Month: October 2017

Yesterday afternoon we took Maniac Mads in for her follow up and for what I thought was suture removal.  Turns out there were no stitches to remove (she was released by the ER team, not her surgeon and I guess they just assumed there were stitches to be removed).  The surgeon is very pleased with her progress.  Told us what a great patient she was and that we needed to get her off all the pain meds and “let Maddie be Maddie”.  She takes anti-anxiety meds before the visits and she is still half drugged almost 24 hours later.  But she did really well, walked really far and generally was good-natured about the whole experience.  She’s still reluctant to drink and has suddenly become picky with her food.  She ate and drank like a champ up until about Day 9, then suddenly decided she didn’t want water, just ice.  The doctor wasn’t concerned and said he thought it was the pain meds.  So she’s off them now, hasn’t had any since yesterday morning.  We got confirmation via biopsy that it was indeed Osteosarcoma.  I had no doubt though,  because Maddie’s vet, the oncologist and the surgeon all had no doubts.  The good news is the lymph nodes they biopsied were clear, so that is a positive!!!   Also, she slept solid all night – no getting up and changing positions, no trying to find a good spot.   Now we are going to schedule her first chemo and I’m going to start reading the forums for supplements, etc. to get her on.  I’m a bit of a foodie, especially with my doggies and the oncologist told me that most vets feed their dogs purina and that’s what I should give Maddie, not the fancy stuff.  She told me this when she asked what Maddie ate.  I told her and she gave me a bit of a lecture about feeding her the store-bought (instinct, stella & chewy, primal) raw food.  This is not her entire diet, she also gets Orijen or Acana kibble (which she won’t eat now lol).  She told me if I wanted to feed her “people food” I should cook it.  I’ve struggled a bit with this, but decided to keep her on the food she’s been on.  I don’t see what the benefit would be switching her.  If there is one, I’m sure I’ll find it on the forums here when I move on to supplements and food!

Today has been one week since Maddie’s surgery!!  Overall I think she is doing great.  We have had a few hiccups but those were mostly because we’ve had to rearrange our house to keep Maddie and her brother Chimmy separated.  She still will not even tolerate the sight of him and now, when she hears him bark, she growls.  I have no idea what is up with that – they’ve been best friends since she was a puppy.  But I’m taking it as a que from her that she needs space.  I’m hopeful that when she is fully healed and has her energy back again, she will at least be able to spend some time with him.  If not, we will adapt.  If she can adapt to life on three legs, we can surely adapt to dividing up the house!  Thank goodness I have two back doors lol and that there are four of us here, so someone is usually around for both dogs.  Maddie is now only taking the antibiotic, Tramadol and Gabapentin.  She only has a couple days of Gabapentin left and I’m a little worried because the doctor just said to stop cold turkey.  Everything I’ve read says wean them off, so I think I will just wean her off with what remains.  Instead of two pills twice a day, I’m going to pull back to one and see how that goes.  We have plenty of tramadol which does seem to work for her.  Her pain seems well controlled.  The biggest issue we seem to have is that she gets so winded so quickly.  We have not been able to increase the distance of her potty breaks at all.  If anything, she cannot go as far now as she did when she first came home.  So we just hop out the back door (which is about 2 feet from her beds), hop over the patio and onto the grass then back again, so maybe a total of 20 feet each way.  The first day or two she seemed a lot more energetic.  I am going to call the vet today to make an appointment for her stitch removal and I will ask them about this.  Of course, now that I type this I’m wondering if that is because she is in pain?  She’s not showing any other pain symptoms, she’s not panting, she’s resting very comfortably, she lays on both sides equally and she doesn’t mind at all when we ice her incision which we’ve continued to do regularly.  I really wish she could tell us how she feels!

So far, so good.  Today is day 5 and other than the unexpected attitude toward my other dog, Maddie is coming along great!  I know how fortunate I am that my daughter found this forum and I started reading, reading, reading.  Some things that have happened would have been shocking and probably not handled well had we not been prepared by reading all the posts, blogs, comments and answers to my questions.  Maddie is doing great in large part due to the people here.  Things I learned  from everyone here helped prepare us.  Phantom pain – just once so far – but I knew immediately what it was and what to do.  The suggestion of a sheet or canvas bag to help her up, never would have thought of that.  Before finding Tripawds I thought this little rear lift thing would have sufficed if I put it under her tummy – NOT.   The surgeon only sending us home with 5 days of pain meds.  I would never have known to ask for more, I would have just figured the doctor knows best.  The wound seeping, the not pooping for a few days, etc.  All of those things would have been met with return vet visits causing all of us undo anxiety.  Thankfully I knew she may not poop right away (she finally went on Friday and she’s now back to her regular routine!) and that she may have a little dripping from the wound.  I want to thank everyone here especially Teresa who’s beautiful dane girl also had a front leg amp.  She gave me the confidence that Maddie could manage – despite her size.  We are now moving toward our new normal and things are choppy of course, but Maddie is recovering very well and I feel like all the advice I got here has made a huge difference.  Thank you all.

Maddie got to come home yesterday morning and we were all so happy to get her here.  She is doing really well considering everything she’s been through and her hospital anxiety levels.  The first thing she did when she arrived home is go straight to the backyard to potty (still wasn’t squatting but who cares)!!  We were so proud of her!!  Then she ate and took meds and took a power nap lol.  As of this morning she’s been home for 24 hours and she’s doing a little better every hour.  She is getting up and hopping from one place to another.  She stood up to eat her dinner last night which surprised me and she’s now squatting to potty!!

She has had a bit of a ‘tude with her doggie brother – growling and lunging at him when he walks near her so we are keeping them apart.  He is very upset and just whines by the door to the family room where Maddie is.  I told him that she’s not feeling well and needs time to recover.  I pray that she’s not in more pain than she’s letting on though.  That is a worry I have.  She insists on laying on her incision side but the hospital says that’s fine – that sometimes the pressure feels good.  We’re icing her incision regularly and all in all she is doing great.

I’ve read on the forums about the possibility of a “crash” in a couple days when all the hospital meds are out of her system.  We are keeping a close eye on her.

All things considered – she is doing really, really well and I’m hoping when she is feeling back to her normal happy self, she’ll want to be with her buddy again!!!