Thanks. I dropped her off at the vet this morning, and the list gave me lots of good questions to ask.

Yes, she's staying overnight; I'll pick her up tomorrow afternoon.  In the meantime, I'm getting everything set up for her return, including heading to the grocery store for some tasty treats for both of us.

I have mostly carpeted floors; we'll see how she does with the linoleum in the kitchen. I'll get some rugs or foam tiles if she struggles with it, but it's got a bit of texture, so she may be all right. And she doesn't spend a lot of time in there, really.

Waiting for the call now to say that she is out of surgery...

So, it’s been quite an evening. When I went to pick her up at 6, the vet tech said the vet wanted to keep her overnight. Apparently she doesn’t tolerate pain as well as some other dogs. They’ve been giving her opiates today, which work well but wear off quickly, they said, and also some other longer-lasting painkiller. I left her there, but called the vet, who was out of the clinic at the time. He said he’d be checking on her at 8pm, and would call me then.

Here’s the thing: I had gotten the mistaken impression that the clinic was staffed overnight. It’s not, and the nearest 24-hour clinic is over an hour away. So, at the 8pm check-in, I said that I wasn’t comfortable with her being alone in the clinic, so he said I could bring her home. There was a bit of yipping and yelping as I got her situated, but she’s in her crate here beside me now, sleeping. I’m hoping she sleeps through the night, but I have Tramadol that I can give her after midnight if she wakes up. I’m sleeping on an air mattress right beside her. We’re going to get through this, I keep telling myself.

Thanks. We’ll be seeing the vet again in the morning, first thing if she is in pain, a little later otherwise. She’s had a few instances so far of vocalizing and restlessness, but otherwise is staying pretty still. I’ve gotten her to take a few sips of water. Hoping we can settle in and get some sleep. 

I do have an anti inflammatory and an antibiotic to start tomorrow, as well as the Tramadol. Don’t have the bottles in front of me (they’re wayyy over on the table, and I don’t want to disturb the sleeping dog), so I’ll get the names later. Will have to ask about the Gabapentin tomorrow, as he didn’t give us any of that.

Last night was rough, but she is doing so much better this morning.

Neither of us go much sleep, I don’t think. She had several instances of vocalizing and thrashing, so I gave her a Tramadol after midnight. I was glad I had brought her home so I could give her that dose and comfort her. At one point she inched up onto the air mattress with me and put her head on my shoulder. 

This morning, with no encouragement or coaxing from me, she got up and started walking. She seems to have gotten the hang of it more quickly than I expected. We went to see the vet; he took the bandage off and said the incision looks great. He says the cancer should be gone. They’ll want to keep an eye on her lymph nodes at future checkups, but there was no swelling or anything to indicate trouble at the time of the surgery.

She’s drinking water (peed all over the vet’s office, unfortunately— I couldn’t get her to do it outside this morning, so when the vet went to pick her up and put her on the table, she really let loose!) and eating some, though she’s being a little picky about it. She’s very fond of peanut butter, so that’s how I’ve been giving her pills, and I got some hot dogs in case she gets tired of the peanut butter. Speaking of pills, the anti-inflammatory is Novox and the antibiotic is Clavamox. I forgot to ask about the Gabapentin, but will call the vet if the Tramadol doesn’t seem to be doing the job.