Ceira's journey – Page 2 – Ceira's journey after becoming a tripawd

December 20th – 3rd day post op

December 20th, 2020: 3rd day post op

Ceira needed to go outside again in the middle of the night and had a soft stool with lots of gas (loud gas!) 🙂

Sleeping so much more today but when she’s up she’s so much stronger getting around. When she’s not sleeping in the bedroom she like a velcro baby with me.

Appetite is still good. She is getting more comfortable with the stairs but still waits for help with the sling.

Loves the leg massages we give her and falls asleep with the bean bag ice pack on her.

It snowed today and she attempted to roll in the snow but as she got her face in the snow she realized that she couldn’t. That was hard to watch.

We haven’t face planted today.

The incision is looking really good and healing well.

December 19th – 2nd day post op

December 19th, 2020: 2nd day post op

Ceira had a relatively good night. Went outside in the middle of the night which she never does.

She’s starting to get her footing a little more but does sometimes look like a drunken sailor that has not got his sea legs yet.

She’s resting well and eating well too. She’s doing a single stair well on her own but the set of three stairs outside is still very intimidating. The canvas bag sling has been indispensable for taking her outside.

We have had a face plant getting up on the sofa but otherwise she’s already got that on lock. She had a face plant getting up the stairs and once getting on her bed. She’s much leaker at night but for 48 hours post surgery, I’m amazed!

December 18th – Post op day 1

December 18th, 2020: post op day 1

The morning check-up call came in about 9 o’clock. She had an accident and peed her cage during the night. She wasn’t feeling too comfortable before they left last night and had to up the anesthetic. In the morning she did eat some food being hand fed. They’ll be slowly pulling her off the morphine and we will be good to pick her up at 5 o’clock.

Pick-up time: After going through the typical check out – wound care, medication, what to look for, etc it’s time to bring out our little girl. She could not have been happier to see us and get out of that office.

Unfortunately she rushed to get into the car before we could stop her and stumbled and struggled to get into the backseat. That was very difficult to watch.

I don’t know if it’s adrenaline or stress but she will not settle down. She just does not know what to do herself and doesn’t know where she wants to be. She’s stumbling between the living room and our bedroom where her bed is. Two hours later and she has completely exhausted herself.

She’s drinking so much water. Drank a whole bowl as soon as she got home and another full bowl a couple hours later. Took her outside to go pee but had to lift her down the three stairs because she refused to go down.

Once on the grass the poor thing was so exhausted that she laid down on her belly to pee. She did make it up the stairs on her own with support from me. I made this sling while passing the time when she was in surgery and it came in so handy. https://gear.tripawds.com/2018/09/06/diy-dog-sling/?_ga=2.59737581.1922783009.1609098463-614655346.1608847340

She has taken her medication like a champ and even ate her evening meal.

Dec 17th: Amputation Day

December 17th, 2020: Amputation day.

A heart wrenching day for the whole family.

Dropped her off at 9am this morning and surgery should be starting around 11am. Waiting for that call to say the surgery has been completed and all is well is painstakingly long.

Our call finally came in at 4 o’clock in the afternoon to say she made it out like a champ and she has finally woken up and the silly girl is trying to stand. She’ll be staying the night and only coming home in the afternoon the next day.

Just before closing time we call again to get an update and see how she’s doing. All is well but she is refusing to eat, which was no surprise to us. She’s not a big eater and frequently goes day or two without eating anything but her cookies.

Our vet sent a picture of her when she woke up.

Wishing they had shaved the little strip of hair between last weeks ultrasound shave and todays surgery shave.

Leading up to the start of our journey

Ceira’s journey technically started April 2018, 2 1/2 years ago. We took her in to the veterinarian because she was having a slight limp. We were worried because she had fallen through a layer of ice that had covered the snow overnight. While they were checking her out they discovered a lump on her leg, around the wrist area. They did a biopsy on it and that’s when our world started to change. Hemangiosarcoma was the diagnosis.

We did x-rays and ultrasounds to see if it had spread and affected her organs at all yet. All was clear so we had two options on how to treat her. Amputation was the recommended choice by the vet. Her other option was to do a debulking and see if she could remove most of the tumor. Since we were told that she only had about six months to a year with us, we opted for option two, the debulking. We did not want to do an amputation, have her go through the major operation and recovery only to lose her a couple months later. We wanted to try and keep the quality of life that she had to the end.

Well our little princess surpassed all expectations.

Fast forward to November 2020, she’s limping really bad now. The lump has regrown and become quite large (size of small palm). Back to the vet. She wants to see if it’s just the swelling that’s hurting her and maybe pinching a nerve. If it’s not due to swelling and it’s more than that she really recommends amputation at this point. So she puts her on an anti-inflammatory for a week (then as needed) and pain medication for the month.

After two weeks we noticed it hasn’t made a huge difference. It has helped but not enough, so the talks start about amputation. We have the x-rays and the ultrasound re-done and blood work done to check the state of her health. Happy to know that once again nothing has spread. Her spleen is courser, which means it’s been more active which is not uncommon with this type of tumor. She has issues with her gallbladder that will have to be addressed in a months time. Her kidneys are starting to do degenerate, and she has a lump on her lymph node on her throat. Except for the gallbladder these are small issues that you typically find in a dog of 11 1/2 years old we are told.

Next step…surgery.