I work 6 hours on Sundays, which means 8 hours away from home. Let me tell you, I have never been so happy to go to work! The fireworks were horrible last night and the only way to keep Sheba quite was to hang out with her in my room, which is not set up for her aside from a bed. In grandma’s room her bed is enclosed in a pen. In my room its just pushed into a corner. Fortunately, once she got comfortable she didn’t get up again except to readjust a few times. So I got to sleep in my own bed until 3 am meds, then we moved back to grandma’s room for some more solid zzz’s. Not much else to report, two more weeks of sleep deprivation to go!
Author: sheba2011
5/23/16 Sheba went in for TPLO of the right leg (left had been done year prior). Initial tests were inconclusive suggesting fungal or cancer. 6/22/16 fine needle aspirate in conjunction with review from specialist resulted in diagnosis of osteomyelitis of fungal origin. Organism could not be ID'd. Amputation 6/30/16, bone sent to pathology for identification and susceptibility.
Final diagnosis: systemic Aspergilosis
Current treatment: Itraconazole and terbinafine
Tripawd Day 2
Last night was Sheba’s first night home. Since I’ve got school and work all week my aunt and I agreed that I’d sleep with Sheba and be on “duty” at her bedside during the day today. The neighborhood (illegal) fireworks that lasted all night didn’t help her anxiety and she was restless until I was finally able to restart her on trazodone around 1am. She keeps staring at her incision and flexing her muscles like she’s trying to find her leg. Hoping the gabapentin will help with that. She finally ate this morning, but only the chicken, not kibbles. towards the end I had to pick out the remaining chicken pieces for her because she’s too drugged to pick around the kibbles.
Mostly slept today, but she did get up enough times for us to get her Webmaster harness on, adjusted, and then attached the brush guard. I really wish we had been able to fit it prior to surgery but the first harness was too small so the replacement didn’t come in until the afternoon of surgery. But yay for Amazon Prime and free next day shipping! Fortunately, Sheba seems to be ok with this harness, we were worried she’d protest because its bigger than her previous walking harness (looks like a harness a lot of the front-leg tripawds use). So far she hasn’t had any side effects from the antibiotic or antifungal. Hopefully that continues to go well.
Tripawd Day 1
Sheba came home today!
Ruth went and picked her up around noon. Our vet’s office is specialists during the day and emergency at night. the poor emergency vet, not realizing Sheba is tolerant to sedatives, was concerned with the doses the surgeon was ordering. While she was heavily sedated, Sheba remained wired all night. Everyone decided it’d be better for her to come home. Good thing we’ve got human medical experience and aren’t afraid of scary incisions and round-the-clock meds!
Our neighbor was kind enough to drive up to Fremont with my aunt (I was working). He lost his furbaby to osteosarcoma a while back and didn’t want poor Sheebs to ride in the back seat alone. Once settled in, Sheba slept next to our neighbor the whole way home. A bit fussy when moved from car to house, she’s been sleeping all afternoon, aside from meds and a bit of heavy drinking (WATER, of course!). She has refused dinner, the surgeon said that’s to be expected, but we’ve really got to push food tomorrow because the antifungal has to be taken on a full stomach. Aside from regular meds, our surgeon prescribed cefpodoxime (an antibiotic) and itraconazole (an antifungal). When the fungal ID and susceptibility comes in we’ll switch antifungals if warranted. The surgeon highlighted “gastrointestinal upset – call if it occurs”….WTF, Sheebs just recovered from stress colitis, lets just upset her guts some more?! Poor babe. I’m hoping she figures out how to poop real quick!
My poor naked baby is cold, she’s never cold! Darn doc even shaved her tail!
Tripawd Day 0
When we started this journey a little over a month ago, our surgeon was already starting to prepare us for amputation. He had no idea what the cause of the lesion was, but he knew the bone was far too damaged. Given the initial pathology report of fungus or cancer, we all assumed cancer because fungal infections are fairly rare in our area. Turns out Sheba’s going to be one of those special cases. Always has to be different!
Reflecting on the past month, I’m not sure what sort of a commentary this is that we were far more comfortable treating cancer than we are with treating a fungal infection. My boss joked that I’ve spent my whole life in the cancer community (as a survivor of childhood leukemia, fundraiser, and later as an assistant in a radiation clinic), of course that would be too easy! Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m overjoyed that Sheba is cancer-free, but I also know that its very difficult to treat fungal infections, and just like cancer, we have to constantly be on the lookout for spread to the lungs or spine.
So here we are, Day 0. Waiting for the surgeon to call and give us a post-op summary. We probably won’t bring her home until tomorrow, unless she flips out in the dog run and they ask us to spend the night (I can’t believe this is even an option).