Erica already jumped the gun and send me a sweet PM (THANK YOU!!!), but since this wonderful, awesome, caring, amazing community seems to be thinking about me today, I thought I would let you all know what happened at the consult today. 

First, my poor pup was not a happy camper when he didn't get breakfast this morning. I felt so bad I didn't eat breakfast either 

Met with the surgeon, who is a very sweet little lady with great bedside manner with the dogs. She was a little concerned that the surgery may not be 100% curative like planned because of the placement of the tumor in the armpit. They will be removing the leg, scapula and pectoral muscle to try to get a wide enough margin. 

I asked her to be aggressive with pain management and she agreed, though she doesn't use Fentanyl patches. They are doing a nerve block, IV drugs and oral pain management while he is in their care, and he will come home on Tramadol, Rimadyl (or equivalent) and probably Gabapentin.

The crappiest part is that she doesn't start surgeries until the evening. She prefers it that way (She says she functions much better at night instead of morning/daytime so it is in Barret's best interest). She will call me when he is in recovery (even if it is 4am). I have a long time to wait to hear how he did... Good think  I doubled up on my anxiety meds today. 

They aren't a 24 hour hospital, but because they are in surgery so late, she has a few techs that do stay until the morning hospital staff arrives, so someone will be there with him. 

They want to keep him 2 nights, most likely, to give him extra pain meds. I was warned that since he wasn't in any pain or limping before surgery that recovery will probably slow and hard on him.

I still feel pretty calm (again, that may be the anxiety meds talking), but I am definitely worried and just ready to have him back in the house and recovering.

I was proud of myself, I only cried a little bit after I left him, but I stayed really strong and calm for him during the appointment. You could just tell he wasn't anxious one bit, so that made me feel better. 

Wish us luck! I'll update as soon as I hear anything. Thanks!