Whitey's Amputation Is Friday

[Batmom]

Thinking of you and handsome Whitey today.

[mangos_mom]

Keeping Whitey, and you in my thoughts today. Been there, done that, and know what you are feeling.

[Patsy]

Surrounding Whitey and all of his family and those helping him with white light.

[Guest bigorangedog]

Thanks, everyone. I dropped him off at 9 (and promptly burst into tears). He was such a happy boy this morning and glad to be going for a ride. I felt like such a traitor, bringing him to have his leg cut off instead of to Burger King for nuggets. They should be working on him right now. The clinic is about 45 min from home, but we are sitting at a coffee shop down the street until they call to say he has come through surgery okay. They won't let us see him tonight because they don't want him to get upset and worked up. But they expect to release him tomorrow, if he is doing okay. I hope he knows that we didn't abandon him there. I sent him with his bed and one of my t-shirts.

 

(Wondering how to prepare my 5-yr-old daughter to see him... She only has a few months of English language, and I speak no Cantonese -- she was recently adopted. Hoping it won't totally freak her out. She'll be spending Sunday at Grandma's, but she'll be there when he comes home tomorrow.)

 

I will update when I hear that surgery is over. My poor Small White Dog.

[Guest Energy11]

Sending love, hope and prayers your way. My son took a semister of Cantonese. Do you want me to email him, so maybe he can email you on what to say?

 

Congrats on your daughter, by the way!

 

Just keep good thoughts, and it will be okay. Love ya! Dee and The Five

[Guest bigorangedog]

Sending love, hope and prayers your way. My son took a semister of Cantonese. Do you want me to email him, so maybe he can email you on what to say?

 

Thank you, that is very sweet of you! Actually, I think she has forgotten much of her Cantonese. She's at the strange place in her transition where she's forgetting Cantonese but doesn't understand any complicated English either. She speaks in sort of a hybrid gibberish at the moment, and we're happy when we can pick out a few English words here and there. We're expecting that her language will take off soon, but it hasn't yet. We can talk about day-to-day stuff with her pretty well, but explaining why the dog no longer has a leg is going to be beyond us, I think....

 

Our other boy, Hank, got a few days ago and needed sutures, and she was very worried. When we picked him up, everytime I touched him she would say, "Careful! careful! Hank owie!"

[Guest Rogersmom]

Wow! I have tears in my eyes. I just can not imagine putting Roger through this. I worry so much about blood on his paws. May you have strength in your decision and may the recovery be speedy and complete.

 

Best wishses,

 

Liz and Roger

[iluvgreys]

Sending more loving energy/light to your baby boy and all the vet staff working with him.

[queenwinniesmom]

Hey, Jen, I've been thinking about Whitey off and on all morning. I just keep praying that the surgery goes well. Are they really going to send him home tomorrow? I guess some vets do that, but I don't know, it seems kinda soon to me. Not to scare you---if you expect this, you may be less upset---but you will probably be seeing the pacing, panting, maybe restlessness (if he's up and walking), maybe even crying. That is all part of coming out of the anesthesia and adjusting to the pain meds. Try not to worry.

You're going to have to be really strong, not only for Whitey, but for Sunny too. They won't understand if Mom is crying and upset. I don't mean that you WON'T cry, or shouldn't---it just might be better to do it where they can't see you. Trying to be realistic, but my heart is aching for you. It is such a hard time. But it will pass, really it will. And if you need GT, we're always here.

You're still in our prayers!

 

 

[Guest bigorangedog]

Hey, Jen, I've been thinking about Whitey off and on all morning. I just keep praying that the surgery goes well. Are they really going to send him home tomorrow? I guess some vets do that, but I don't know, it seems kinda soon to me. Not to scare you---if you expect this, you may be less upset---but you will probably be seeing the pacing, panting, maybe restlessness (if he's up and walking), maybe even crying. That is all part of coming out of the anesthesia and adjusting to the pain meds. Try not to worry.

You're going to have to be really strong, not only for Whitey, but for Sunny too. They won't understand if Mom is crying and upset. I don't mean that you WON'T cry, or shouldn't---it just might be better to do it where they can't see you. Trying to be realistic, but my heart is aching for you. It is such a hard time. But it will pass, really it will. And if you need GT, we're always here.

You're still in our prayers!

 

Hi Nancy -- Thanks for the message. Yes, I know he's going to react that way to the pain meds and anaesthesia. He did it just from the brief sedation for xrays last week, so this is going to be worse. I was also surprised that they would send him home that quickly, but both my regular vet and the surgery clinic seemed to think that was standard. Unless he is not doing well of course. But they told me this morning that it could be anytime after 10AM tomorrow. I go back and forth about it -- I would rather have him home since I don't believe anyone would watch him as carefully as I would (and I am a control freak from hell ), but if I feel like he needs care that I can't give, I can always ask them to keep him another night. I'm hoping that I will know when I see him whether he is okay to come home. Lloyd will be home all weekend too, and can carry him around if need be. So one of us can always be watching Whitey 24/7 for the next few days. Lloyd is taking Monday off too.

 

I'm mostly hoping that he is so doped up today that he has no idea what is going on. Once we get him home, we'll figure out what pain meds work best. I've heard from a lot of people that Tramadol and the Fentanyl patch made the dogs too restless. So I'm going to ask for a Gabapentin prescription too in case we need an alternative. (Open to suggestions on that too if anyone has any.)

 

Still no word from the vet.....

 

Jen

[Guest greytbookert]

Sending many prayers for you and Whitey!

[MandysMom]

Checking in with prayers for Whitey

[MP_the4pack]

Wow, I can't believe they would send him home the next day. Diamond was in ICU for 2 whole days afterwards. She went to the ward on Monday for the day before she was discharged in the afternoon.

 

 

[Guest MorganKonaAlex]

Mine stayed 2 nights after amputation.

[Guest bigorangedog]

They called to say that Whitey is out of surgery. He is awake from the anaesthesia but still pretty sedated. They said that he is warm on his bed and resting comfortably. Hopefully he will continue to do okay. I'll call them for another update later this afternoon. Wish I could visit him, but understand that he shouldn't get worked up.

 

He's only been with us for a few weeks, but it is still weird here without him.

 

Jen

[sweetdogs]

 

Very best wishes & healing thoughts for you & Whitey. You're giving him a chance to experience the joy of home & I just know he'll be feeling better soon.

 

(I have given 2 of my hounds gabapentin without issue. Same with tramadol but one hound had a very rough time with fentanyl. I hope Whitey has no trouble with any of his meds.)

[Trihounds]

Great news Jen. I am sure he will be fine though I know it is really tough watching our family members go through such a rough patch. Hang in there.

 

At a vet visit last spring, we ran into GT Dawn's tripod Rachel in the parking lot with my 5 year old and it was her first time seeing a tripod. We just explained what happened factually, in kids' terms, and my DD accepted it completely. To this day, she remembers that meeting and doesn't see tripods any differently from 4 legged hounds. From what I have seen, kids shrug off differences much faster than adults and accept diversity without even seeing any differences in what they are looking at. I am sure your DD will be ok with the 'change'. We're thinking about you guys and wishing you all the best.

[brandimom]

Continued prayers for Whitey and YOU too!

[Bevd]

Wow, I can't believe they would send him home the next day. Diamond was in ICU for 2 whole days afterwards. She went to the ward on Monday for the day before she was discharged in the afternoon.

Darcy came home the day after surgery.

 

Sending lots of good thoughts for you all

[Guest StriderDog]

YOU adopted Whitey?!!! YAY!! I'm so glad someone on GT got him!!! My DH and I just love that old guy and very nearly took him for ourselves!! Give him lots of love and I'm sure you'll get through this fine. He got a loving home just in time!

 

[Guest bigorangedog]

YOU adopted Whitey?!!! YAY!! I'm so glad someone on GT got him!!! My DH and I just love that old guy and very nearly took him for ourselves!! Give him lots of love and I'm sure you'll get through this fine. He got a loving home just in time!

 

Ohhh, someone who knows Whitey! Glad to "see" you here. He is a wonderful sweetheart and we just love him too. You can see a ton of pics of him if you sift through my blog posts from the past few weeks (link in my sig). Pretty much the whole blog has been about him lately....

 

Update: They may in fact keep him until Sunday unless he is doing "super well." But if nothing else we can visit tomorrow. They said there is no point to visit tonight because he will be too dopey to know that we are there. Apparently he will have a bandage on that they want to stay on for 3 weeks!! I was surprised by that. (We'll need to change it at least weekly, but that is fine because I am the bandage queen.)

 

Side note: I am having a heck of a time getting in touch with anyone at OSU. Our materials arrived there on Monday morning. We left 2 phone messages and 2 emails to different email addys, but only Thursday late afternoon got an email saying they couldn't open the xray files on the CD. So I rushed to have the clinic resend them via email. Got another short email back from Dr Marin saying basically, "Yep, looks like osteo to us too." But we have 10,000 questions and I can't get them to call me back. In particular, we want to see whether they will send chemo for him. Anyone have suggestions on how to get through?

[Burpdog]

They may in fact keep him until Sunday unless he is doing "super well." But if nothing else we can visit tomorrow. They said there is no point to visit tonight because he will be too dopey to know that we are there. Apparently he will have a bandage on that they want to stay on for 3 weeks!! I was surprised by that. (We'll need to change it at least weekly, but that is fine because I am the bandage queen.)

 

NOT a good idea. I wonder how many greyhounds they have done.

 

Re OSU: keep calling and emailing.

[Guest Energy11]

Dr. Couto will be in my area tomorrow (Alpheretta GA). That is probably why you cannot contact him. If I were going, I'd see him for you.

 

As everyone has said, KEEP TRYING! He always answers my emails.

 

Here is the addy I use to contact him: couto.1@osu.edu

 

 

[Guest bigorangedog]

NOT a good idea. I wonder how many greyhounds they have done.

 

Okay, how come? I have NO problem disobeying instructions if I think it is for the best. I'll be running everything by my regular vet (who has had greys for years) too, although she is home with swine flu right now...

 

I don't personally like this surgeon very much. But several docs, including my regular vet, have told me that he is a very good and experienced surgeon. When I raised the aminocaproic acid issue with him, he blew me off and told me that he's done greyhounds before and didn't think bleeding was a problem. So I had my regular vet order the aminocaproic acid and gave it to him anyway, and told the surgeon I was doing so. He probably thinks I'm a b*tch, but oh well. I'm going to do what I need to do for my dog.

 

So, should I tell him the bandage is a bad idea? Hopefully I will be able to discuss it with someone at OSU too. (Do they work weekends?)

 

 

[Tracey]

They may in fact keep him until Sunday unless he is doing "super well." But if nothing else we can visit tomorrow. They said there is no point to visit tonight because he will be too dopey to know that we are there. Apparently he will have a bandage on that they want to stay on for 3 weeks!! I was surprised by that. (We'll need to change it at least weekly, but that is fine because I am the bandage queen.)

 

NOT a good idea. I wonder how many greyhounds they have done.

 

Re OSU: keep calling and emailing.

 

Cosmo was not bandaged at all and this was just in June and her surgery was done by a surgeon - surgeries are all he does and he came very highly recommended. Anyway, all she had were staples. They said the staples could come out after 10 days; our vet wanted them to stay in for 14 so they did. We did get a tripawd t-shirt from Cara Lea which was a great help. But I don't think the three weeks of bandages is typical.

 

Side note: I am having a heck of a time getting in touch with anyone at OSU. Our materials arrived there on Monday morning. We left 2 phone messages and 2 emails to different email addys, but only Thursday late afternoon got an email saying they couldn't open the xray files on the CD. So I rushed to have the clinic resend them via email. Got another short email back from Dr Marin saying basically, "Yep, looks like osteo to us too." But we have 10,000 questions and I can't get them to call me back. In particular, we want to see whether they will send chemo for him. Anyone have suggestions on how to get through?

 

I had the same trouble as you, getting a hold of someone. They are extremely busy and all I can recommend is call, call, call. Emails were not often answered, was my experience. And I don't think you'll get anyone on weekends. Beyond that, you might see if Janet (foxysmom) can intervene on your behalf. She seems to be able to get in touch with Dr. Couto more easily than most.