Late Blogging

I hope to find the time and energy to blog today but thought I should explain why I have been absent and that I am not really ignoring your questions from the last blog. Hopefully today I will get to them all.

My Pug, whom I adore, was scheduled for a routine spay and hernia repair Monday. Things didn't go as planned and then to make sure that Lola didn't get all the attention the other love of my life, my Chihuahua, Tucker, had to throw in his two cents worth and complicate things even more. I am just going to copy and paste from their blogs to fill you in:

Lola's Blog:

As you know Lola went in at 8 am this morning for her spay and a hernia repair to be done at 10 am. I was a wreck and know they got tired of me calling to check on her but the vet staff is so nice they kindly checked every time. I was told at about 1:30 pm that she did fine and was just waking up but the vet needed to talk to me when I came to pick her up at 4 pm. At 1:40 pm my phone rang and it was the vet clinic asking if I could come in immediately that Lola wasn't doing so well. I think I made that 15 mile trip in about 7 minutes, of course cussing every other car on the road. By the time I got there my poor baby looked and sounded awful. Being her first surgery or injury we had no idea she is a free bleeder. The vet said the surgery took longer than normal because of the bleeding and transfusions but she had seemed to come out of it OK. Right after talking to me on the phone she went into shock. They got her to come around but it happened two more times while I was there. More rushing, more blood and more meds brought her back again. Making it extremely hard to get her to wake up. I was so terrified and quickly learned being a nurse flies right out the window when your baby is involved. I was asking some very basic nursing 101 questions, the vet kept telling me to calm down and think because I already knew all those anwers. He was right, I was just in in a panic. They don't have an overnight emergency crew there so felt better sending her home, even when it was with a human nurse. So we came home armed with IV's, pre-loaded syringes and anything else needed to stop a bleeding, breathing or shock incident.  She has to stay warm and I won't let her out of my site so she is wrapped up like a burrito in my lap. I was very pleased when she wanted to get down briefly to go to her paper and pee, got a sip of water and actually ate a few hand fed bites of food. About an hour ago she barked wanting Her Boy to come sit with us, a weak bark but still a bark. When he came she licked his hand like she hadn't seen him for days. A few minutes ago he got up to go to the bathroom, we were shocked when she got down to follow him. I guess even being as sick as she is the bathroom is just too much of a temptation to her! Right now she is doing much better but very, very weak and I pray she keeps on this path.

Unfortunately for her now that we know she is free bleeder she can't go to dog parks, rough house with other dogs or do anything that could cause a wound, scratch or cut, for her it will always be a life threatening event.  She can only be boarded overnight at a vet facility that has a 24 medical staff. So in Mom talk that means Lola will never, ever be boarded and I will never travel without medical equipment.

I do have to praise the quick thinking of my vet and his staff today for saving her life, of course when I see the bill next week I may be the one in shock! I know it is going to be several hundred more than originally planned for but worth every penny to have my baby safe. I do have to tell you this has got to be one of the most beautiful incisions I have ever seen, human or animal. Only another medical person is going to appreciate or understand that comment! LOL

Thank you all for the prayers, good thoughs and all the juju you sent my baby girl today. I also want to thank all her wonderful friends that sent pre-surgery toys and treats for her. I am sure she is going to have a great time playing with them when she feels better. Tomorrow I am going to go see if I can find her some new toys and treats, this baby deserves them after
 all she went through today.


From FB today:


Update on day 2 for Lola-She is weak but we had only one incident of shock last night that was easily controlled. I swear people patients are so much easier to care for but couldn't help while caring for her thinking "my parents would be so proud of that $80,000 nursing education right now" LOL Anyway today she is weak, but has recovered her scream if something isn't given to her right this very instant. She did walk through the house once today before the pain meds kicked in and she crashed face first into the hallway wall. To prevent any chewing of stitches or staples and possible bleeding from it my wonderful vet stitched her from the inside out so the most she can do is lick her incision and won't need to wear a collar. She is much less stressed today but still having some trouble with controlling her body heat, easily taken care of with the burrito roll or a heating pad. The girl will swallow her antibiotic like a champ but the pain pills are a fight no matter how you try to disguise them so I am just injecting them to cut her stress over it. She doesn't mind the injections. She is also curling the tail back up so I know she is starting to feel better. They did tell me today that before surgery yesterday she found a boyfriend, totally fell in love with a French Bulldog named Buddy and didn't want to let him out of her sight. As soon as they put him in the crate next to her they both stopped whining(in Lola's case screaming) and kissed through the bars. They took Lola in for surgery first and he cried until they brought her back. When she started getting so sick he started barking until they came to see what was going on. I guess you can find true love even at the vet!

Tucker's Blog:


If you have read Lola's blog then you know we almost lost her during surgery today. Just as things were calming down some with her Tucker decided to have two seizures, back to back. This has not happened in years, since he started taking phenobarbital. So I have two sick babies tonight. Lola's Boy says Tucker, being the drama king he is, was not about to let Lola upstage him and get all the attention. He recovered fairly fast from the first seizure but the second one was the longest he has ever had. Tomorrow I will discuss with the Vet if maybe it is time to up his dose of Pheno since he also had a seizure about a month ago. I hate doing this because of the liver damage Pheno can cause but we may be at a point where we have no choice.