mitch5252 wrote:..Kim, I hope everything went better than expected yesterday and that you're on the mend with the help of your little nurse, Sarah!
Please check in when you get a chance.
..
Hi, all;
Just wanted to check in to update you guys on my surgery. Thank you all for your well-wishes/prayers, too!
Well, as many of you know, I have multiple, major health issues, so there is no such thing as a "piece of cake" surgery in my case. The dr. was quite surprized when he got to my gall bladder, it was extremely diseased and said I was a very sick woman...thankfully we "got it out in time." Fortunately, they are able to do it laproscopically (sp?), despite the severe swelling and advanced stage of disease.
I did awake to a expected major side affect from my brain injury---major cognitive dysfunction. It took a long time for my brain to wake up afterwards, and I had to have an improptu physical therapy session and go for a "walking lesson," reconnecting the pathways from my brain to remind it how to make my legs walk again (just like rehab all over again!). Other than that, I did fairly well in that department....
Came home and slept fitfully on the sofa for the night. Mrs. B woke me at around 7 to tell me that when she let the dogs out to do their business, my little Gracie had apparently hurt herself and was't walking right. I asked her to bring her to me on the sofa, figuring that she'd gotten stepped on by one of the bigger dogs. She came up on the sofa with me and we fell back to sleep for another three hours.
After waking up again, I asked Sarah to go put the other two dogs out back, and I would take Gracie out front. Sarah had no sooner got to the steps, and came running back, saying, "Mom! Something's wrong with Dawson, too---he can't walk either!!!" I went to him, and put two and two together, realizing that Grace hadn't been stepped on at all; that she and Dawson were seriously sick. I called my dog training friend, and another friend (who serves on my board of directors and drove 1/1/2 to come help me). They came over to help me get Dawson up and stay with me for the rest of the afternoon. I had gotten Dawson out to the yard to try to get him to "go", but then he went down, and by the time I'd done the steps, gotten myself outside, and tried to get him up, I was absolutely in agony and exhausted from the effort. I started balwling my eyes out===so overwhelmed that I couldn't help my "babies", I was in so much pain by then and started spiking a high fever (complete with Lyme pain), exhausted from the effort.
My friends arrived and we called our vet who agreed with our assesment that we thought it was the food giving them intense gastro issues (my GSD had gotten sick earlier in the week, but I thought it was the weather/decrease in exercise. I've been through this type of illness with foods before---and it really stinks, because they're on very high end, organic diets! You'd think that those companies would keep the formulas consistent).
In any case, the vet said to make them walk every few hours to move their guts and just keep an eye on them..fasting them until at least tomorrow. We called the corporate headquarters of the dog food company (Merrick) and filed a formal complaint. They state they haven't changed the formula, but for all three of the dogs to get so violently ill, there must have been some sort of change somewhere. In any case, I'm changing formulas after next week (going to cook for them for a few days to ensure that this is all out of their systems). They are starting to feel better, and are moving around now (with prodding, but not physical pushing anymore). My friends just left a little bit ago, and I'm finally getting the rest that I should've been getting all along!
So no, nothing went as planned, but we're all on the mend now----all still hurting pups, but with rest, we should be right as rain in a few days
It's never dull on my end!!!
Thanks again for all your thoughts/prayers. Will be in touch again when I'm a bit stronger.