Nothing But Love in Her Heart

The surgery is tomorrow.  We take Fallon in at 7:30am.  We drop her off, and they’ll call us when she goes into surgery, and when she comes out.  She’ll relax there overnight, and they’ll call us Thursday morning to let us know how she is, and when we can pick her up Thursday afternoon.  We don’t stay for the surgery and they’re discouraging our visiting.  I understand and agree.  She’ll get all worked up.

I couldn’t be more nervous.  Fallon is just as chill as always.

One of the last pictures with four.

Fallon 10-10-17

More to come…

It’s Sunday—Surgery is Wednesday.

I spent a little time looking at pictures of post-surgical incisions, just to get used to the concept.  I may not be ready, but I won’t be surprised.

I also looked at a number of videos of tripawd dogs walking.  We’ve seen tripod greyhounds at various events we attend.  I have, anyway.  Fallon’s dad doesn’t notice, and we go to all the greyhound events together.  I guess this means they don’t stand out as much as one may think they might.

Made a wise purchase—got Three Legs and a Spare and Loving Life on Three Legs—the bonus pack.  Best $20 I have spent—believe me, we have big bills coming, but this was a greyt investment.  It’s provided all sorts of practical information, as well as links to important question-answering areas of the tripawds.com site.   I highly recommend these.

On Monday, chicken is on sale.  There will be more jerky!!  I’ll clean the kitchen soon, it’s easier to work in.  We fed all the jerky I made already.  We’ll save this until Fallon comes home from her surgery on Thursday.  I should also get some frozen yogurt.  That’s her favorite also.

I have hockey practice tonight.  I am going to go.  I’ve been trying to avoid live people–writing is easier than talking.  But I could use the exercise and the diversion, and I can’t hole up here at home forever.  I dread people asking how Fallon is.  I know they care.  I want them to know.  But I’m afraid I will cry.

It’s a little bittersweet.  We should have been at the beach this weekend, we would have been driving home today.  We canceled once Fallon’s diagnosis was solid.  This weekend there’s 2 events we (almost) never miss, a car one in Ocean City, MD and Greyhound Gathering in Dewey Beach, DE.  It’s been fun—and sad—to see all the pictures of amazing times posted on Facebook.  We’re lucky; we went with the grrrls to the beach in September—right before Fallon’s diagnosis.  She was limping at that point, so we drove to the beach rather than walk every day (our hotel is a block away).  Here is Fallon, bravely watching the other dogs have fun:

We have reservations to go back in the spring.  I envision Fallon on the beach on 3 legs, walking with us.

More to come…

We’re trying to stay busy waiting for the amputation date—today’s Saturday, surgery is Wednesday.  Oddly, I just want the day to get here so it’s over.  I want the nasty bone gone, and Fallon to start her new life on 3.

Trying to prep as much as we can…we got an assistance harness, which came a few days ago, and we’ve had her wear it around, mostly so we can control her speed going downstairs.  We’re still terrified her weakened bone will break.  Ours is awesome, look into one on Etsy if you need one, Greyhound Assistance Harness.  All proceeds go back into the artist’s greyhound group.  She also makes awesome tag collars, we have a few of them.

Another project has been chicken jerky—pounds of jerky, and more to come.  It’s one of Fallon’s favorite foods, so I wanted to have it on hand in case after the surgery she does not feel like her normal kibble.  Making it means I need to provide samples…and it’s delicious…so I’ll be making more.  It’s all good, it keeps me busy.

We also got a good e collar for after the surgery.  E collars for greyhounds are tough, their necks and heads are about the same circumference, so they don’t stay on greyt.  Add in the needle nose, and the traditional e collar issued by the vet is not good for this breed.  We’re trying the BiteNot Collar, we’ll see how it goes.

I got The Dog Cancer Survival guide–$9.99 for Kindle on Amazon!  I’m working my way through it, spending a lot of time on the beginning, where the focus it taking care of yourself.  There’s lots of self-soothing stress management techniques to try to implement—man, do I need these now.  I’ve skipped ahead to the sections that affect us directly—like chemo—but will eventually make it through the book start to finish.

I’m still working on the oncologist.  We’ve been all over the place on this.  The closest to us are almost 2 hours away.  We looked into having someone local do the chemo, but now are falling on the side of the specialist, feeling they could handle potential curveballs better.

Maggie is Fallon’s sister.  They love each other and are best friends.  We’re trying to make sure Maggie continues to get attention along with Fallon.  Her dad took her to the park for a long walk by herself the other day.  We need to do that more.   Maggie seems to know something’s up.  She’s very intuitive about feelings.  It’s a good time to keep showing her she’s an important part of the family and we love her too.

Maggie

The surgical consult went well.  Like, really well.  We loved the doctor, and more importantly, Fallon loved him.  She can be a nervous mess of messy nerves in the doctor’s office.  She started out that way.  Even in the waiting room, she was a shaky mess.  When we were called into the exam room and the doc eventually came in, he sat on the floor to talk to her and us.  Gradually, she relaxed, and moved closer to him, and eventually, he was full-on petting her and she was calm and kissy.

He laid out the case for amputation, and said there’s no wrong answer when it comes to amputating or not.  This would be on us to decide.  But he reinforced (as we’ve heard here) that age is just a number, the vast, vast vast majority of dogs do just great on 3, front leg doesn’t matter and WE’D BE TAKING AWAY HER PAIN…not necessarily her cancer. He could do the surgery next week.  He told us to feel more confident about the recovery period (we’re still going to be prepared for anything).  We decided to sleep on it, but were leaning pretty hard toward the surgery.

Woke up this morning—nothing changed, we’re still all over this.  Called to set it up.

Surgeon’s office called right back.  It was someone from the business office.  We walked out without paying our bill yesterday.  Whoops.  We are definitely not on our game these days.  Paid by phone.  Boo me.

Amputation is scheduled for a week from today—Wednesday, October 11.  Chills.

Off to find an Oncologist…the surgeon gave us a list.  We live in the capital of New York State.  Closest oncologist on the list is an hour and 45 minutes away?  Nonetheless…

More to come…

Yesterday’s meltdown paid off, and this afternoon we have a consult with the surgeon my vet practice was recommending.  Will keep you posted—we’re eager for answers and to move forward.  We will not survive long in this stage, we’re going crazy with stress.  Fallon’s fine, however.  She’s our rock.

We always say Fallon has “Nothing but Love in Her Heart” She’s the sweetest thing, and meant for us.  We fell in love with her and adopted her with no intention of having 2 dogs.  But she was Fallon.  We met her when taking our Willow to an adoption clinic just to see other greyhounds.  After we met I could not get her out of my mind, she was already in my heart.  I called the next day and was amazed that this perfect, awesome girl was still available.  Soon she was in her forever home with us.

She loves cuddling more than treats.  Really.  She walks up to anyone seeking affection.  She’s one of these who walks up next to you to raise your hand onto her head and manipulate you into petting her.  She gets along with anyone (except she has been missing a little part of a lip since before we adopted her—obviously lost a fight at the kennel).

Another thing we say about her is “Perfectly perfect in every way—except nails.”  We joke (some may not find as funny—we are in a weird place) that she would be happy to have only 3 legs worth of nails, she hates getting them clipped so much.

More to come…

Two long front legs