Super Stu!

Monday, July 10th – Surgery Day!

Today is the big day! Stewie had to be woken up at 6am to get his medication. Poor lad was looking at me like I was crazy. He never eats that early! It took rolling his pill pockets in cat food, in order to get the pills down him. He’s on to me!

Both Paul & I are very quiet today, totally wrapped up in our own thoughts and concerns. I have been writing this journal all morning, just to keep my mind occupied.
The closer we get to town the sicker I am feeling! Please God! Be with Stewie today.

Paul, Stewie and I arrived at the vets at 8:30am. He took care of business like an old pro and came into the vets with us, but then he saw the doctor and said “Oh Crap!” He was high tailin’ it out of there as fast has his poor leg would take him.

We took him into a back kennel after he had been administered a drug to help him vomit. Just in case there was anything left in his tummy. Thankfully nothing came up and he managed to calm down quite a bit. We stayed with him for a few minutes, all 3 of us locked in the kennel together, you can well imagine how it looked…! Then the doctors wanted to get down to business. We hung around just to be sure he got a smooth start and he was on the table getting shaved by 9am.

Paul was very upset that we couldn’t stay with him until he went to sleep, but like Dr. Bill said, they want to concentrate on Stewie without distractions. It’s very hard to explain that the doctors just need to do their job and go into action as soon as possible. Time was of an essence as it was going to be a very long surgery.

We are a half hours drive from our property to the vets and the trip home for Paul and I was introspectively quiet, as we both said our own silent prayers.

We have been told that it is a 2-3 hour surgery, so we have been waiting by the phone, anxiously awaiting the call. It is now 12:30pm and we still haven’t heard from them about our boy!😰

I know that I just need to keep calm and keep in mind that they are not going to call untill he wakes up. This self chat is not working….!😰

By 1:00pm I was going stir crazy. My mind was imagining the worst! Both Paul and I were starting to get snappy with each other from the stress… Understandable, but not nice all the same!

I jumped on the available help line, which was Tripawds. I obviously couldn’t call anyone, as it would tie up the phone line, so I reached out to the incredibly informative site, tripawds.com. They have a live chat line with people available to talk to, through out the day. All I needed was the reassurance that he was a really big dog and the surgery would take time. Jerry’s Pack came right on line and assured me that surgeries differ from dog to dog. If I was at all concerned, I should call… so I did!

Thankfully, they had just finished up and Dr. Bill came on the phone. He told me that it had taken longer than expected, and that it had taken 45 minutes for them to shave him down before the surgery even got started. He was breathing on his own and will be kept heavily sedated until tomorrow morning. If he is doing well, he can come home. Dr. Bill did tell me though that he is not out of the woods yet, the next 24 hours are the most critical!

Now I can phone Sam, Kinnie and Anne…! Plus I called Mrs. Brenda. All of Stewie’s important people!

I spent the afternoon replying to all the beautiful Facebook messages, updating all the Stewie supporters on his condition. Then I spent the evening doodling around with Tripawds website and writing Stewie’s first blog! His heading is “Super Stewie’s  journey into becoming a Tripawds hero!”

We are amazed and truly grateful, that our little town of Nakusp has a veterinary clinic that is capable of such a big surgery and a staff that is qualified to do so!
A huge Thanks to Dr. Bill Sones, Dr. Laurie Page, Jackie & Lori