October 8, 2009 – Day 281Dr. Person called me at work this afternoon to let me know that Little Bear’s surgery went well. He said the lump was a little bigger than a good size grapefruit but it was a clean extraction. It was pressed against Little Bear’s ribcage so he had to cut through muscle to get to it. He said it looks like a typical lipoma (benign fatty lump) but he can’t tell for sure without sending the lump for tests. And he thought Little Bear would be more comfortable at home with us rather than spending the night at the hospital!
Dr. Person said Little Bear would be coming home with a drainage tube. He wasn’t going to put a bandage over it but said he could put a temporary one on that could be removed when we got him home. Ken went to get Little Bear as soon as he got off work and in the instructions that he brought home, it said to leave the bandage on for 36 hours. I called to confirm whether to leave it on or take it off right away. The tech said they had some “trouble” with the bandage (didn’t ask what kind of trouble) so the Dr. wanted to leave it on for the 36 hours.
Little Bear came home with 2 pain killers and it’s very important that he stay as inactive as possible for the next two weeks. He was quite stoned all evening and slept quite a bit. Dr. Person said he could eat tonight, about half what he normally eats but he wasn’t interested in his dog food. I gave him a few cooked carrots and the meat off one small pork rib to get his pill down and he had a good long drink of water before bedtime. He has to wear a cone for a couple weeks but we took it off when we were in the same room as he was.
In this picture - I made Little Bear a pillow out of his blanket to try to make him as comfortable as possible. He had his head on it for a while but then ended up sleeping like this.
Good news about the bill. Our estimate was $2434.00 - $2904.00 but we only had to pay $1438.27! I think the fact that Little Bear didn’t have to stay overnight brought it down a lot.
Aw, Little Bear looks like he is quite content, as content as he can be considering his surgery. I'm so happy to hear that all went well though. Will the vet get back to you to let you know exactly what the lump was?
ReplyDeleteNo, we decided not to get the lump tested. It would cost more money and we're confident that it's not cancer. If it was, Little Bear would more than likely have been sick but he was fine. They keep the lump on site for 6 months though and we have that long to change our minds if we decide to have it tested. Cancer therapy would be very expensive (probably a few thousand) and Little Bear is getting to be a senior dog...will be 11 on November 3rd so I'm not sure what we'd do if it came to that. I'd rather not think about it.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to hear everything went fine. What a bonus on the cheaper bill as well.
ReplyDeleteThey keep it on-site? That seems a little odd!
What a huge relief that must have been. I am sure that you are so happy to have him home.
ReplyDeleteIt was a bit scary to have him home so soon but I was much happier to have him here than to have worried about him being at the hospital alone all night.
ReplyDeleteI think it's routine for them to keep the lumps (and who knows what else) on site for at least 6 months. The vet told me they preserve them but after 6 months, they simply run out of room to keep all the "stuff" (forget what he referred to the stuff as). They told us the same thing with the last 2 lumps Little Bear had removed too...one was a couple years ago and one was several years ago but neither of his lumps were this big or in this crucial of an area (he could have lost all use of his front leg because of this one).
Today was a good day for Little Bear. I would have taken another picture and described his progress again today but something else came up that took priority.
I'll post another picture and more about his recovery again soon though...maybe tomorrow.