I can’t believe it has been two months since Sebastian had his amputation surgery. He is doing so good. The spontaneous yelping and jumping up like he was scared has disappeared and he is sleeping good through the night. We have had the stairs in the house blocked off since he started getting around good because he wants to go up them by himself. I am so scared that he may fall so he is only allowed when we go with him normally at night to go to bed. He doesn’t like it at all because he use to always go up when we would leave for work.
We bought some no slip carpet pieces for the steps to help so they wouldnt be so slippery for him. I am not impressed so I think we are going to have someone install a runner down them. They don’t stay in place and we tried to tape them and that doesn’t stay either.
About a little over a week ago I had him out in the yard and was trying to get him to play. He seemed like he had energy and was ready so I grabbed the frisbee. He was so excited. It was the first time since his surgery that he looked like the old Sebastian. I started throwing frisbee with him and he was doing so great that I grabbed my phone and recorded some of it. This was really the first time since his surgery that I felt at peace about our decision. Before this he was doing good but just didn’t seem himself.
So today is Friday Aug 17 and it is a week today that we brought Sebastian home from his amputation surgery. It has been a long week. He seems to be overall doing good and resting a lot. Earlier in the week (Monday middle of the night) we removed the fentanyl patch and started him on his gabapentin. He was whining so much and not getting any sleep. It was so bad that we thought that maybe he was in pain. We now both wonder if we should have removed it sooner. The instructions that they gave us when we picked him up was to remove it in 3-4 days and Monday was day 3 but if it was from the day of the surgery it would have been day 4. He was still very restless going into Tuesday but by dinner time he had settled back down. Since then the whining and restlessness has stopped. Thank goodness.
For the past couple of days it seems that he is not getting around as good and it breaks my heart. My husband keeps telling me that it is the medication but I get so worried. He also has started yelping out of nowhere. He will just be laying there and all the sudden start yelping and jump up. He calms back down after a minute but i am not sure what is going on. I spoke to the doctor and he said that maybe it could be his stitches catching. Since then I have removed the thunder shirt that he had been wearing because it fit tight. Its seems like it has gotten less frequent but it is still happening.
The results of the bone biopsy have come in this week. The doctor said that it was not osteosarcoma. He said that it is fibrosarcoma. Sebastian will not need to start chemo. He said that normally this type of cancer does not metastasize the way that osteosarcoma does and that he will just need chest X-rays every three months for the next year just to be sure. When he told me this I just cried. I was relieved that he would not have to go through the chemo and that by doing the amputation he would be ok. With the news I started to wonder if there would have been something else that could have been done? Did we need to take his leg? Was what we did the best thing?
Exhausted this morning. Sebastian was up all night long whining, panting and moving around. We didn’t know if he was in pain or if it was the medication. He would calm down a bit if I iced his incision. I don’t know if that was because I laid next to him when I was doing it or if it was helping to relieve some discomfort that he may have been having. I thought about just staying on the floor with him for the night but I didn’t want to start a pattern of him whining and me having to lay with him to get him to stop. We did end up giving him one of his pain pills early to see if that would help and it did not. I don’t know how to tell if he is hurting or just reacting to the medication he is on. I really don’t want him to be in any pain. Hearing him whine like that all night was heart breaking.
He is getting better at getting around. We even tried the front porch steps this evening and he did great. I am a little worried that he may not be drinking enough water. His pee seems really yellow. We have water in his space with him but he seems to only want to drink when he is outside. Rather it be rain water pooled in a chair, bucket or the bowl we keep for them outside. He is eating better but only because we have added chicken and sweet potatoes to his dog food. If it is just his food he won’t go near it. Travis made up a big batch of chicken, sweet potatoes and rice so we would have it to add to his food the next couple of days. We also opened up the space a little more for him in the living room also so that he could be with everyone. The other dogs are behaving really good around him. We still have a space that he can get to if he wants to be alone. We also will not leave him intermingled with the other dogs when we are not around. I don’t want to take any chances.
I didn’t sleep good last night but I was super happy that Sebastian slept well and did not have any accidents. The alarm sounded early so that we could ensure he got his pain medicine at the right time. When we got up and got thing together to give to him he didn’t even lift his head. I wrapped his pill in a little cheese so that he would take it easily. He only has the one pill (Rimadyl) and has to take it 2 times a day. He also has a Fentanyl patch that he will wear for about fours days and then we will add another pill (Gabapentin) when that is removed. Even with the cheese he didn’t want to take it. He just licked it so I had to open his mouth and place it in there to get him to take it. I laid back down to see if I could get a little more sleep. When we got up I let the other dogs out and fed them. Sebastian had food and water already in his area but he didn’t seem to have a interest in it.
We open the doors and tried to get him to go outside. He just laid there staring at us. He during his time before amputation was not a morning person and had to be made to get up. We both decided to just let him be and go on about the morning. Hopefully he would let us know when he was ready. It was a couple of hours later that he stood up and we asked if he need to go out and he headed for the door. This time I was home to see it. He did so good getting around. I was gitty with excitement. He was still very wobbly and if we got to close to him he would stop and not go. He wanted to be left alone. I backed off from him and in the back he went and he peed. I was so excited. He made his way back to the house and to the bed he went. Bless his heart he was so wore out but he did it. HE DID IT!!!
He still had no interest in food so my husband made him some chicken. He seemed hesitant to eat it and was slow but he did finish it all. While he laid there I iced his incision. We were told that we needed to do that 3-4 times a day. After that was complete he slept for a long while. We went about the rest of the morning and it was close to the afternoon. Then out of know where he jumped up like he needed to go out again. This time he made it out and went number 1 and 2. We were both so excited and he got lots of loven and praise.
Morning of day 2 post surgerySebastian taking a quick rest after walking around.
I didn’t get very much sleep last night. I even tried to go to bed early because I knew I would need to be rested for when Sebastian got home. I got up early, went to work and waited anxiously for the call from the doctor. She had said that she would call after her rounds and let us know how Sebastian was doing and if he could come home today. I was going to call in the night before and when I got up to check on him but I was to afraid what they might say. I decided that I would just think all positive thoughts, wait for the doctors call and remember that no news was good news.
The call finally came in from the doctor and she said that Sebastian would be able to come home today. A blanket of relief washed over me and I also got a little antsy. I asked how he was doing and if he had eaten and gotten around. She said that he was having a bit of trouble getting around and that it could be from their slick floors. The relief that I had felt turned into fear. She continued to say that he was being a little snippy now that they have tried moving him to the oral medications and had to mess with him a little more. That just made it worse. He is normally such a loving dog so the thought of him behaving this way brought tears to my eyes.
We couldn’t pick Sebastian up until later in the day so I spent all day worrying. I tried to work but I couldn’t think. The time went by so slow. I did take sometime to finish getting the area were Sebastian would be ready and making the back of the truck a comfy spot for him.
Area at home we set up for Sebastian
It finally was time to go and pick him up. The plan was for me to meet my husband at the surgeons and then i would drive back with Sebastian. I went to leave feeling excited, nervous and scared all at the same time. When i pulled down the driveway my nephew was getting off of his bus so i stopped. He told me I had a flat rear tire. My heart sank. I proceeded to back back down the driveway and see what I could do. I called my husband to let him know that I would not be there as scheduled. Then I called the doctors office to let them know I would be late. I was overwhelmed and just started to cry.
I got to work on getting the tire changed. My husband had said that he was going to head home and change the tire but I wanted to get it done so we could leave and get Sebastian. I got everything ready and started to try and remove the lug nuts and they would not budge. I had to wait until Travis got home so that he could finish what I had started. I was so mad at myself that I didn’t get it completed before he got home. It did make me feel a little better that he had a very hard time getting them off too.
Almost two hours later from my original planned time to leave we were on the road. The ride took FOREVER and I was starting to feel sick to my stomach. We live an hour away from the office but it seemed to take much longer. When we pulled up to the office it was like we were moving in slow motion. We checked in and they escorted us to a room. I was antsy and could not sit still. I was pacing everywhere. I just wanted to see my boy. I was hoping that they would bring him in at the same time that they were going to go over all of discharge information. Every time I heard a door open or foots steps my heart started to race. Finally they came into the room and it was without Sebastian. My heart sank.
We went over all of the paper work, medications and instructions of what to do once we got home. They left the room and said they were going to get him so we could take him home. I had my husband go to the front desk and get everything carded for that we would need to do so that when they did bring him we wouldn’t have to worry about it. I stood in the room alone and paced and paced and paced. I then stepped into the hall and watched through the glass in the door from which they would bring him. After what seemed like forever I saw two people walking and it looked like they had a leash. I got really excited and stepped back into the room where we were suppose to be. My husband hadn’t came back to the room yet so I was by myself. I heard the door open and then saw the front of a cone start to go past my door. It was my pookie bear. I dropped down and started saying his name. He turned and came right at me. I tried to remember to stay positive so I continued to talk to him and tell him how happy i was to see him and how handsome he was. The vet tech was trying to talk to me and i didn’t even hear him. Finally I noticed and he told me some extra things about his wound and the wrap he had on.
I got up and started to walk Sebastian to the from. He was struggling a lot. They had very slick floors and that didn’t help at all. He was trying to stay close to the wall and his cone was hitting everything causing him to stumble even more. My heart was breaking and I started to cry. I continue to try and be very encouraging nut he was having a really had time. I looked up and caught the eye of another person in the waiting room and she was looking at us with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. It made me start to cry more. There was still such a long way to the front door and a slick floor the entire way so my husband came over, picked him up and carried him to the truck.
We layed him in the back on top of lots of very soft pillows that I had covered in a water proof cover. I climbed in the back so i was close enough to him in case something happened. he tried several times to sit up and then just collapsed back down on to the makeshift bed. He seemed out of it but not so much that he wasn’t recognizing when I spoke to him. i wished that could just climb in the back and lay with him. I couldn’t so i just kept reaching bach and talking to him sweetly and petting his head. When we got home we pulled right up to the door that would take him into his space. It is a space we blocked off in the living room that gave him room to move around and had his bed in it. It also had access to walk out doors that lead to the deck and back yard. This way he could be let out with out interference from the other dogs.
When we tied to get him out of the truck we notice that the cover was wet. We both worried that it was something from his incision. We tried to get him to stand and he would not. We carefully moved him around and noticed more wetness and decided that it was pee. We had to grab the pillow he was laying and slide it to us so that we could get a hold of him and get him out. Once my husband got him he just lifted him and carried him into the house. He was covered in urine si I immediately got a towel wet with hot water and wiped him down. He just laid there while i moved him around cleaning him up. I had to remove the Thunder shirt that they had him in because it was also very wet. I was worried that the area were is stitched were was wet. I checked and it had not gotten to that area. I was relieved. I grabbed one of my old shirts and put it on him after i cleaned him up to cover his stitches and he laid down.
During this time we had our other dogs put up in a different part of the house. They were barking and whining the entire time. We also had a gate up to block off the area were Sebastian was going to stay. We didn’t know how they would react to him and didn’t want him to get knocked over or something. We let them out and they came running her to the gate and tried to get to him. He just laid there and didn’t lift his head or anything. I got into the area with him and set beside him. I allowed one of the dogs to come in and he just went up to him and smelled him being very cautious. The other was let in and it was the same. We put them back outside of the gate and they both calmed down. The didn’t go anywhere else though they just laid down beside the area and watched him.
Before I got out of the area i notice that he had peed on himself again. I cleaned him up and change the covers. We sat on the couch and watched him closely. He started to whine and that go the other dogs up and they moved closer to the gate and started to whine as well. It was not long later that i got back in the area with him and notice he had peed again. This happen another time not long after I cleaned him up and changed covers again. I started to get worried wondering..was there something wrong? was it the medications? was this normal? I knew that I could not got to sleep and this happen again and his stitches get wet. I headed out to the store to get pads and doggie diapers. While I was there I also noticed that they had cleaning wipes and waterless shampoo. I decided to get them as well because he ended a good cleaning.
When I arrived home sometime later my husband met me at the door. He couldn’t wait to tell me that while I was gone Sebastian had set up and made noises like he always did when he needed to go out. He asked him if needed to go pee pee and he stood up and went out the door. He moseyed around a bit in the back yard and peed three times. He said he then made his way out front to drink out of the large bowl of water we keep there. He always likes to drink from that bowl. 🙂 He said that he was very wobbly and stumbled quite a bit. After he drank he just laid down. My husband said that he sat with him for a while and then encouraged him to get back up and make his way back into the house. They stopped several times on the way back but he made it in all by himself.
This made me so HAPPY. I wish that I could have been home to see it. He was now laying back on his cover looking exhausted. I thought about the stuff i had just purchased and the thought crossed my mind that he knew what i was going to get and didn’t want to have to were a diaper so he proved that he didn’t need to. We were getting ready for bed and my husband and I talked about putting one on him because I was still worried about his stitches getting wet. My husband was convinced that he didn’t need it and wanted to give hime one more chance. We laid down on the couch and went to sleep. I slept very lightly and was aware of all of Sebastian’s movements. I checked him several times through out the night and he never had another accident.
