It Takes a Village

After what seemed like the uphill battle of the century, I'm happy to report Heather is safe at home. I got the call confirming what we already knew from our meeting with the specialist: Heather's liver test results were fine. Therefore, she was approved to move forward with the tumor removal surgery.

We dropped her off shortly after 8 a.m. at a facility closer to home. About four hours later, I got the call saying she did well in surgery and was up and about acting as if nothing had happened. An interesting thing occurred while she was under anesthesia: her blood glucose (which is always low) actually went up during surgery. The V-E-T was encouraged by this and saw no reason to believe anything other than the fact that Heather's body recognized it only needed a certain amount of glucose day to day but could create more if and when needed.

The tumor, located on Heather's tail, has been removed and the V-E-T did her very best to get good margins. Thankfully, the tail did not need to be removed. The incision is nowhere near as large as the last one she had when we removed the liposarcoma. Still, it is evident Heather is none too pleased with the strange feeling that haunts her tail. She often stops and looks behind her quickly in the midst of a walk as if she felt someone was pulling on her tail.

Tonight, I wrapped my first doggie wound to protect the sutures and incision site from Heather's attempts to loosen them while we sleep. Tomorrow, we're going to find her a special "cone of shame" to keep her from trying to open it up. She's in good spirits but she is tired...we all are from this ordeal and I can only hope the recovery is smoother than everything we've experienced this far.

We hope to have biopsy results on the tumor in a week. The stitches are set to come out in 10 days. Heather is on pain medication and an antibiotic to prevent infection since the surgical site is so close to her bottom. Much love goes out to all Scottie Mom friends and followers for your continued support and words of encouragement! It truly took a village to get Heather the care she needed and it will be because of the Scottie Love the village of fellow Scottie Moms and Dads has shown us that I know everything will be okay...no matter what.