What A Difference A Day Made

What a difference a day made

Twenty-four little hours

Brought the sun and the flowers

Where there used to be rain

We've got nothing but good news to report on your 'Long and Short of it All' host 'Joey' and his continued recovery after his complex bilateral adrenalectomy, vena cava tumor removal, and spleenectomy.  His surgical complications have included a pulmonary embolism on Wednesday and identification of post-surgical pancreatitis on Thursday.    

Dad and a friend went to visit him last night, and got tail wags a-plenty.  Tail wags!  He wanted so badly to sit in Dad's lap, that he struggled to jump off his little bed.  The vet tech noticed this and said "It's OK if he wants to sit in your lap."  Really?  Can he?  What about all his tubes?  "He'll be fine," she said.  "Just be careful." 

So he was carefully placed on Dad's lap, and he was so incredibly happy.  He just sighed and rested his little head in the crook of an elbow.  We had placed all the comments and emails for Joey in a Word document and printed them off, and began reading them to him one by one by one.  He listened intently to each one with eyes wide open, eyebrows twitching every time his name was spoken.  His breathing was a little labored at first, but it began to slow down and became much more normal as Dad read on.  It was the most normal breathing we had seen from him since his surgery.  Finally he fell asleep.  We put him back in his little bed, and the vet tech taped all his comments and emails to the glass wall behind him, about a foot above his head.

This morning's visit saw him a little less animated than last night, but we still got tail wags and he got another visit to the lap.  Again, we read him more comments and emails which had been written for him.  He was quite tired today and closed his eyes while we read.  But the best news to report from today is that his breathing has continued to vastly improve, and the high lab values which pointed to his pancreatitis were reduced by 50%.  50%!  He may be able to try food and water again tomorrow night.

We'll continue to take every day and deal with every complication one at a time, but the last 24 hours have been heaven.  The emails and comments have meant so much.  Thank you.

Meanwhile, Maggie's new soapstone counters were finally installed today, and she anxiously awaits the faucet to be hooked up and the return of her brother so they can enjoy their new Dachshund jacuzzi.