Our first visit after the surgery...

Day two, Monday the 16th...


When we talked to Dr. Cheri on Sunday night, she told us we could visit Cassi in the morning after "rounds" at 8:30am.  I think we were there at 9:00am and were ushered into a waiting/exam room.  We were furnished a "yoga" pad and large, soft towel to sit on the floor with.  They set all that up and told us Dr. Cheri (the surgeon) would be in to fill us in on what was happening.  I must say that ALL the staff at the Pet Emergency and Specialty Center of Marin are fantastically accomodating.  They asked us if we wanted water of coffee while we waited and told us Dr. Cheri would be a few minutes.  We just wanted to talk to Dr. Cheri and see our little girl...


A few minutes later, Dr. Cheri walked in and introduced herself to us.  We exchanged greetings and she got right to the issues.  She told us that she had performed a (ok, here come the BIG words) HEMILAMINECTOMY on Cassi's spine between T-9 and T-12 for the treatment of
INTERVERTEBRAL DISC DISEASE (IVDD).  IVDD is usually seen in short-legged, long-backed breeds like (of course) Lhasa Apso, Dachshund, Pekingese and  Shitzus. It is typically seen in the middle aged, overweight, under exercised dogs and Cassi falls into none of these catagories, as she is only 2+ years old and watches her girlish figure carefully (she's a picky eater...).  See the links I has provided above for more info...there's lots of good stuff out there on this.

Above, you see a copy of the Myelogram (click to enlarge) and can clearly see the spinal cord running through the spinal column.  A dye is injected along the column and flows with the spinal fluid...as seen around the spinal cord (dark) and fluid (light).  The dye/fluid flow and thin out just past right above the second visible rib from the right.  Where the fluid narrows is the swelling and damage to the spinal cord.  You can see the fluid widen out again towards the left side of the xray.


Dr. Cheri said there was "debris" from the ruptured disc that had spread to the two adjoining discs, which required her to open more of Cassi's spine than usual.  Cassi has a 5 inch scar from the incision. She has 15 staples to close the incision.  Her hair was shaved into what a friend termed a "reverse mohawk", which I thought was perfect...Cassi has always been a rebel.    Dr. Cheri said she was pleased with the outcome of the surgery, but she was hoping for some...any "deep pain" response from Cassi, but there wasn't any...no flinch with the pinch...but, as I said in earlier entries, this wasn't unusual.


Dr. Cheri then laid out the course of her treatment.  Cassi would be in the hospital for, at least, 3 days while they monitored her post-surgical condition.  As we would soon see, she was on a catheter so she could urinate, as she has no control of, basically,  anything below her rib cage.  They wanted to monitor her urine output so they could teach us how to express her so her bladder wouldn't get distended and damage the muscles that control it.  The bowel system has its own little brain that keeps it working, no matter what.


The Dr. Cheri says "Do you want to see her?"  Of course we do! "One of the nurses will bring her in..." and we settled on the floor. 

When the nurse brought her in, she was alert and happy to see us.  I think she would have been wagging her tail if she was able.  To the right, you can see the bag she was attached to.  The nurse advised us how to handle her (or, not handle her) and left us alone with her.  Cassi immediately climbed, as much as she was able, on Diane's lap and let out a big sigh.  She was happy to be with her momma...and she fell quickly to sleep.
Cassi is a bit skittish about loud noises, so I could imagine that being in a strange place, knowing something was wrong with her and being her first night away from her brother and us, she was not getting much sleep...except for the drugs.  She was on a fentanyl patch for the pain practically from her check-in.  I think the only good sleep she got was when we would visit for an hour or so.  She would say her hellos and settle in next to Diane or I and fall fast asleep.


Anyway, we got to spend an hour or so with her and were told that we could bring down her pink "bankie" and some familiar food.  She is a picky eater also and was snubbing her nose at their offerings...typical.  They evetually got her to eat some baby food, but it was pretty messy.


We came back that evening and sat with her for another hour plus.  We brought some Natural Balance Turkey roll down (which was exclusively "treats" up to this point, but is actually nutritional if you feed enough...) and she scarfed it down.  At least she was eating...we left a bag of pre-sliced for them to give her.


I visited again on Tuesday morning and Diane accompanied me that evening.  Pretty much the same routine as above, except this time she gave us "kisses" that she hadn't been giving since the incident.  Progress in our eyes...baby steps...it's going to be baby-steps.  I visited again on Wednesday morning...and got some good news!  Cassi can come home with us tonight!


Next entry...Cassi is released...