first day or so

It took a long time for him to go through recovery and for them to settle him in his room. I could not believe it when I saw him... there were tubes and hoses running everywhere.

He had three IV's, an art line (goes into an artery to measure continuous blood pressure. Can also be used to draw blood for labs and blood gases), a catheter, two wound drains, a J-tube (a tube placed through the abdomen directly into the small intestine, bypassing the stomach. This gives the stomach time to heal, he got feedings through this, a substance like baby formula or Ensure), oxygen by nasal cannula, a tube down his nose into the stomach to suction out stomach contents (again to let the stomach heal and help prevent nausea and vomiting), a cardiac monitor with wires everywhere, alternating pressure boots to help prevent blood clots from inactivity and a surgical dressing that covered his entire abdomen... whew!!

He was getting several different antibiotics, meds for blood pressure, fluids, morphine through a patient controlled pain pump. After a couple days they removed an IV or two but added a PICC line and TPN, which is nutrition that goes directly into the vein, different from a regular IV though. It was like a well choreographed dance to change his position in bed and the first time he got out of bed, it took over 1/2 hour to manage all his tubes and lines.

He was one sick puppy but I have to say, his color looked so much better with the jaundice gone. He was in a lot of pain and it took some doing to get it under control. First they had to find the med that worked best for him and then we had to get him to use the pain pump routinely. People are so afraid they will become addicted to pain meds, and some times they do but the doctors are very careful about the dosage and the pain pumps, which are controlled by the patient, will not let you give yourself more than the prescribed dose. More about Papa and pain later.

I went home for a short time to change clothes and let the pooch out and then stayed the night with Papa. By this time I was exhausted and that fatigue has not left me yet. I could sleep at the drop of a hat. I was afraid to miss the doctors, they always come in first thing in the morning. I wanted to hear results and news from the horses mouth. And as drugged up as Papa was, I knew whatever he said would not be reliable.

What they had to say was that the cancer was in stage II, not III as they initially thought and this was a good thing, very good. Papa would need six weeks recuperation time and then would begin radiation and half-dose chemotherapy. After the radiation was completed, he would have a short rest period and then begin chemotherapy at the full dose. He would get chemo for about six months. We are at the point where he starts again right now.