The CT at the end of January showed the tumor has shrunk considerably, therefore the radiation was a success (since it was a sarcoma, not a carcinoma, it was expected that the tumor won't disapear completely). There was a good chance that Sambo will bleed a lot, so a blood donor escorted us there in case a transfusion would be necessary. The operation went ok, they removed what was left of the tumor, the surrounding tissue wasn't damaged by the radiation and Sambo didn't bleed a lot, so everything went really great. The night after the operation Sambo didn't quite know what to do with himself, but after a while he finally calmed down so that we took a short nap together – at 4 am. Before that he would only walk from the living room to the vestibule a hundred times, then we both dosed off for 5 min on the vestibule floor, and then we were up again… Anyhow, at 4 am we finally fell asleep, I set my alarm clock to go off at every full hour so I could check if Sambo was ok, but I woke up by myself every half hour anyway. The next days were full of preoccupation – will Sambo be ok, will he walk ok, eat normally…
Sambo at the night of the operation
Unfortunately we had some complications – Sambo started limping on his left front leg and when I touched it I felt as if I were touching a water bag, it felt all bubbly. I rushed to the vet and they said it was an emphysema – since the bone of his nose ridge was removed during the operation, the 'channel' that lead the air directly to the lungs was gone, which resulted in air going anywhere it could – under the skin. Air gathered all over his body, most obviously in his left leg and his neck, right up to the end of the rib cage. And yes, it felt just as disgusting as it reads, but they said it's not painful or dangerous, even if a bit unpleasant. Sambo stayed at the vet for a few hours, he got an infusion and an IV painkiller, and just in case they gave him a plaster with an analgesic that works constantly for days – for which they made a canyon of 10x15 on his flank :P. all in all, the poor fellow didn't look quite olympic, with a shaved and sewn face, airbaggy legs and body and a hole in his flank, but at least he felt better.
After 10 days...
He's much better now after three weeks. The face healed really nicely, the hair grew a lot, the airbags are slowly decreasing, he's in a normal mood, he has a good appetite, but another problem arose – due to two weeks of reduced activity he got a little stiff and has some problems with his hind legs, but it's getting a bit better by the day and we go to normally long walks already. I certainly hope this will be over soon as well cause this recovery has been dragging out for much too long now. I know it takes an older body more time to heal and regenerate, but I believe this will be behind us soon as well.
On Thursday we're going to the vet to take the stitches out and I hope that with this we'll leave our cancer story behind us for good. We're surely optimistic about it with Sambo obviously feeling better. And with an improved state of health we're consequently in a better mood, so we're already planning this year's new adventures :). I entered Sambek to the World dogshow in Bratislava in October and I'm going to enter him to the World show for Belgian shepherds that will be held under the FMBB World championship in the Czech Republic in May. In sum, we're looking forward to many new successful battles :).
No comments:
Post a Comment