One Week Ampuversary

Everyone has a different experience with this but here’s a synopsis of Tate’s first week.  I thought it might be helpful to someone facing a hemipelvectomy for their dog; everyone else will be snoring by Day 3.

Day 1 (Surgery Day).  Normal hemipelvectomy, very stable, followed by nothing but drug-induced sleep.

Day 2.  “Fabulous” is a relative term.  “Miserable” to the uneducated eye.  Regardless, he was standing and sort of walking, drinking and sort of eating, wearing a shoulder-to-tail stretchy mesh bandage.

Day 3.  We didn’t see him but Dr. reported steady progress.  IV out, the only remaining issue was the drainage, still too high to come home.

Day 4.  Continued progress but still a lot of drainage.  They cut back on his Tramadol.  We brought him home in the evening; he was his normal happy self but slower, and in need of lots of attention.  His appetite was great but he was drinking a lot more water than usual.

I was glad Dad slept next to Tater-Tot, even though this is against expert advice.  We wanted him steps from the back door, and didn’t want him alone.  He had a fitful night, out to pee three times, had his first poop (!), but couldn’t get comfortable on his new bed so Dad brought out the old one and he settled and slept.
First Day Home

Day 5.  He was panting and stressed; called and the nurse said it was okay to add more Tramadol.  A bruise developed close to the incision.  Couldn’t maintain suction on the drain, plus it looked like there was a leak where the tubing meets the plastic and Tate kept licking it.  Put on his e-collar but he wouldn’t lay down, staggered and stumbled around and I was worried he’d fall.  I decided to just sit with him outside.  His nose was very busy!

Brought him to the vet; Dr. Scott said the “leakage” is just weeping, of no concern.  He took off the full-body bandage and put a little patch on the drain site, secured with a wrap and Tate was much happier.  Slept the whole rest of the day.  Much quieter night.  But his appetite is declining a bit.

Without the mesh bandage, his butt looks so tiny, but she did plump it up with surrounding muscle.

Bored

Day 6.  Very normal morning, ate, drank, peed, pooped (it’s a little hard for him to keep his balance to poop.)  But all his parts down south seemed swollen.  It didn’t bother him until about 2 hours later, all of a sudden he started panting and licking like crazy.  Dad iced it (why didn’t I think of that?) and it was like flipping a switch, he immediately settled and fell asleep.  Same thing happened again in the afternoon, and hours later in the evening.  His appetite is even less.

Day 7.  Similar to yesterday, ice packs and the usual med routine.  But he hopped out to greet me when I got home from work.  By evening, he is showing more interest in activities, asking for a toy.  But then he doesn’t know which one to choose and gives up.  I think he’s bored.

Dr. called with path results (see previous post); she said the “swelling” is actually fluid accumulation and it will go away as the fluid is absorbed into his body.

Day8.  The day got off to a great start, clearly less pain, more appetite, more wagging.  We reduced the Tramadol, 2 instead of 3 and he’s been depressed and unsociable all day.  Didn’t budge when I got home from work.  Gets up and walks away from us when we try to spend time with him even for favorite activities like a good brushing.  Right now he is lying outside, hiding under the low branches of the spruce tree.  His new favorite place.

I am hoping it is just an adjustment to the meds, and not really being sad.  At least we are past the panting and need for ice packs, and he’s able to lie on his left side again.

Clean Margins!

Tate’s path report is in, the diagnosis is histiocytic sarcoma.  Good news is, she got 2 cm of clean margins!

Here’s what I know about histiocytic sarcoma:  Someone did a retrospective study of synovial cell sarcomas and reclassified the biopsies.  Some number of them (over half, I think) were actually histiocytic sarcomas and the outcomes for these was worse than the true synovial cell sarcomas.  This is roughly accurate but I don’t have the paper here.  Plus I’m not a vet.

Okay, so here’s my philosophy about statistics:  Acknowledge them and then discard them.  Duly noted, now let’s move on.  Two main reasons for this:

1.  If they tell you 95% of dogs do well and your dog is in the 5%, that statistic does you no good at all.

2.  On the flip side, statistically speaking, my mom should be dead by now.  When she was diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer, they told us the 2 year survival rate was 30% and that was with chemo.  We stopped her chemo early because she was dangerously close to “failure to thrive”.  Two years later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which we chose not to treat at all.  And that was almost 2 years ago now.  So like I said, she should be dead and she’s not.  So there!  : )

On the home front, I think Tate has turned the corner.  Woke me up early (4:15!) to eat, laid under the tree outside enjoying the great outdoors until the thunder started and I had to bring him in.  No panting, no stress, moving pretty well once he got the early-morning kinks out.  So thank you for all the positive juju headed his way, keep up the good work!