Ray's Page

I posted a picture of Ray (looking terribly forlorn!) in the snow and posted it to CNN’s iReports. A producer wrote me back and wanted more details, so here we are!

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-902562

Happy New Year all!

Apologies for not having updated on Ray over the past couple of months. He’s been doing so well, life has pretty much returned to our ho-hum normal…and we’ll take it!

I did want to thank everyone again for your good wishes and support through Ray’s amputation and the surrounding drama before the surgery. It’s a scary enough situation without anything else complicating matters, and we are so grateful for the kind words and concern we received.

As I mentioned, since his mid-August amputation surgery, Ray is doing beautifully. His fur still hasn’t grown back completely and the area where his leg used to be still seems to be a little sensitive (or maybe he’s just sensitive about us touching him there) but other than that it’s business as usual. We got his thyroid levels straightened out and he seems much happier overall, and that’s what matters most.

Happy Howlidays to everybody, from Ray and his Mommy!

We are now 3+ weeks post-amputation and Ray continues to do well. His stitches are out and the incision is getting close to being indistinguishable. He hops around happily with few problems or obstacles.

My concern at this point has become his thyroid levels. He has been on thyroid medication since we adopted him. His meds were upped just before the tumor incident, and he’s now showing signs of hyperthyroidism – agitation, excessive drinking and urination, heavy breathing – so we’re doing a test tomorrow. Now that his other habits are pretty much back to normal I’ve noticed these types of things are not righting themselves…which could also be an explanation as to why his heart rate elevated prior to the first attempted amputation surgery. We’ll see. He’s also returned to chewing at himself, which was a definite challenge before. Hotspots, etc. I guess I should be grateful for the return to “normal” but it seems like we’re re-defining normal all the time.

It’s ok, though. Overall, things have been good and we’re certainly grateful. Best wishes to all of our friends who have been supporting us through this continuous journey.

Today was our first visit to the vet post-op. It’s been one week since Ray’s successful amputation surgery. He continues to do very well and amaze us overall.

We visited the vet so he could have a look at the incision and decide whether the stitches were ready to come out, if things appeared to be healing properly, etc. I must admit it was a bit of a shock seeing the length of the incision once all of the bandaging was removed. My husband got a bit choked up and had to turn away. There is easily a full 12″ of stitching, but the good news is that it’s healing beautifully. We’ve put Ray in a t-shirt so the incision can get a bit of air, and the stitches should come out Tuesday.

We had cut his meds down to twice a day doses of Tramadol, but I’m thinking that may have been somewhat premature. He was quite restless and couldn’t seem to get comfortable in my office this afternoon so I gave him a couple of pills. Maybe too much activity today with the vet visit and all. He settled right down for a snooze shortly thereafter. I guess that’s what they mean by administering “as needed.”

Another good thing is that Ray’s voracious appetite has slowly returned. That had me a bit worried as 1) we used to joke that “if Ray doesn’t eat, there’s something wrong with him” and 2) he’s already lost 25 lbs in the last six months. Before the cancer diagnosis, he was quite a big boy and we started walking him longer and cutting back on his food a bit, which worked well, but now I’d like to see him re-gain 5 lbs or so.

I started my outdoor walking regimen again yesterday and really missed having Ray with me. I know we may never be able to do the mile loop of our neighborhood again, but I sure hope he’ll be able to go for at least short walks someday.

Things continue to go well with Ray’s recovery as we monitor his progress and help to provide his basic needs.

He is sleeping a lot, and that’s the best thing. His appetite is also beginning to return to ravenous pre-surgery levels. When he needs to go, he is able to hop outside, with us by his side, and do his business no problem. Reminds me of Forrest Gump’s quote to describe his marathon-running phase: “When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry, I ate. When I had to go…you know…I went.”

We are keeping a watchful eye on him from a close proximity and allowing him to not only see what he is capable of with three legs, but some of the adjustments required. For example, he is learning to keep his three remaining feet on carpet (as opposed to tiled floor) in order to more easily get up from a laying position without slipping too much. I have bought and laid down additional runner rugs to help maintain a continuous path of carpet throughout the house to help him with this, but it is still a learning process, as he used to love laying on the tiled floor to cool his tummy. Ray is a smart dog, though, and he is seeing things are different.

I think he’s going through a bit of depression too, in realizing what’s happened to him. Then again, maybe it’s the meds. Hard to tell. He’s also having really frequent, vivid dreams, with lots of running, eye twitching and snuffling. I have to wonder if he’s imagining himself on four legs or three. Hopefully, in the near future, the “new normal” will be just that.

Our boy is home already and doing great!

We had a call from the hospital this morning at 8 that Ray had had a good night and was handling things well. This afternoon, the doctor felt he was dealing with reduced pain med levels well enough to go home! I frantically vacuumed and washed towels and dog bedding, wanting to have a clean environment ready for him.

At the hospital, Ray came hopping down the hall with enthusiasm and energy. He spotted my husband and I waiting and the tail was set a-wagging. We greeted him with equal enthusiasm, no tears. The doctor remarked that, amazingly, he is probably in less pain now than he was with the tumor.

He is heavily bandaged and will remain so for the next 7-10 days until the sutures come out. Back on the Tramadol at regular intervals. Heat packs on top of the bandage a few times a day to promote healing. He has already shown a great enthusiasm for water, baked chicken breast and his favorite spot under the kitchen table, so things seem to be returning to normal pretty quickly. He is able to hop outside to wee just fine, with us close by to monitor, of course.

The weight lifted from our shoulders feels enormous. I can’t thank everyone here enough for your support and encouragement.

Just got word from the doctor that Ray’s surgery is complete and went very well. No evidence of tumor spread beyond where it was in his (former) elbow. He’ll probably stay at the hospital for two nights; if so, I’ll visit him tomorrow.

Thanks again to everyone for thoughts and prayers. Now we move on to recovery!

“Thank you to all of my new Tripawds friends for your best wishes and prayers on my surgery tomorrow! Mommy will keep you posted.”

I am sounding like a broken record lately, I think.

Another complication with Ray: Sunday morning we got up to discover he couldn’t stand. At all. He had absolutely no strength in his hind legs.

We literally carried all 80 lbs of him to the Jeep and got him to the emergency vet pronto, which resulted in…pretty much nothing. Without a more extensive exam (and I refused x-rays because we’d just taken a bunch and they were fine) they couldn’t tell us much of anything except nothing was broken.

Of course, my first thought and fear was that the nerve sheath tumor had somehow – already – moved into his spine. Despite being assured over and over that these tumors are extremely slow growing and highly unlikely to invade other parts of the body, I took my usual Chief Pessimist seat in the Pity Party Room. We put mats on the floor and cried and slept next to Ray most of the evening. I mulled on where to donate all of his leftover Milkbones, what I should do with his toys, etc. once he was gone. For me, it was that bad. My husband, who is English, tends to suffer in silence as many English people do. We were both inconsolable.

At 1 a.m., Ray started doing his little chirp noise and was restless. I opened my eyes to find him standing. On his own. I woke my husband. We helped Ray outside, where he quickly collapsed. Discouraged again, we brought him back in, made sure he was relatively comfortable, and went back to sleep. At 6 a.m., he became restless again and I awoke once more to find him standing on his own. A good sign, but I wasn’t convinced. Same thing, though – shortly after helping him outside, he would collapse in a heap.

At 8 a.m. we got him to our regular vets (who are absolute angels, by the way – don’t ever make fun of a Texas Aggie – A&M turns out the BEST veterinarians.) The doctor who has been seeing Ray through all of this worked us in, despite a packed schedule and he was very optimistic. He checked Ray’s reflexes – all good. We took Ray outside to observe him in the soft grass, and lo and behold, he was hopping around on three legs much better, like he had been Saturday before this sudden downturn. He has continued to improve throughout the day.

SO. Now the plan is to give Ray an extra day to recover from whatever happened, and amputation surgery will be Wednesday. And frankly, nobody’s sure what happened – Ray could have done something as simple as pull a muscle; with all of the extra exertion being put on his three good legs, that’s certainly possible. Then again, he could have an underlying back problem that may resurface later. Our strategy now is, if he comes through the amputation surgery ok but the hind leg lameness presents itself again, we will address it then. As the vet said, no matter what the situation, his tumor leg is still going to hurt him, so best to get it off.

When I was making Ray’s dinner tonight, he heard the familiar clanging of the stainless steel bowl and came hopping through the living room and into the kitchen like a crazy dog, ears flopping, tongue wagging, tail swinging. I can’t tell you how happy that made me.

Well, we’ve rescheduled Ray’s surgery for this coming Tuesday. It was supposed to be Thursday the 23rd, but he’s been in a terrible amount of pain lately so we were able to get an earlier slot. We’ve upped his Tramadol dosage quite a bit (under the vet’s supervision, of course) and are just trying to keep him relatively comfortable. Will be so glad when this is over with and Ray is (hopefully) on the road to recovery.