December 2, 2009

December 2, 2009: Second TPLO Surgery

I was scheduled to drop Winston off at 9:00am for surgery. This is different than in the past. Before it wasn't a big deal to get up and get going instead of feeding them breakfast. It was pretty bad this morning to wake up to sad puppy eyes wondering where the food was. I was going to work until 8:30 when we had to load him up and get going, but I didn't think I could stand to have them looking at me for 2 hours. Plan B -- go out for breakfast so we didn't have to be home and see the sad puppy eyes.

Of course the weather decided to do winter today so it's cold and snowy and icy. We made it to breakfast and back and then had to load Winston up. He knew something bad was up because he refused to go up the ramp and I was on an ice spot so as he pulled back, he was pushing me backwards. Luckily Don was at his front end and we got him up into the car without too much hassle. I drove him to AMVS and got him unloaded by myself since Don had to head to a job site. Surprisingly Winston was willing to go into the building even though he saw the huge satellite dish e-collar that I was carrying. They got me checked in and I chose DNR again, but told Winston that I had chosen it last time and it hadn't jinxed him so I expected the same outcome please.

I went back home and set up Winston's room so that it will be ready for him when he gets home tomorrow. I could practically see a light bulb go off over Josie's head when I moved Winston's bed downstairs and started adding layers of blankets and sheets to it (protection against leaky dribbly issues). Then I "went to work" -- luckily the stuff I'm doing right now takes all of my concentration, so the day went pretty fast until 3 when I normally get off. I hadn't heard from AMVS yet, so I watched the minutes tick by very slowly even though I was trying to work. Ugh!
Finally at about 3:20 I got the call I'd been hoping for. Winston did really well in surgery and was recovering from the anesthesia. I asked Dr. Duerr what had happened to the Tightrope, and he said that it was just loose; the bone tunnels were a little enlarged, but other than that everything looked like it should (the knot was tight, the toggles were where they should be, etc.). He removed the fiber tape and the lower toggle, but left the small toggle on the femur in place just like last time. I was so interested in hearing about the Tightrope that I forgot to ask more about the TPLO, so I'll have to do that tomorrow when we go get Winston.

Once Don got home from work, we headed to PetSmart for Greenies Pill Pockets (these are absolutely necessary in my opinion) and some small cans of dog food in case I need to tempt him to eat.

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