Day One Post-Op

4/14/2012

Oscar had a restful night thanks to a sedative the surgeon prescribed.  Our goal was to keep him as comfortable as possible while limiting his ability to injure himself further by moving.  Since we did not have a kennel of any sort, I set up a makeshift bed in our guest bathroom tub.  I laid as many blankets/towels, etc as I could possibly find to make it as comfortable as possible. 

Due to the injury, Oscar lacked the ability to control bowel and bladder function.  The surgeon's office showed Mark how we should manually express his bladder to eliminate the urine.  After 15 minutes of unsucessful attempts, I called the vet tech at her home and had her walk me through it.  Again, I was unsucessful.  Since our vet was 45 minutes away, I called a local vet here in town whom we had never seen just to ask if they would be able to assist/teach me how to express Oscar's bladder.  Thankfully, they agreed and we were there within 20 minutes.  $20 later, Oscar was officially empty. 

All day, Oscar mostly slept in the bathroom tub.  He would show excitement in his eyes whenever we would go in and spend time with him.  Mark (my husband) did have a little success emptying his bladder.  What we weren't able to get out, Oscar trickled periodically throughout the day.  Over expansion of his bladder was a real concern since it literally could rupture and cause life threatening injuries. 

All day I felt torn between spending time with Oscar in the bathroom and spending time with my two children.  It seemed as though someone always needed me at the same time.  Mommy guilt hit when my 3 yr old daughter came in and asked me to read her books.  I knew she was missing mommy; however, I also knew Oscar needed me at that point too.  His sister, a 6 year old dachshund with whom he was inseperable with prior to the surgery wanted nothing to do with him.  It broke my heart since it was obvious he was lonely and his best friend was neglecting him.

It wasn't until today that I had an opportunity to really look at his incision.  22 stitches and approximately 10 inches long.