Post Surgery Penelope (my little Frankenpup)

sleeping in a very awkward position

total Frankenpup pose

Last night I did my preparations for Penelope's surgery. I removed the two dog bed covers for washing. I took Delilah's dog blanket out of her cage for washing, as well. Lately, Penelli has had some kind of curiosity about the cage that she never seemed to express before...I'm wondering if it has something to do with the security it offers. I vacuumed the rugs and swept the floors...nothing I don't do every week, mind you, but this time it was done with a sorrow in my heart and a tear in my eye. It's not like anything was going to be different with our situation...I mean her eye was not functional anyway...the damage was already done...the surgery will remove the pain. I know all of this intuitively, but well...we all know that rational thought and emotions don't always go hand in hand.

For the most part, she has adapted to her blindness very well. It's quite impressive, actually. I am the one who winces in pain whenever she hits a wall or a piece of furniture. I am the one who desperately wants to take her collar in hand and guide her through from room to room, but SHE is the one who wants to do it all by herself. The beagle is notorious for being a stubborn breed, but this is much more than that...this is survival instinct kicking in and her knowing instinctively that she MUST figure it out for herself. She doesn't give up easily, either, for that matter. On Saturday morning, she jumped off the bed and got very confused about where she was in the bedroom. You see, she always used to jump off my bed on the one side, but once she went blind, I have been training her to jump off the other side because there is a dresser on the initial side that makes me VERY uncomfortable. She kept running into the wall trying to get out of the bedroom and wouldn't listen to my encouragement and she wouldn't allow me to guide her, so eventually she just went under the bed to escape the bedroom. In some ways, her grand exodus made me laugh...in other ways it made me cry.

I took her to Eye Care for Animals yesterday to determine when we would need to do surgery. Initially her appointment was scheduled for Wednesday, but on Friday I called to request pain medication for her and for the appointment to be moved up because I knew that surgery was going to be needed this week. I could tell she was in pain. They provided me with pain meds which was a really good thing because when we went in for the appointment, we found out the pressure in her eye was reading at 58 mmHg. Normal range for dogs is 10 to 20 mmHg. This means she has been experiencing horrible migraine headaches. We set up surgery for today.

I dropped her off at 8am. Of course, I broke down and cried once I left her. It was that whole pathetic cry she did that put me over the edge...you know the one...the "I can't believe you are gonna leave me here...come back, come back" cry. I called my mom and she calmed me down. Moms are cool that way.

When I didn't hear from them by 1:45pm, I got kinda nervous, so I called them and they told me she was still in surgery and would be out soon and they would call me once she woke up. Around 2:30, they called me to say she was a bit dazed and confused, but all was well and I could pick her up between 4 and 5pm. In September, when we went through this same surgery with her left eye, she was insistent that a red Corvette in the parking lot was our mode of transportation home. She kept dragging me to that car despite all my efforts to regain control and lead her back to our navy Tahoe. This time around, she didn't have the ability to mandate our escape vehicle....I thought about scoping out our options, but alas...a security guard was circling the lot. ;)

I picked her up around 4:45pm. Dr. Millichamp came out and told me that on the flip side of this small mole that was on her eyelid, they found a tumor. He said while he was "in there", he went ahead and removed the tumor. He saved the tissues and they could send them away to the lab to find out if they are cancerous if I so choose. I don't choose to do that. There really isn't a point. It won't give me peace of mind to know one way or another as if it did turn out to be cancerous, I would not pursue doggie oncology for her. What gives me peace of mind is knowing that my one true love is no longer in pain and that the two of us can enjoy the rest of her years together, come what may.

***side note: they had to shave the fur around her right eye for the surgery which is why it looks so bad...it will grow back and she will look normal***