Good morning,

We had a better night with the morphine for sure and now that we know what seems to be causing the pain (this unidentified nodule) we are keeping him strictly rested and it seems to be helping? I still can't believe the pain this has caused - even pre amputation he wasn't in this type of pain and he has a very high pain tolerance. Our hearts are so broken seeing him suffer this way. 

We have an appointment today at 4 pm with our regular vet. We adore our vet office and they have been so good to us. I am wondering if this could be nerve pain related from the surgery. I am wondering if we should maybe seek out a different vet in that case? Or maybe get a second opinion depending on the outcome of this appointment? I know our vet is good, but I also get the sense while they support us going forward, I don't think they see a lot of people going this far with their dog if that makes sense. 

Things I think I need to bring up today:

1. pain control - possibly muscle relaxants (should this be a muscle strain which as time goes on I feel like it probably isn't? I have never had a muscle strain requiring this amount of analgesia and still experiencing break through pain),

2. What is this lump? What can we do about this lump?

3. Do we need a referral to a different clinic? 

I think I'll ask for prescription for hydrotherapy and puppy massage and rec therapy as well in case our insurance will cover that if we can get through whatever is causing him SO much discomfort. 

And just to describe this 'nodule' more for anyone whom might have experience with this, it's not rock hard but it's not jelly, its something in between, its moveable, no drainage. I would say it's probably about 1-1.5 inches in diameter.  Its not red, it's not hot and its pretty much directly under where the verticle and the horizontal incision meets. I will work on trying to get some more photos taken and uploaded. 

Thanks in advance for your support with this - this has been such a rollercoaster from cancer diagnosis to this point. We don't want him to suffer but we don't want to give up if there is still hope. What a tight rope to walk!

Michelle

We didn't keep the 4 pm appointment. We didn't pick him up from vet emergency until 6. If we can last until Tuesday I think it will be good to talk with the surgeon who did the surgery maybe and ask the questions you mentioned earlier about complications following procedure.

He actually did do well on his magic carpet. But it's currently out of commission after a pee pee accident! Just about out of the wash and then his magic carpet with be ready for it's third day of business hah! It's good to hear its a beneficial adjunct medication. I hope it helps. It seems like we just keep throwing meds at him and his pain still surfaces so I'm really crossing my fingers. Its hard putting bandaids on when we don't even know what the problem is! Both my partner and I said it would be easy if he was giving up - not eating, not drinking, not wagging his tail. But he's desperate for food, drinks appropriately and wags his tail when we come in the room so it seems like he isn't ready? (of course its the food we are bringing him as he won't get up) And x-ray shows nothing re mets. We don't want to give up either but also our appt today was 1,000$ and we didn't figure out the root cause...

The ER vet mentioned perhaps the muscle tissue is ossifying or something like that causing pain? Who knows. I did bring up nerve pain, but I think the vet was pretty focused on the scapula and to be honest  I kind of forgot to bring it up again. I suppose we are query nerve pain, query ossifying tissue, query bone or sharp edge floating around. I don't know. 

Our regular vet thought about doing laser treatments around his incision. We didn't attend the appt but is this something anyone has tired or is familiar with?

Thanks for your kind words. We were really hoping for answers today