Aloha!

Rosie is my 6 year old golden Retriever who was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma in her left front leg. We are almost 48 post amputation and I couldn’t be more relieved and happy with how Rosie is recovering.  

We brought her in for surgery Sat morning 8/24. The vet was awesome, answered all our questions and reassured us that dogs recover quicker than humans. Needless to say, we were still anxious and happy to get the call in the afternoon that Rosie did well with her surgery. The vet was able to get a lymph node to be tested as well(hoping for a negative result from that). Rosie spent the night at the vets and we picked her up at 5 pm on Sunday. We were out in the waiting room, waiting for the vet to finish with the people next to us, and who comes hopping out the door - ROSIE! I didn’t expect that to happen - it was so great to see her and her smile. She laid down immediately(hopping will take some getting used to). The vet sent us home with 3 drugs for pain medication. And answered more questions, then he helped us to our car and helped get Rosie in the back seat. I jokingly said - can you come with us to help us get her out? I wish he could have, it was hard and painful getting her out of our car, but we managed to get her into our living room where she immediately laid down and rested(a recurrent theme now!). She has an upside down T incision with staples to help hold it together. Dinner time, Rosie was laying down husband scooped a scoop of dog food for our other golden, Nikki(5+yrs eye cancer free,) in the kitchen - Rosie, a true food driven Golden, almost jumped up to get to the kitchen! We ran her food bowl in - it was gobbled up in 15 seconds! We luckily live in a place with no stairs and a fenced in yard. We have put down carpeting to help her walk - this has helped so much. We are leaving her incision open to the air to help heal as long as she leaves it alone- based on the vets recommendations. 

First night home- I slept with her in the LR - she was a little restless, moving around a bit, made her way outside about midnight to relieve herself, and then settled down more to sleep. I am happy the first night is over!! 

Monday 8/26  Rosie went outside on her own strength to pee, laid down immediately after to rest. She has been in and out a few times. She has found her favorite tennis balls - they are either at her side or in her mouth for comfort! She is thumping her tail when someone comes to see her! I’m trying to keep her quiet and just sit with her since I know she just needs to rest. Nikki is hanging around and resting as well, I think she is happy to have her sister home! 

I am hoping for Rosie’s recovery to keep going smoothly, but will expect some bumps along the way. I am just so happy to have her home and as far as we know Cancer Free!!!