EDITED AGAIN (12/21 mid-day) TO ADD: Well, I got to go visit Win today at the hospital.....sweet boy looks so pitiful. The doctors and staff say he's doing really well, but of course, what I saw was our little (55lb) baby with very sad eyes, a huge bandage on his tummy, a cone around his neck/head and IV's in both front legs w/bandages wrapped around the IV's. He whined and whined when he saw me....I'm sure he couldn't figure out why I didn't just bust him out of that "jail". Part of why I went was to take some of the prescription food that he's on, because the hospital had run out of that variety, so since I was there, they wanted to go ahead and "try to get him to eat" with me by his side. Of course, eating has never been an issue for that little boy (ha!) so he ate like a champ which they said is a really good sign. Most dogs won't eat so soon after surgery. We're still hopeful to bring him home tomorrow, but won't know until tomorrow morning about that. The doctor did tell us that when we do bring him home, he'll need to pretty much be in his kennel 24/7 for TWO WEEKS (with bathroom breaks, of course) unless he freaks out being in the kennel for that much time, in which case we can let him be out with us but we'll have to keep him "still". Needless to say, the next two weeks are likely to be a bit of a challenge (one I'm SO not complaining about, given the alternative!). We've got about 4 days of Christmas gatherings happening at our house with one side of the family or the other so managing a recuperating puppy with a house full of people might get interesting. Regardless, we're so happy just to be able to bring him home. We'll get thru it. I just feel bad for him, knowing what his life will be like for a couple of weeks. Our active, rambunctious puppy is not likely to be too happy about his lot in life for a little while.
Thank you for your continued prayers....I can't tell you how much we appreciate them as well as all of your sweet comments and emails. Much love to you all. I'll continue to edit this post with updates as I have them, so even if other posts end up above this one (I have some crafty projects to share), check back here for Win updates. Just scroll down to this post.
xo,
EDITED (12/20 pm) TO ADD: Just heard from the surgeon....Windsor came thru the surgery just fine. He had a pile of bits and pieces of stuff in his intestines, including part of a pine cone. I know he's eaten parts off of toys over time -- the boy is fast, no matter how closely we watch him! So I guess some of them just started backing up in there. Poor baby. Anyway, he's doing well right now and in fact, they didn't have to remove any of the intestine, itself. Praise the Lord for no damage there. Now we just wait and see how well he recovers, but she said maybe Thursday we could bring him home. (And then we get to keep him still for I-don't-know-how-long!) ;) Grateful to have a puppy to bring home and keep still. xo
Hello, dear readers...
Wanted to update you with the latest news on Windsor. It appears that there's some sort of long obstruction in his intestines which requires surgery to remove it. Apparently he's eaten something long (could be string...could be a whole lot of things, according to the dr....who knows. She said they've pulled panty hose, underwear, even pillow cases out of dogs before!)......we won't know what he ate until they operate. I can't even begin to fathom what he could have eaten, since we watch him like a hawk -- particularly since we've already been doing a food trial with him -- we're very cautious about what he eats plus, we know what he's capable of! Ha.) Whatever it is, he either ate it in the last 24-36 hours or it finally made it's way to his intestines in the last 24-36 hours. The bottom line is that it's blocking his intestines and as the intestines work to push the object thru, they tend to bunch up around the object and therefore, the intestines can become damaged. Damaged sections of the intestines then have to be cut out while they're doing the surgery.
His prognosis is good because he's young and strong and best case scenario, he could be home in 36 hours. Obviously though, with any surgery, there are a host of possible complications. We're praying that he comes thru with flying colors and has none of those issues. We're also praying for wisdom for the doctors and technicians that will be taking care of Win.
He is at the same surgery center where we lost Riley. In fact, they put us in the same ROOM where we said goodbye to Riley....that was a little difficult. They brought Windsor in to us, so we could see him one more time before the surgery and they'd already shaved big (maybe 9" square) patches on either side of his tummy. Poor baby. I almost lost it at that point. It's all just a little too similar to what we've already been thru once this year.
However, I will tell you this....I know that God holds Win (and all the rest of us) in the palm of His hand. I trust Him, come what may. But obviously, our prayer is that our sweetie-boy would come thru the surgery with flying colors and recover quickly, so that he can live a long and healthy life.
I have been so sick to my stomach all day today and as we waited in that room while they were doing his sonogram, the technician handed me the dr's business card.
The tech said, "My name is Hope....I'm sorry I didn't get that written on the card for you." So while she was out of the room, I got out a pen and wrote "Hope" on the business card, just in case we needed to know her name later and that's when I saw it.......the dr's name? Dr. Catherine Peace. When Bartley came into the room, I handed him the card and said, "Are there two words that stand out to you on that card?" He looked at it a sec and said, "Hope and Peace". I like to think the Lord was trying to tell us something in those moments as we waited.
And so, we'll continue to wait....with hope and peace.
He should be in surgery by now, and the surgery typically takes about an hour and a half. She should be calling as soon as the surgery is over to let us know how he did and then we'll be waiting to see how his recovery goes. They do have visiting hours, so I might be able to go see the little puppy-head tomorrow for a bit. You should have seen how sweet he was at the hospital, even feeling so poorly. Sweet baby.
I would so appreciate your continued prayers for Windsor....I'll pop back in and edit this post when I have more news.
Thank you so, so much for keeping us in your prayers already today, and the days ahead.
Much love,
