ok... time to sit down, breathe a little bit and get caught up. we are ahead of schedule. i just had a feeling that we must be. what i learned is that this is a good sign, however we dont want to move too quickly even though we would clearly like to have this over with as soon as possible. the fact that all of the changes began happening so quickly is because nick apparently has a great working immune system. more broccoli, please. that is good news and proof that he still has alot of fight in his body. when the animal is immune system compromised, they look for this stuff to take 7-10 days to cause the type of changes Nick already has. so you see how surpising this is to all of us when less than 24 hours after the procedure he starts to get his thin red lined wound borders. the part about trying not to go too quickly is because there is still quite a bit of work for the neoplasene-x injections to do. the wiz says that the two cords are clearly being flushed by the body but he is not seeing the node coming forward yet. it must be watched for a decrease in size which would be obvious to us when swelling goes down... and, possibly by wednesday he will be able to see it. the wiz is predicting that wednesday could be our worst day yet and wants nick to come back on that day. i dont know how you can guess about something like that but maybe if you have seen it a few times you might have an idea. they had to get a good look so krawitz compd me the cleaning for the day (but surely not the recheck appointment. i miss the old days when your dog had an $$ surgery and you went back in a week for your free recheck appointment. not anymore. ) anyway - he said everything looks great, clean, and progressing perfectly. the instructions now are to stop with the hydrogen peroxide and do a gentle cleaning with a sprayer or water pic... water only into the wound... then pack the gaps all in with the balm. once per day should suffice. he said you cannot put too much of the balm on, but we noticed that he didnt slather it on like we had been doing, either. need to reorder already!! so he packs it into the holes and then really only does a film of it around the edges. we got an adjusted dose for the tramadol. per his 65 lbs we were giving 50 mg. / 8 hours. we can go up from 75 mg every 8 hours to 100 mg every 8 hours, as needed. well try at the 75 to see if it works to calm him. its not excruciating pain but extra anxiety he is having ... keeps him uncomfortable and also makes him be harder to deal with when treating the wound. the bleeding was a great concern to the wiz. for at least 24 hours he wants us to leave this gauze with self adhesive wrap to apply pressure over the wound to stop it. if it were to begin bleeding out too much he wants us in to the 24 hour ER immediately. we cannot leave the bandage on longer than that as it needs to be wide open to the air. he said infection is highly unlikely with neoplasene, but not unheard of. the most important thing that he wanted us to know - and the literature emphasizes this, as well, do not let any part of the dying tissue or skin be prematurely torn, bitten or scratched off by the dog. nick has been working on this since Day 2. first it was okay with only the e-collar. then we caught him trying to scratch with the back right leg (put a sock on it), then we caught him pawing at it with the right front leg (put a sock on it). sure enough - then came the left back leg trying to get it underneathe the chin (put socks on both left legs). lo and behold - this morning i caught him in the office with his e-collar and 4 socks on, standing next to my old limbert library table just rubbing that neck back and forth across the leg of the table!!! let me just say that i laughed because i have always been amazed at the brilliance, ingenuity, tenacity and expert engineering skills of this breed and clearly even in their roughest days, it will always shine through. so, he knew he was busted, and the whites of the eyes took a detour over to the wall staring blankly as if he had no idea what the problem was - and he got a big hug because this is one momma who values creativity and always will. but- i told him, i see how you are... you are challenging me for a new solution, eh? its like a board game. i didnt have to be the one to break the news to nickleby - the wiz said we MUST go to the hard plastic cone to prevent damage to the wound and so there it is!! not my fault - just following orders. :P to quickly recap without all the detail to confuse: all looks good, injections were placed safely to prevent the swelling that we feared might cause breathing problems and that was a huge relief. wound came on faster than expected, but we see that as a good sign. still have a couple more days of deterioration to look forward to. better prepped now for pain management and ease of wound care. return to the doc on wednesday afternoon. right now - nick is resting next to me here with his three quarters of the bed, a hard e-collar on and snoozing. his face and head are wrapped doo-rag style (no longer looking like tom cruise, but more like the beautiful whitney houston!!) to hold the pressure over the wound for 24 hours, and we are feeling better and more confident all the way around. i cannot wait for the turning point and the healing to begin... but, first things first.
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 21:13:26 +0000
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