Home from the Hospital

I finally got home from the hospital this morning. I’m too weak and tired to move around or express joy by vigorous tail wags, but my peeps know I’m really glad to be in my bed. I got a bandana from the vet techs, a neat get well "card" from Paco and Milo and some flowers from a friend. What happened is a long story, so I’ll try to shorten it. You know a lot about how it all started already.

I had surgery yesterday morning to remove a piece of glove that I just couldn’t get up myself. No wonder I couldn’t. When they went in to remove the obstruction, they found that a piece of thread from the glove had unraveled and curled itself around a part of my bowel. Unfortunately, the thread was still attached to the piece of glove that was stuck behind a “flap” in my intestine, so the thread kept tightening around my bowel and threatened to sever it in two.

I spent about two hours in surgery but they removed it all and saved it for me to see later. Everything got sewn up again and I’ve basically been trying to recover ever since. I’ve had a lot of shots – for rehydration and electrolytes and other ones to “calm” my tummy.

On left, pieces I got up. Lower right: intact glove. In baggie is the thread that was attached to stuck glove piece.

Now I am just working on getting sleep, keeping small laps of water and meds down and more sleep. If I can keep the water and this “magic” drug, as my doc calls it – sucralfate (http://www.medicinenet.com/sucralfate/article.htm), then I’ll feel much better. And then, if I’m able to follow through on all of the above, I may try some senior dog soup later – maybe. Right now though, I’m panting a lot from the meds I’m “coming off of,” as the vet just told my mom, and trying to sleep, but it’s hard. I’m just anxious and antsy even though my peeps are right by my side.

So that’s the tale of my past week. It was not fun, but I look forward to being back to my bouncy self very soon. I want to thank every furry creature and your moms and dads for stopping by to leave me such huge amounts of love and support. My peeps have learned a lot this last week and appreciate the good advice from some of you as well. We extend enormous amounts of gratitude and hugs.

xo Sammie