" My entire kitchen is in my living room, dining room, and/or bedrooms.
I told him to come in very quietly and not to make a sound. He's so great. He went so slowly that Lucy was growling at him as if he was a prowler. Charlie desperately fought me to get up and go attack Casey for hugs and kisses, but finally I got him to settle down. Casey and I went over his football plays in the bedroom while he chowed on some pizza and Dr. Pepper, then he went out in the living room to play some video games and watch NetFlix. We joined him and Charlie stayed in his pen without a fuss. Joel is coming over tonight to seal the tile, so I told him to text or call me too before he arrives. Charlie is sleeping on his surgical leg now so I have to be extra careful that he doesn't jump up when he hears someone coming. It's not a fun life as nursemaid. My nerves are on constant edge. Wow, I thought my job was stressful.
I've been reading that part of week one TTA surgical post-op recovery is to ice down the leg. Apparently some dogs don't get the big cast-looking bandage that Charlie has. It seems pretty common on the sites I've seen when researching this, but if they don't get one you should ice down their leg to reduce swelling and help with bruising.
 |
| Call him crazy, but he likes the peas! |
I was concerned last night when he didn't go pee all evening, and then before going to sleep. He hasn't pooped either since Friday [sorry, maybe too much information], but the doctor said that the pills may prevent that for at least five or six days. I'm totally fine with that because I can't stand the idea of him bending his knee and putting that much pressure on his knee just yet. But now all day today he still hasn't peed once. It's around 24 hours. Now I'm starting to wonder if there is something wrong there. There really is no end to how much you can worry about. This is all new territory for me. I don't know worrying. Now I have a lot more empathy for Mom and Mike. I don't like this one bit, yet I can't stop worrying about EVERYTHING.
Tomorrow I may have a bigger problem. I'm in desperate need of hot dogs or sausage. We're down to the last bit of lasagna. He may not have enough for all seven pills tonight for dinner. That could be bad. The early attempts of shoving the pills down his throat have been duly noted and are no longer successful. I'm not comfortable enough to leave him alone to run to the store yet. It would be so easy. But if anything happens in those 20 minutes ...
 |
| Hopefully a glimpse of the new Charlie. |
Evening update:
He peed! Wow, who knew that could be such a relief for me. Things are very different from six months ago if Charlie peeing is a big success. More success: Joel came over tonight and sealed the floor, so tomorrow the kitchen goes back in. Thank GOD. Unfortunately I still have to run out for some food or it won't matter. Charlie may need an Ace bandage before getting his surgical bandage off though. I can see the staples on his leg. The bandage has fallen so low his wound is going to be exposed soon. He has given me a whole new problem now though. He HATES his medicine. This is the dog that inhaled food. Literally, he inhaled it. I don't think he has actually chewed anything that I've ever seen other than bones and toys. So I figured I could easily tuck his medicine into some lasagna, some hot dogs ... Unfortunately he turns into a stage actor at the moment he smells the pills. He sniffs them out like a bomb smelling dog, or chews the daintiest little bites until he uncovers the hidden nuisance. That's when the real act begins. He starts to froth at the mouth, shake his head violently, tries desperately to get away from the food. It's like it's trying to kill him. Who is this dog? I have to try and sell the "poison free" hot dog just to get him to take any food. He hasn't eaten two fulls meals since Friday. He has his appetite, but has lost trust completely in food and refuses to eat "the tainted cuisine." I need my old trusting food inhaling Charlie back soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment