Surgery # 3

I dropped Eddie off at the vet this morning to get his 3rd (and hopefully final) surgery. We decided to keep the vet we had been using. When I went in and talked to him on Monday hey seemed like he wanted to make things right. It's hard making up a decision like this because you know if something goes wrong- you will probably kick yourself in the butt for it later. I have been doing that this whole process. I have do doubts that the first surgery would have worked if Eddie wouldn't have jumped up on the table and back off. I'm still kicking myself for that one, we were being so careful...all the time. We usually kept the kitchen door shut but we were both in there. He was just fast to jump and and down, we couldn't catch him in time.

The surgery today consisted of taking the external fixation pins out of his leg and going in and putting plates in. He started out by with getting the bone grafts first, so Eddie has 5 sutures on his right back side by his hips. It's swollen and tender for him, but he seems to be doing better now that the anesthetic and morphine are wearing off. He wanted to do plates on both the radius and ulna, but he found the ulna was too small and he couldn't fit a plate on it. So, instead he did an internal pin vertically along the bone. The radius has a plate, holding the broken pieces together and there are 2 pins above the break and 3 pins below the break holding it in place. I just wonder how that fragment stays aligned with the plate since there is no screw there, I asked him and he said he placed it there and it should stay. He also put bone grafts at all the breaks to help heal and form a callus. He is hoping it will form one big callus, but only time will tell. He said it's a long process, we won't know until about 4 weeks at the next x-ray. He is pretty satisfied with how things went today, but there is just no telling how it will heal and if it will heal. I am trying to stay positive.

The vet called me around and told me he was done with surgery and didn't want me to pick him up until 4:30pm. I picked him up, we talked he told me what he did and showed me the x-rays. When I got Eddie home, he was like he has been all the other time, really sedated and couldn't even walk. It's absolutely insane how much they sedate them here and how long they keep him sedated for. I told the vet that the last time the female vet gave him morphine, it doesn't allot him to rest and he rubs is face on the crate because I think it makes him itch. They gave it to him anyway because they think it's what will work the best to manage his pain. They gave me 2 syringes with a very little amount of morphine in them to give him tomorrow and Sunday morning. He's been so restless ever since we brought him home, he won't sleep at all. He will lat down and stare, but that only lasts about 5 minutes until he is up again. He had a cone on his head, but Dan wanted to take that off since he couldn't even walk and was so sedated to do anything. It's just after 4am and I have been up with him all night. He is getting better as the meds wear off, but I can tell he is having pain in his leg. He is now getting to where he wants to lick, so as soon as Dan gets up we are going to put the cone back on. He won't like it, but he will get used to it. He has 2 incisions, one on each side of his leg, about 2 inches long. They have been oozing a little bit, but he is so swollen I can see why.

I just want the swelling to go down and for him to start healing. I feel so bad for him and the pain he's in, but I know it will get better. It's just hard because they don't know what's going on. We will be home all weekend to keep an eye on him, I'm such a worrier. Dan is going to get up at 630 to take over, I have no idea how I have stayed up this long considering last night I didn't get much sleep. The cats were on a roll because I had to pick their food up. I think Eddie knew what was going on and he was causing trouble. I probably got around 5 hours of sleep last night and so far none tonight (this morning). I only have 2 more hours to go though then I will sleep for a few hours. I will keep you all posted on Eddie. Please pray for a fast and bone healing recovery!