Retired Pro Athlete Waiting At the Bridge

If you have a  faith in a higher power of some sort, I ask that you say a prayer/sending healing energy/etc to a Great Dane my humans know named Deuce.  He had a tumor in the same spot I did but it was much larger.  Everything about Deuce is much bigger!   On May 1, he had his right front leg amputated and has had a series of set backs pretty much non-stop since.

He was 215 lbs before the surgery.  His leg alone was about 11 lbs.  The vets had never done an amputation on a dog that large before but said he was a fine candidate for amputation.  After the surgery, he had a hard time standing.  The sling used to carry him tore his bladder and 3 days later, he had emergency surgery to correct that.  He would barely eat so a feeding tube was used.

He developed aspiration pneumonia.  He continued to decline and had a three week stay at the vet hospital to the tune of $800/day PLUS all of his surgeries.  His humans decided to bring him home on Friday, tell him how much they loved him, and then help him on his journey across the Rainbow Bridge after the weekend.  The vet came out on Monday to evaluate him and she didn’t think he was going to get better.  Since he was such a big boy, lots of arrangements had to be made and the vet agreed to come back out on Tuesday for his final good bye.

I think it was all the love he was getting but Deuce decided he enjoyed being home with his people and started to sit up on his own and eat.  The vet came out and said, yes, he is improving but still has a fever and pneumonia.  He has continued to eat and got to poop for the first time in three weeks yesterday.  He still needs help walking but he wants to get up and move around!

So please, say a prayer for Deuce today that he will be the The Giant Dane That Lived!

P.S.  If you could, say a prayer for me too.  I have my second round of chemo today.  Feeling good, strong, and loved and we’ll ask the vet about an injection of Cerenia.

They say it is for my own good.  They say that my life needs to get back to normal and I can’t keep expecting everyone to keep spoiling me.  Something about it will make me rotten.

So today was supposed to be ALL ABOUT ME.  There was the debate about going to the park or Panera bread.  Neither happened.  Instead, I was taken into the backyard for the first time since March and Cookie lost her mind.  She was so happy to have me in there with her.  I didn’t take the stairs, I walked around the house but I was allowed off leash.  I ran from my male human aka “The Daddy” to my female human and then tried to go up the stairs.  They told me no, that I wasn’t ready for it yet.

Then once the temp cooled down a bit, I was allowed to go walk through the neighborhood.  This is how the fight started.  We went .2 miles and then my human said it was time to go home. I said no, I want to keep going.  The answer I got back was “No, we’re going home.  Stop being difficult Nixon.”

Difficult?  Me?  The DIVA?  Really, did you expect anything less?

Perhaps it wasn’t the smartest decision I made.  I was on my feet for an hour.  We walked almost 2/3 of a mile in one shot.  This was NOT supposed to happen.  I’m very tired now.  We stood for 20 minutes straight while we fought about the direction we should be going.  I’m still not sure how I lost.

Then once we got home, they made me eat DRY dog food.  I’ve been getting a topper on it lately.  I have no idea where my topper was but the food wasn’t bad.  It would taste a lot better with a can of food on top.

After dinner, I was told I’ve lost my privileges to go across the street.  I have to get to where I can walk around the yard without stopping before they’re going to let me go across the street again.  That’s 1/10 of a mile.

This is where I want to go, not home.

I saw the surgeons at NC State yesterday.  They said I’m doing great.  I was my charming self and had everyone telling me what a wonderful boy I am, how handsome I am, and I even gave out kisses to the surgeon, right on the tip of her nose.  They said I can go back to my life and do whatever I want to do, within reason.  Just listen to my body.  And they hoped they didn’t have to see me again for treatment.

I was given a prescription for Gabapentin just in case I over do it.  I am not sure if I’ve ever been on it before.  Someone in the pack was put on it at some point but we’re not sure if it was human or canine.  Since my female human has neuro issues too, it might have been her.

On our way out the door, I got to meet a cute lab cross named Ellie May.  She was a little shy at first but eventually realized that I was friendly.  After that, I said hi to every dog and person that we met.  I’ve missed this a lot.

To celebrate, we headed over to Unleashed for the first time.  They were a little easier to get to at lunch time than Phydeaux‘s is.   They are also much smaller and on level ground.  Phydeaux’s is handicapped accessible but it is a very large store and I’d be tempted to sniff everything.  Twice.  I did that at Unleashed.  I even looked at toys and tried to get my human to head into the big walk in freezer.  I told her that was part of the store we had access to but she didn’t believe me till people started heading in to get raw food.

After that, we headed over to the airport to the observation park and it was a little too much stimulation for me so we left.  It wasn’t the planes that bothered me, it was too many children running and screaming in too many directions.  I like small humans but in small doses if they don’t know how to behave.

At that point, it was time to head back to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription.  Again, I got to meet more people, pee on more things, and smell lots of interesting things.   It was a very good day.

That being said, we think I walked almost a mile yesterday.  It wasn’t supposed to happen that way but my human wears a fitbit and when we got home around 3:00 PM, it showed she’d walked over a mile.  Since she put it on right before we left and took the trash out,  there is a good chance that was all me.   I did wear a harness and I did lean on my human for support while walking from time to time but I did a lot of walking and it felt great.  There is some discussion about taking me to a nearby park on Sunday.  The trail is just half a mile, wooded, and there are lots of good spots to rest.

At the end of the month, I know we’re going to Panera for Cookie’s 7th birthday.  The plan is for a Meat Cake like Charlie’s Mom made for his 5th birthday.  I thought going low carb was going to suck but a meat cake sounds as good (maybe even better) than my human’s Peanut Butter and Carrot cake.

I really enjoy breakfast in bed!  This is one part that has been kind of fun.  Everyone brings me food and water in bed.

Nixon Enjoys His Breakfast

Today was my first day of cold laser therapy and my normal chiropractic adjustment.  My humans swear by cold laser therapy and compared to other treatments out there, it is not very expensive.

I was thrilled to go for a ride in the car but then I was tired and the thought of walking on the slick floor and trying to maintain my balance was just too much.  The staff carried me in.  I got to hang out in the OR instead of a kennel and life was good.  My human was in sad shape.  She smelled like dirty human, dog pee, and I’m not sure when she last brushed her teeth.  They sent her home to get a shower and a nap.  They even offered to watch me all day.  I’m not sure if I should be happy or insulted about that.   My human wouldn’t think of it.  She was going to get me at noon and that was that.

The therapy felt good and I wanted to go for a walk and potty afterwards.  Dr. Huff took me out and I walked up the ramp into the car without too much trouble.  Once we got home, I was too tired to get out so I stayed in the car until my male human came home and they had to carry me out of the car, onto the lawn, and  then helped me up so I could relieve myself.  The tramadol really makes me loopy.

Cookie and my female human hung out with me most of the day.  Cookie got bored and the bugs bothered her so she went back inside.   Me and the human napped in the back of the car.   It was nice.  I kept stretching and touching her and she rubbed my belly.  She needed the sleep just as much as I did.

I hate to admit it but I’ve been a little bit of a snot to her.  After not seeing my humans for so long, I just have not been handling her leaving me for any length of time at all.   If she leaves me for more than about 15 minutes, I pee on myself.   That makes her magically appear to clean me up.

They’ve been doing a lot of wash just for me lately.  I am pretty sure they have no clean clothes themselves or they are just too tired to care.   I smell pretty strongly of pee too.   Baby wipes aren’t as effective on dog pee as I had hoped.

I’m still getting iced 3x a day.  I love the icing part.  Now I have to get warm compresses on my remaining front leg because I have edema.  It is swelling really badly.  Dr. Huff says it is because I’m not as active as I normally am and it was to be expected.  My toes are so swollen you can’t see that I have 4 toes at all.

Ice feels so good on my incision and shoulders.

Tomorrow is another cold laser therapy day.

It was a long night.  We just got back from the ER and the prognosis is, I’m doing fine physically but they are still worried about my emotional state.  They wanted to put me on Trazodone but my human declined.  She thinks I have enough drugs being pumped into me at the moment.

I still will not get up at home by myself.  We have a routine.  My female human (not the male human!) puts my harness on me.  She then grabs the entire bed that I am on AND the harness together and lifts me up.  I take a couple of minutes to get my sea legs.  One of the reasons I was sent home early was because I would jump up anytime someone walked by my kennel.  My humans are worried about why I won’t get up at home and why I just lay here like a fish.  The other reason they sent me home early was the howling.   I wake up and howl quite mournfully.

Now you have to understand, Saturday afternoon was great.  I was feeling good for the first time since the surgery and may have walked around too much because I started to bruise.  I had not had any bruising really.  My humans were checking me all night and marking on me with magic marker to make sure the bruising wasn’t spreading.  There were multiple calls to the vet and around 11:30 PM, they packed me up in the car and took me in to see a vet because I was refusing to do anything, even get out of bed.  I had to be carried out to the car on a stretcher.

There is something magical about cars and the digestive track.  Going for a ride helps colic in horses and humans.  And apparently greyhounds too.  About 15 minutes from the vets, I had to go.  I stood up in the back of the car, maintained my balance on 3 legs then started to cry and do the poopy pant.  About 5 minutes from the vets, I couldn’t take it anymore and emptied my bladder and my intestines in the car while we were going down the interstate.  I was impressed that I had this much balance as the road was really bumpy.   Pooch Pads are amazing and absorbed ALL of the mess.  I was able to fold the pad over and then settle in on a dry spot.

As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, I jumped up on my own, walked down the ramp, and let the vet tech take my leash and we walked into the ER together, leaving my human to clean up the mess in the car.   I don’t have thumbs so I did the best I could already anyway. After a complete exam, the verdict was nerves and maybe pain.  Of course there is pain.  Even with all the drugs I’m on, I am not pain free and then there is still the whole, “oh look, you’re leg is gone” deal to get over.

I got a new Fentanyl patch.  They shaved me and put it over my right kidney.  The entire pack questions the placement of this.  The old one was going to come off on 4/16 and this one needs to come off on 4/19 instead.  I’m supposed to be on 100 mg of Tramadol every 8 hours and to finish up the 50 mg of Rimadyl 2x a day.  First they reduce my dose on Friday to see if the Tramadol is making me too light headed to walk and now they want me on more of the stuff.

I’m supposed to get up and walk around every 4 hours even if it is just to walk around the living room.   I’m not sure I like this idea but the choice isn’t up to me anymore.

The doctors say my level of anxiety is not normal.  Other humans who share their lives with greyhounds who have gone through this tell my humans that I am completely normal.    The hospital called my family yesterday and asked them to come pick me up today.  I was supposed to stay another 24 to 48 hours but I’m not sleeping and everything makes me very nervous.  I jump to my feet at the slightest sound.

I don’t handle temperature changes well and it got hot today.  With everything else going on, it just was too much.  When they took me outside, the heat got to me and I had to sit down.  They don’t know me and don’t understand that I just needed some AC and was not being difficult.

In the middle of the afternoon, my human came to pick me up.  With her there, I became even more stoic than before and let everyone know, I was ready to leave.  This wasn’t my home and I wanted to sleep in my own bed, with my own smells and sounds, with my family.

Old habits die hard.  As they were taking me out to the car, we went past a scale.  I cannot pass by a scale without weighing myself.  Greyhounds at the track get weighed a lot and it was very comforting for me to do something normal.  I know how to get on the scale and park out by myself.  it was a little harder to do without my right front leg, but I nailed it.  Everyone told me what a good boy I was too.

There are two huge band aids covering my incision and then I’m wearing a compression/muscle shirt over it.  I know I’m a greyhound but grey isn’t exactly my color.  I’m making it work though.  The shirt feels good and is keeping me warm too.  They shaved a LOT of hair off.  I’m really naked.

Coming home was wonderful.  Cookie met me at the door and showered me with little kisses.  I tested out the beds and then decided to lay down on my incision.  This was a bad idea.  This worked when I was in the hospital but did not feel the same when I got home.  I refused to get up and my humans had to pick me up and I cried.

All the medication they have me on makes me have to pee often.  I just don’t feel right.  I’m groggy and not sure what to do with my feet.  The only way I know to say I have to go outside is to pant because I don’t feel good enough to get up and go to the door.  I’ve already had one accident in the house (and it wasn’t pee – how embarrassing).

I’ve been able to sleep finally.  Both the humans have held me tight and let me sleep in their arms.  It is good to be home though.