As I had mentioned here, Sasha was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, and Carlos and I have decided to proceed with the amputation of front her right arm. Her surgery was scheduled for Wednesday, March 14th, a week after we received her diagnosis. The days leading to the surgery, Sasha was in a lot of pain, and would not interact nor want to go outside much. On Sunday, March 11th, Carlos and I took Sasha and Alli out for a drive. We also stopped at Rita’s Water Ice and enjoyed some cold treats = )
Sasha enjoying some Rita’s custard
Alli’s turn
Eating together is better = )
Though it was a bit cool, we drove around for a little while with the windows open, so that the girls would enjoy the smells and cool air. Sasha has always preferred the cooler weather; she even lays on the snow to chew on sticks!
Anyway, after the nice drive and cold treats, we went home. To our surprise, when we got her down from the car, Sasha was a bit spunky! She hadn’t been spunky in a while, so seeing her this way made us very happy. She even wanted to walk! If our girl asked, we’d let her, so we took for a short walk in front of our house and into one of our good neighbor’s front yard. There was a kitty cat there, and when Sasha got a glimpse of the pretty white and grey cat, she wanted to check him out. You see, she grew up with cats, and she loves them. If we say the words “kitty cat,” she’ll perk up and look for them. She loved being outside and seemed so happy. We now know she was in a lot of pain for some time, but given that Sasha seemed to want to be active on this Sunday afternoon, we had to let her. It is true that dogs take pain a lot more than humans, but with the kind of pain Sasha was in, she knew her limits. After a while of being outside, we brought her in; it was pretty much time for them to have some dinners – as Carlos’ mom says.
From Monday thru Tuesday evening, she was not very active, but she never lost her appetite, which is good. Most of the time, the pain is so severe that dogs lose their desire to eat, making them lose weight and be less healthy for an amputation. Other than the cancer, our girl has always been very healthy and was at a healthy weight. In fact, and although we don’t give out dogs many treats, we did limit them more just prior to her surgery. With the bad news, I wanted to give her whatever she wanted to eat, but it was in our best interest to maintain her weight as healthy possible.
Then Wednesday morning came. I went to my English class and after I got home, Carlos and I took her to our vet’s office.
Wednesday was probably one of the longest days of my life. The surgery was to start around 11 am. Around 1:30 pm, I called to see how everything was and make sure Sasha was doing well, but the surgery had just started. The surgeon had an earlier surgery that didn’t go as hoped, and it delayed Sasha’s surgery. The good thing was that the other dog was now doing well, and now it was Sasha’s turn to be taken care of. Around 4:30 pm Sasha was now out of surgery and we everything went well. Carlos and I wanted to see her, so we stopped by. Our vet was concern that we’d wake her, and he wanted her to rest, but he did let us take a peak and we got to her. She was completely OUT. We didn’t speak because we didn’t want her to hear us and get anxious. Though we wanted to touch her, we refrained for the same reason, to not wake her and get her anxious. There she laid, asleep and wrapped in pretty pink bandages; snoring = )
I kept waking up all night on Wednesday. I think I just wanted Thursday to arrive so that we could pick up our girl and bring her home. Anxious and nervous at the same time, I wait.
~ L.
You can watch Sasha going to the vet’s office the day of the surgery, here.