Holy medicine!

As you can see, Dixie is on a variety of medications. We even have a "Dixie" medicine cabinet in our house now. I wanted to share with ya'll Dixie's medicine regiment we go through twice a day. One of the pain meds and two of the supplements are chewable. The rest go down with a little chicken!


After laying this all out, I said to Adam, "It's like Dixie is a cancer patient!" And then I remembered she is.

Once monthly:
Interceptor - heartworm medication

Once daily:
glucosamine, chronjointin, & MSM - joints
fish oil - skin & coat

Twice daily:
Cepha - antibiotic
Tramadol - pain medication
Rimadyl - anti inflammatory & pain medication
multivitamin - general health
tri-biotic gel - ear infection

Dixie seems to be doing well with her pain, so I think we may cut down on the Tramadol to once a day. It's hard to say because it's only a 12-hour pill. Maybe we should just keep up with it until she gets her stitches out next Tuesday. She needs to finish the Cepha to ward off infection. The Rimadyl she will take on "sore days" from here on out. And of course, we'll keep up with the vitamins and supplements.

We all made it through the night.

Off to the emergency vet to see what they say about Dixie's condition. Unless she had a big turn for the better, I hope they decide to keep her. I don't want to have to transport her back to Horizon, especially since I'm sure she's become comfortable where she is now. Can't wait to see her. I hope her whining is minimal…

Dixie is/was home.

In the car on the way home

6:08pm

Man. This is pretty awful. Dixie is very whiny. The doctor thinks it's from the pain killers — that she is disoriented from them (dysphoria). The girls at the vet carried her into the car. I love the heart they put on her.

I think this is going to be a long night.

Listening to Dixie cry.

--

9:23PM

We decided to take Dixie to the emergency animal hospital. After a half hour home, we thought she was crying and breathing too hard/fast. Dixie yelped SO loud when we tried to pick her up to put her in the car. It was so awful! We figured out a better way to carry her, and covered her eyes. She didn't make a sound.

This is all frustrating because the plan all along was to have her come home the same day of the surgery. Our vet didn't expect anything else. (They preferred her to be home where she would be supervised. They don't have anyone tending to the animals over night. We were unaware of that until today.) Her pain was pretty bad. They had her on a drip to maintain it. They sent her home with us around 5:45pm. They said they wanted her back at 7:45am the next morning to continue IV pain killers.

I feel all this regret. What have we done? Should we have found a different vet or surgeon to do the amputation? I feel responsible for her pain… (I know it's not my fault. Adam keeps reminding me. It's just more intense than I expected.)

At the emergency vet, they said we made the right decision to bring her in. That made us feel much better. We thought maybe we were just overreacting. They decided that she needs to continue pain management through shots or IV. I felt much, much better having her there, being monitored. However, bringing her home, seeing how upset she was, then bringing her to a new hospital — this was SO upsetting to us. They seemed confident that she would be okay with the appropriate amount of pain killers. Then they had us sign a do or do not resuscitate order. THAT blew us away. They said they don't anticipate anything to go wrong, but you never know. So we signed to resuscitate.

We got to say bye to her before we left. She looked pretty scared—had total crazy eyes—and was still whining. Tonight is gonna be a long one. I don't know how much sleep we are going to get worrying about her. All I want is to NOT get a phone call from the hospital. We will probably call at least once to check up on her.

We are planning on showing up at their door at 7am tomorrow, before the night vet goes home. They are going to give our vet a call and see what they think about the situation. I hope our vet don't insist on seeing her. I feel better keeping her at one place until it's okay she can come home to us. Plus, I feel safe having her at the hospital. I think they just got a new client?! We will see…

PS: On a side note, I don't know how we would have been able to give her pain meds ourselves tonight, seeing as they are pills. She wouldn't even lick an ice cube—how were we going to get her to swallow a pill? Grrrr.

--

12:04am

Well Adam is passed out on the couch. We watched a DVD of Friends episodes—made me giggle and feel a little better. At 10:30pm, I made Adam call the hospital to check on the D. They said they started an IV and her whimpering is quieter. She's also clearly out-of-it, which they said is a good thing. Hopefully she can get some sleep tonight.

I'm reluctant to sleep. I feel like as long as I'm awake, everything is going to be okay. I always considered myself a strong person, but man, I'm a wreck when it comes to the ones I love. I asked Adam, What am I going to do when we have kids and something goes wrong? I'll be a complete disaster! Seriously.

I'm going to post this tomorrow. Need to get through the night, but felt like writing first. I've also been browsing Tripawds.com. Everyone is so wonderful on that site. I posted about our trip the the ER and Mary from the Bay Area wrote me back:

Oh, Emily, that's so scary. But, as you said, they seemed confident that she would be okay with the appropriate amount of pain killers. Once they have that adjusted, she'll get some rest. The other thing is probably standard procedure.

There are lots of stories here about how our dogs get weirded out with their medications right after surgery. I'm hoping, with you, that that's all it is.

Give yourself a couple drops of Rescue Remedy and try to rest. Dixie will need you to be strong tomorrow.

Hugs and prayers and good thoughts

Mary

I wanted to ask if Rescue Remedy is a shot of tequila. jk jk. Countless people on that site have gone through what we are, and what we are about to. It's incredibly comforting to hear their stories and advice.

--

12:52AM

I broke down and called the hospital again. The vet tech said they moved her to a kennel where they could turn off the lights, and that seemed to help her relax. And, she's sleeping—has been for about 45 mins! Phew, I'm so glad. Maybe now I can sleep too… if only our A/C would kick on. It's just blowing tepid air. It's not even hot out right now! C'mon!

Surgery Update

We heard from the vet at 3:00pm today that Dixie's surgery went well! I guess halfway through the surgery, they had to administer IV pain meds. My mom (a nurse) suspects that her blood pressure might have gone up—her body knew trauma was happening—so they had to give her more pain medicine. But other than that, I think it all went well. We can't wait to see her! We're going to go pick her up in a few minutes.

Preparation

For the past week, Dixie, Adam and I have been preparing for the surgery.

Dixie had a chest xray and they didn't see any cancer. So we are pretty sure it hasn't spread.

I've been researching canine amputations. My favorite site is Tripawds.com. I'm also reading Without Regret by Suan Neal.

We bought Dixie a Ruff Wear Palisades Pack with the Web Master harness and she doesn't mind wearing it at all. I'm looking forward to helping her get up and down stairs, in and out of the car with it. (A shout-out to Travel Hounds for the pack and the sample food and treats. You just acquired a new loyal customer!)


I also bought her a new Elizabethan collar. Dixie would always run into walls and furniture with her traditional plastic one. She'd also almost take your legs out with it when greeting you at the door! I think the Comfy Cone will be a better solution. I bought it at a cute little shop called Noble Beasts in Phoenix.


We have some towels in case Dixie drains again, like her elbow did. We also have some bath mats and non-skid things to put under towels so she doesn't slide around on the wood and tile.

We have some yummy treats to use as encouragement as needed.

Now we just have to find some vitamins and glucosamine, etc to start her on. This dog is going to get star treatment from now on!

Waiting…

Well, last night I had some trouble getting to sleep. Basically, I was just plain sad. I even slept with my Tigger, a childhood stuffed leopard. I can't believe I just shared that… If you know me, then you know when Tigger comes out, it's serious business.

Adam and I got up early today and made a trip to the gym. These days, since it's so hot out, we can't run with Dixie. Plus we are in terrible shape! She knows running shoes means running. So we have to walk out in flip flops with our running shoes in hand. That way she doesn't get all upset. The first time we made a trip to the gym, she tried to dig out of the backyard and knocked over her water bowl. Dixie does not like being left at home when she thinks we are out having fun.

We did a light workout on the stationary bikes as I read Adam excerpts of Without Regret by Suan Neal. That book is awesome. It covers practically everything you need to know about canine amputation. I highly recommend it.


Got home, showered and prepared for a day at the Hattaways (where we are working from today, waiting for a call to pick her up). At home I moved the furniture around so we can get Dixie out the door easier for bathroom time. Dixie was a little anxious, probably because we were packing bags. She also knows bags mean a trip. Lucky for her, we aren't going anywhere for a while. We piled in the car and listened to In the Heights soundtrack and some Amos Lee—a few of my faves these days—on the 15 min drive to the vet.

At the vet, Dixie was a little nervous and shy. Every time she's there, she gets poked and prodded! But we signed the papes and she went off with Dr. Beth. They are amputating below the shoulder, so they are leaving the shoulder blade.

We will keep you updated. For now, we are waiting and relaxing (and working).

The diagnosis that changed our lives

July brought the most expensive and tragic trip to the vet. Over the course of about 6 mos, Dixie had developed a larger tumor on her front left leg. The doctor advised us to remove it sooner than later. She was afraid the longer we waited, the more difficult it would be remove.

July 9, 2009
Dixie went in for surgery to remove the leg tumor and a small growth under her tail. We opted to not have a biopsy of either tumor, since we knew we couldn't afford chemo or radiation if they were cancer. Halfway through the surgery, I received a call from the vet's office. Dixie was doing well, but they wanted to let me know the surgery was taking longer than expected. I knew this was not good.

After the surgery was over, I received a call from the doctor herself. She said the tumor was embedded among the tendons and veins more than expected. She did her best, but could not remove all of it. She highly recommended we biopsy the tumor. I agreed.

Finally at 5pm, I was allowed to take Dixie home. She was not well. Confused and crying. Pretty much until bedtime, she was whiny and wouldn't let me leave her side. This was unusual since Dixie had always recovered easily and quickly from surgeries.

The next few weeks were interesting. Thankfully, Dixie was her normal self the next day. I counted about 34 stitches on her leg. The leg had a lot of fluid and drainage. (see below) After many visits to the vet for draining, cut up socks to cover the wound/catch the fluid and lots of touch up cleaning on the carpet, she was finally cleared to get her stitches out.


We found out about 3 days after the surgery that the big leg tumor was indeed cancer—a grade I soft-tissue sarcoma (only 5-10% chance of metastisizing). I don't know why, but from the moment I dropped her off for surgery, I had amputation in mind. Of course I didn't even know she had cancer. I guess it was like a premonition of what was to come.

The vet recommended we amputate the leg to “increase her chances of a disease-free life;” and the sooner the better. Either that, or let it be. It would grow back, and no-one knows how fast. I expect it would quickly, since it grew fast the first time. When she starts having pain, we would maintain it with meds. I just couldn't imagine that. She's an active dog. Dixie LOVES running, hiking, camping—being in the wilderness. I would hate to cut that short by having her all doped up on drugs.

hiking in Fossil Spring Wilderness Area

But I also wondered, If we amputate, are we being too aggressive? Besides a barely noticeable limp, Dixie was getting around great, running and jumping. I never noticed a change her in behavior. The cancer has such a low chance of spreading. Since Dixie uses her left leg with no problem, I'm concerned she'll have a harder time recovering.

After some debate, Adam and I have decided to amputate. Through all this, I'm proud of myself and Adam for not being super emotional or worrying about her being "handicapped." My biggest fear, personally though, is her recovery. I know she's strong, both in will and physically. I just don't want her to get frustrated. I want her to be happy.