1st Day After Surgery

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.

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.