Westy Update - The Short Short Short Version

I know I said on my Facebook update that I'd do a post last night, but it was Origin! Game 1 was on which Queensland won 28-24 and where at least 8 of the New South Wales points came off refs calls that the U7 refs would have caught.

But ANYWAY... I digress. Westy came home yesterday afternoon! He's cut upon from just under his sternum to his pelvis, shaved on either side of his belly, has a skin tear on one of his front paws, is bruised on his belly, has a few other sore spots on his limbs from IVs... but he's so much better. He had a trot around the yard when I brought him home, was out several times during the evening, tried to pinch the bags of chips and lollies that were left out at halftime when I put Her Majesty and Clive to bed, ate all his dinner, is licking the barrier cream off his wounds and was totally loving the painkillers at dinner if the look on his face was anything to go by.

He needs fattening up - the tumour and kidney alone weighed over a kilo so he still lost weight while hospitalized - and check ups. Going by the pathology the tumour is looking not quite as deadly as it could have been and his lone kidney seems to be functioning okay. It's probably taken a few years off his life but not as many as first feared.

Will try and get some photos up. Thanks for all the good thoughts and comments. We're very glad to have our boy home.

Westy Update

I've just had another chat with the night shift vet looking after Westy so I thought I'd give you an update.

He's doing remarkably well for a dog that's just had a kidney removed and was bleeding into his belly. I've been told he woke up very rapidly after the anesthesia, had the IV pain meds taken down this morning and is on a pain patch, is eating and wagging his tail and is just doing fantastic for a breed of dog more known for its slow recovery times.

There are a couple of concerns, however. One is his clotting factors were all used up during the bleed out and have been slow to recover. He's had 2 units of very pricey fresh frozen plasma and may need another one tonight. In for a penny, in for a pound I suppose. I mean, I can't very well go and save his life with surgery only to let him slowly bleed to death because he can't clot his blood. And then it seems he is almost producing too much urine. This seems to be the most puzzling - is he producing so much because he's getting plenty of IV fluids, or do they have to give him IV fluids to keep up his hydration because he's peeing so much? Hopefully I will have an answer to this tomorrow.

Thanks for all the kind words and thoughts for Westy. Like a lot of pet owners, we feel he's more than "just a dog". He's part of the family.

What About Westy?

Poor Westy. He's had a lot of trouble lately that I feel I should update you on, as it's one of the many things that have been chewing into my time.

About a month before Easter, Westy started to lose his appetite. Well, not all at once. He'd go off his food for a meal or two and then would eat again. At first we thought he had a virus, and then that he was just sick of his food. We tried different things, all of which worked for a while and then he'd not eat for a day or so. He started losing weight, and in a greyhound they don't have a lot to lose in the first place. But otherwise he seemed himself, if a little tired. Nothing we could put our finger on.

So off we went to the vet. His heart murmur had gotten worse, but all his bloodwork came back okay so we tried him on some medication. That seemed to work for a bit, but then it was right back to what he was before. Back to the vet and some more medication with some talk of ultrasounds the next week, but nothing glaringly obvious.

Well after lots of back and forth to our vet and the vet specialists, we finally found out what was wrong with our furry child. And it was exactly what I didn't want to hear... you know what's coming. The 'c' word - he had a tumour on one of his kidneys. The solution was to run a few more tests to make sure his chest was clear and that his other kidney was good before doing surgery to remove the diseased kidney.

Fuck.

We did the tests last week and all was looking good. I had a friend lined up who has two greyhounds of her own to look after Westy when we head to the US next month. Surgery was scheduled for next Thursday. On Thursday night Westy was pinching Clive's chicken nuggets.

But last night Westy wasn't looking so hot, and this morning The Hermit saw blood in Westy's morning wee. Westy was clearly in pain, something which up until this morning hadn't been an issue. I grabbed the phone and The Hermit took him in. It was decided the surgery couldn't wait, not even until Monday.


Now the story has a happy ending for the time being, so don't worry. Westy made it through the surgery; as of 6pm tonight he was awake, if very groggy, and doped to the gills on painkillers. The kidney had ruptured and he was bleeding into his "retroperitoneal space". It's always at this point in conversation with medical people, be they of animal or people variety, that I interrupt with the point that I am a nurse so they don't need to explain a lot of terms. Saves time. Anyway... he was bleeding internally. He will be there at the hospital for the next 24-48 hours, perhaps longer, depending on how he does.

I keep looking for him in the house, expecting to see him on the bed or the couch. I want to go to the vet hospital and physically touch him. I know he's in good hands, but they're not my hands dammit.

I will keep you posted on how he recovers.

In Just a Few Minutes...

That phrase? Has become the bane of my existence. Really.

I've given it a lot of thought and decided that the sheer number of things I have to do that take "just a few minutes" add up to several hours a day. Sure it only "takes just a few minutes" to make the kids a healthy lunch, make a fruit salad, make a garden salad, fold the laundry, wash the floor, vacuum the floor, clean the toilet, go for a walk, shave my legs, shave under my arms, condition my hair, cut the kids nails, read a story to the kids, make a decent dinner, eat breakfast, make breakfast, hang up the laundry, do a blog post, take out the garbage, clean out the fridge, make a shopping list, make a dinner list, make a cup of tea, feed the dog, wash the dog, wash the kids, take a shower...

Sure there are other people who can do some of these things. And sometimes they do. But I have to spend just a few minutes nagging them and/or guilting them into doing it.

Plus I have to squeeze in work and sleep. And everything else I haven't named because it's 10:19 on a Monday night and I've been up since 4:30 this morning and I just can't think anymore.

So don't tell me the thing you want me to do will take "just a few minutes". I just might deck you. That only takes a few seconds.

What They Meant

Very often you'll hear people, usually Fundamentalist Christians, tell you the US is a Christian nation. It's what the Founding Fathers really meant.

Really?





More information on this campaign from the Freedom From Religion Foundation can be found here. I don't care what religion people are, or are not for that matter, but I do expect them to keep it to themselves. That, I believe, is what the Founding Fathers meant.

Saturday Skinfest

It's here! And on time! Because I'm doing it the day before! It's not cheating, it's taking advantage of technology and time that I have! Oh shut up and just get your eye candy...

Shirtless Bunnies never looked so good... or so inky. Not a fan of so many tatts but I will do my best to ignore.

Hubba Hubba Halatau. So says Miss WTF.

Does the sun not shine in Canberra? Some Raiders need some sun, or a good fake tan.

Ok, ok she's gorgeous. Bitch.

More skin, I hope, next week!

Photo Friday

Clive and The Hermit. What else is there to say?

Just for the Day

Before we get to Photo Friday, I should tell you why I'm home on a Friday blogging instead of being at work.

I have to have surgery today.

Ok, so now that we've got that out of the way let's get to Photo... Wait, what? You want to know just what's going on? Surgery? Today? And I'm only telling you NOW?! At least that's what I can hear Momma Mooselet saying.

So here's the deal. You may remember this post back in '08 where I had a huge spray about the monthly bloodletting. Well mine's been a real bitch for the last 2++ years and this surgery will hopefully sort that out. I'm not having the uterus removed - I don't have the time to recover from that sort of thing, nor was it offered right now - but what I am having done should fix my problem. It's strictly day surgery, scheduled for 2pm this arvo. I didn't bring it up sooner as I only saw the doctor last week. When he said we need to do this procedure I certainly didn't expect him to say "How about next Friday?" A quick couple of phone calls to my boss and my husband and we were in. And since then... I've just been too busy. Story of my life.

Fingers crossed it all goes according to plan, and that I'm home curled up on the couch by dinner. I promise to find an easier way to have a day off work next time.