Emergency Surgery #2

A little bit more detail after yesterday’s super brief post. Apologies to anyone who might be squeamish about the photos.

Kim has had a lump to the left of her spine for several months now. We’ve been keeping a close eye on it, but the general note had been “no change”. We (being the vet and me and family) were reluctant to go in and remove it unless absolutely necessary as Kim has a heart murmur, which is really not ideal for general anesthetic, especially when the length of the operation was going to be unknown.

However. We have noticed that the lump has seemed a bit larger in the past couple of days, although I have to say it’s very difficult to tell as we see her day-in day-out, and it’s hard to judge if it’s grown at all. The vet had a much better view on things, having not seen Kim for 2 weeks, and immediately called us to request permission to put her under GA and take the lump out because it looked substantially bigger. Well, of course we gave the go-ahead. Cue me being hopelessly worried all day at work, unable to concentrate, mindlessly panicking, etc etc. Finally escaped at 4pm and flew back over the Huddersfield, although we had already had the phone call by then to say she was fine, coming around and (best of all) had eaten some lunch.

She has nine (9!) stitches in her side, and is feeling very sorry for herself. The vet nurses, because they love Kim and think she’s special, have let her take home one of their Comfy Collars, which is brilliant. She’s restricted to lead walking, absolutely no jumping and stairs are out of the equation as well.

Training (and competing) is out of the question at the moment. The stitches are right on her right lumbar region, which is one of the main bits that dogs use to run and jump with. I have no idea when she’ll be able to come and play again; her stitches are tentatively due to come out in 10 days time, but I would imagine at least a few weeks after that before she is fully healed and regaining full use of that area.

I’ll update after her post-op checkup on Friday.