Bob and I got up shortly after 6 a.m. so we would have plenty of time to get a long walk in for Chami since this would be her last big outing for quite some time. However, one thing led to another and we only had enough time to walk part way up Pilot Butte (in a howling wind storm with spits of snow). Chami was in for surgery by 8 a.m. I was distracted most of the day. I spent a lot of time wandering around the house or eating. I was pretty sure all would go well but I just couldn’t get my attention wrapped around anything solid. I sat at my computer trying to write for much of the day and didn’t get more than a page worth from the effort.
Shortly after 2 p.m. Susan called to let us know Chami was waking up and doing pretty well. The tumor had been larger and more involved with the joint than they had expected so it took longer. The real challenge came as a result of doing the oral surgery at the same time. Since it isn’t a good idea to anesthetize old dogs too often we had decided to get a broken tooth drilled out while she was out for the tumor extraction. Unfortunately they discovered the tooth was fused to the jaw bone so they had to do a lot of digging to get it out. Also, they discovered the tooth above the broken one shattered as well so they had to wheedle out all the little fragments from it. With two tooth extractions and a significant tumor surgery there hadn’t been time to remove the largest of the benign fatty cysts on Chami’s belly that we had hoped to deal with. As it was, she was under anesthesia for several hours and she was very groggy. They said she was whining quite a bit–mostly from confusion and loneliness–but they had staff sitting with her as much as possible because this seemed to calm her. After talking with Bob about the results we decided I would go over early to sit with Chami and keep her company until her release time at 5 p.m. When I called to see if this would be okay they said she was now sleeping soundly so it would be best to wait.
It took them quite a while to get Chami into our arms once we showed up to pick her up. She was still out of it. We went over a good bit of information regarding her pain meds, anti-inflammatory, antibiotics, dealing with the large plastic cast on her leg, and figuring out how to help her go to the bathroom. When they tried to get her out of her kennel she wasn’t able to walk and she peed on the floor. Finally, two of the young vet techs came out with Chami carried between them. Bob took her in his arms and it was hard to tell if she was happy or grateful to see us since she was pretty stoned. However, Bob and I both got tears in our eyes. It was quite a chore getting her out the door, across the icy parking lot, and into the Honda. I ended up crawling in the back with her to keep her from sliding or bumping around too much.
Chami went to sleep right away and seemed content to be home and in her own bed. At 7 p.m. we were supposed to try and feed her. She gobbled up every scrap of food so that seemed like a good sign. However, I was a bit concerned about her continuing inability to walk, or even stand. We had been instructed to place a large towel beneath her belly, with us holding the ends, so that if she got tipsy trying to go to the bathroom or something we could support her a bit with the towel. As it turned out she could not even stand on her own at all. Was it the drugs? Why did her left leg, the good one, not work? Had there been some sort of nerve damage? We watched and waited.
Just before bedtime Bob carried Chami outside to a patch of grass we had cleared of snow so she could pee. However, she couldn’t stand and kept tipping over, though we were there to catch her before she hit the ground. I was especially worried because the paw of her good leg was “knuckling”, meaning it was not flat on the ground but sort of curled up under itself so it looked like she was trying to stand on her tiptoes. I figured maybe the leg had fallen to sleep badly since she’d been mostly lying with her side for hours with her good leg on the floor beneath her. We massaged the hip and leg and moved it about but it didn’t seem to do much good. When we went to bed we set the alarm to go off every two hours. Bob and I then got up, made Chami sit up for a few minutes so she could cough and clear her lungs (this was another worry), then we’d lay her back down on her other side so each leg could get some relief from the pressure. I would stay up with her for a while longer to massage her and make sure she went back to sleep. Needless to say, none of us got a good night’s rest.