Remington Post-Op

Remington came through his operation this morning very well. On the down side, with the scope up inside to cut the window in his pericardium, they could also take a good gander at the mass in/around his heart, which is even bigger and more invasive than it looked via ultrasound; in addition, there are growths on the pericardium itself. They were able to grab some tissue from one of those and will biopsy it to see whether it gives us any new information.

They also gave him his first dose of chemotherapy early this afternoon.

I went down to sit with him for a while around 2:30, and he was pretty zoned out--in addition to recovering from anesthesia from the operation, plus the chems, he had painkiller skin patches and injected painkiller to handle the gap before the patches become fully effective.

I went back for a long time around dinner and sat with him again. Vet tech came by to see whether I wanted to take him for a walk, which surprised me because he had opened his eyes but hadn't even lifted his head when I arrived & just lay there quietly while I scritched him. So I said, "Remington, do you want to go for a walk?" and he *shot* to his feet, which was pretty pathetic because he didn't have his land legs yet, and the tech and I had to hold onto him to steady him and keep him from leaping cross-legged out of the crate while she detached his IV.

But he walked fine, if a little unsteadily, around the parking lot--even insisted on climbing on & walking along the curb, the tech & I hunched over him, hands ready to support him as he lurched from side to side not quite falling off the curb--kinda like in a cartoon where the character is somehow naively on a tightrope or precipice edge and almost tipping over with every step but somehow ending up in the right foothold every time. Well--his love of walking on curbs & other narrow elevated places is one of the reasons I suspected he'd love agility when i first heard about it.

I believe the plan is still for him to come home tomorrow night.

At this point I won't have much else to report for a while, probably--we're waiting to see how he reacts to the chems, to being home, to recovering from the operation; waiting for biopsy results; waiting a few days & doing a white blood cell count, etc.

Got a call from one of the vet techs late this evening saying that he was resting even more comfortably & doing well. They really like him down there--so mellow & friendly & well-behaved on a leash & in the crate & during his treatments (and boy I got to see some interesting behavior among the other dogs there while I've been sitting there the last couple of days!).

That's all for tonight. I'll go back to snuggling Jake & Tika.

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