Today is Thursday, March 15, and tomorrow (I wrote this yesterday) Diggs goes in for surgery. I was fine when I woke up but today we went in for the surgery consultation. If you had asked me 2 weeks ago how I was feeling about the whole thing I would’ve told you, “It is what it is” without much emotion at all. Today is very different. I was OK during the consultation but as I signed the documents approving the surgery things got a little bit emotional. On the document, they have a portion where I had to mark YES or NO as to whether or not I wanted them to attempt to resuscitate him in the event of cardiac arrest or some other complication. I lost it in the car.
I had no idea I would be this emotional about the whole thing. Granted, I have had a rather interesting start to 2018, aside from the news about Diggs, but I am just beside myself with emotion right now. I am quite sure this is harder for me than it is for him. He was a complete gentleman at the doctors office. Everyone falls in love with him immediately. I’m a lucky dude.
I wanted to show you exactly what has been happening with his leg so you have an idea of why this is the right decision for him.
No, that is not him flexing. This picture was taken within the last week. That mass on his arm started out to be about the size of a tennis ball at the beginning of 2017. Now it is softball size and growing at an alarming rate.
It is so big now that when he is laying down on his right side…
…his arm sticks up in the air!
The surgery is very expensive. Without pet insurance we paid $3800 which is the low end cost. If there are any complications that price will go up. Again, my advice is GET PET INSURANCE!
Whatever. He’s worth it.
So, now it’s just a matter of waiting and asking the universe to send him some love. They held on to him today at the vet to do an ultrasound of his chest. They want to make sure that the cancer hasn’t spread into his lungs before we go through with the surgery. I’m anxiously waiting for them to call me back. If there isn’t another post today, the ultrasound went fine.
Instead of boring you today with how they recommended that I care for Diggs after the surgery I will save that for future posts. I will, however, show you the new leash and harness that I ordered for him now that he is about to become a Tripawd.
As I was doing my research on the surgery and other 3-legged animals, I stumbled across a photo that made me feel really good about not only the surgery but also about whether or not Diggs could still be a proud and happy dog in days to come.
What a little badass this pooch is!
I know that Tripawds recommends a few other brands of harness that I am quite sure work equally well but I fell in love with the one in this picture and just had to have it for Diggs. So I ordered from Amazon a OneTigris tactical Service Dog Vest in Black. I also ordered a OneTigris Tactical Dog Training Bungee Leash with Control Handle Quick Release Nylon Leads Rope. They both arrived today, just in time to fit him properly before his surgery. Here it is…
It is fully adjustable and comes with a full chest pad that goes under the belly. It is covered in hook and loop pads so I started buying “Morale patches” which I can add to the vest to give it a little personality. I should note, I fully respect our military so I went with patches that were comical instead of adding military insignias or something that could be deemed disrespectful. I got him patches of Pickle Rick and pizza instead. He’s gonna look awesome.
I have had so many people reach out to me in the last 2 days to send love or share a favorite memory of Diggs. To all of you I am so grateful. It’s good to know that we are loved by so many and have the support of so many more.
Tomorrow is going to be difficult for me but I know that Diggs has all of you pulling for him and that gives me strength.
I will update tomorrow to let you know how the surgery went and then we will hopefully have an amazing post for you on Saturday when all is said and done.
Thanks for reading!
Spread love.
Diggs & Nick
(Oh btw, Diggs is definitely getting a bath tonight. Who knows when I’ll be able to give him his next one!)
Hi Nick,
We are all thinking of you and Diggs today and wishing you the very best. We know it will be a long day as you wait for that phone call.
WE ARE ALL PULLING FOR YOUR SWEET BOY! Please update when you can.
Tracy & Warrior Angel Zatoichi
It is a very emotional thing. And you are 100% right it is harder for us than them. You will be so surprised how well Diggs does as a Tripawd.
I do understand the question of resuscitation they always ask that question on major surgeries.
I did a journal of my own then started a blog later on because I wasn’t sure what i was doing. So that journal has treatments etc and very personal feeling on it that I didn’t want to share.
I like to tell people to take lots of pictures of your furbaby not alone but include yourself in them. They are precious memories. Even if they are silly “selfies” or wonderful pictures that someone else takes of you.
keep us informed of how he is doing.
happy healing 🙂
hugs
Michelle & Angel Sassy
Nick, I am sitting here with my rottie Beau. He had his back right leg amputated on Wednesday from cancer. Hang tough. Know that the first day home will be incredibly HARD. I can’t believe that was only yesterday. Today, MUCH better already. Beau will be 10 mid May and he has come through so well. He stayed one night at the U of M and then home. He developed a seroma and was having a hard time controlling urine yesterday. We think the urine issue was from the epidural they gave him at surgery. Seroma is much less leaky today and he is also controlling his bladder. His energy is much better than yesterday as well and he needs very little (if any really) assistance but I keep a home made harness under him to make sure he has help if needed. Anyway, I knew it was going to be hard but the reality of day one was still sort of shocking. Day two, however, I can already see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am brand new to this website so don’t know if other folks had such a rough first day. Best of luck to you and Diggs.
Nick. I dropped my cookie off this morning for surgery. We are going through this same thing at the same time. I relate to everything in your post. I just got the call that surgery is done and now the healing begins. We are all praying for you and your beautiful Diggs. Keep us posted
Nick, I too was more emotional than I anticipated the night before and day of Otis’ surgery. You are doing the right thing. I just posted a video of Otis in my latest forum post. It is worth it. A few weeks or a month from now, you will be so happy you went through with this. -Camille & Otis