Yeah.  He's on gabapentin and an NSAID right now.  I think we've got most of what they recommend for prep stuff at home.  No slip rugs in the kitchen area (full path covered to front and side doors), bought a sling if we need it, large orthopedic bed (though he doesn't like it and prefers to sleep on the floor, not sure there's anything I can do about that), bought a waterproof liner for my mattress (the orthopedic dog bed came with a liner) which is now on the floor in the living room since he mostly prefers to hang out on that with me when we're in that room and if he pukes or pees I can swap out the liner and an extra pair of sheets with minimal sadness, planning to block off the hallway so he's limited to living room and kitchen (which is how we get outside for potty)...  

Anything else people wish they'd been prepped for before they got their pup home?  Really just all around.  The 'what do you wish people had told you before your pup got home' question...

The food is a good suggestion I hadn't really thought of yet.  I've never had trouble getting R to eat.  Ever.  And he's never really been allowed any human food.  Ground beef and chicken probably a pretty safe bet.  He likes strawberries and apples (though he usually only gets one or two bites).  I bought bone broth (the only thing I could find with pretty much no extra spices added) because somebody told me if I have trouble getting him to drink I can pour a little of that in his water?  Is that right?

I was going to take off from work the day he's likely to be coming home and then we have July 4 weekend so I should have the first four days he's home off to focus on him.  Did anybody feel like they should have had more time?  I figure he's going to be super drugged out those first few days, but that also sounds like sometimes the hardest days initially trying to get pain meds fine tuned.  Also, I'll just be sad and scared and probably want to binge watch British murder mysteries and stare at him to make sure he's still breathing.  

I dropped him off this morning.  I hated it.  He was terrified once we got into the exam room.  I sat on the floor with him and he tried to claw his way up my body when the tech came to take him back.  

I think I gave him a good last 4-leg morning though.  We went for a walk and since we were heading in for surgery I let him play fetch with a bit more enthusiastic throws than he's been enjoying the past few weeks.  I had mixed feelings about it.  On one hand, the morning reassured me R is NOT ready to leave this life yet.  He tried to pull my arm off wagging his tail and desperately trying to say hello to a woman putting her trash out on our walk.  And then he was so, so happy to play fetch without me doing the wimpy throws he's been stuck with lately.  But the flip side is that that leg doesn't seem to be holding him back yet and he's going to totally NOT be himself for a couple weeks before we get back to running around and being happy.  (If we get enough weeks even, with the lurking lung met.)  But, but, but...  For R, enthusiastic fetch is literally the greatest joy in his life.  I think he likes cuddles and walks too, but nothing brings him more pleasure than tearing across the yard full-pent after a tennis ball.  If he was the kind of dog I thought could be legitimately happy living out his days very quietly and sedately, I might think it was the wrong choice to take the leg.  But for quality of life, R wants to be able to run, really run.  And I don't think I could go back to playing fetch knowing any throw could be the one that shatters that leg.  So...

I feel pretty sure I've made the best of a bunch of bad possible choices, it just doesn't make it hurt less.

Surgery is tomorrow, probably afternoon.  He's at the Ohio State University vet clinic, so he's in really good hands and his surgeon answered like twenty-seven questions today, very patiently, as I picked apart drug dosages and how much can we walk when and a whole bunch of other details that are probably more than I really need to be dwelling on.  

I'll do the best I can to be chill when he gets home.  We've just been so lucky together that I don't think really either one of us has ever really been sick or in pain in the ten years we've been doing this whole life thing together.  He had a lockjaw thing briefly when he was a puppy and I think I stepped on his foot once, but that's literally it.  We've been so lucky.

And I do keep reminding myself of that too.  I know there are stories on here of people with young dogs fighting this and I am very grateful R and I had such smooth sailing for a decade.  We've been really lucky.