Vinnie had surgery yesterday to remove several, and rather large, fatty lipomas. In my previous recent post about Vinnie, you can see photos of his lumps as they appeared before surgery.
**I will have to warn you, the 3rd and 4th picture I am posting here today, may gross you out a little. These are his post operation photos I took a short while ago.
Vinnie has a total of 55 staples, 2 surgical drains, bruises and lots of bare skin. Vinnie has been such a trooper! The surgery went very well! The lump he had on his side/groin area was bigger than we could see from the surface. The vet tech said it was bigger than a soft ball and weighed 2-3 pounds! I can now fully imagine how uncomfortable these lumps really were to the poor guy! Vinnie's doctor said he was glad we had them taken off. They would have likely gotten larger and started to cause more problems for him internally.
Vinnie has two sets of staples on his chest/armpit region, also with a drain. The drains are in place to keep the surgical site open just a little to let his body fluid drain out. The fluid can not be allowed to pool up inside. Vinnie will have the drains removed on Saturday and the normal healing process of the drain site will occur. The staples will be removed next week Wednesday. Vinnie is on painkillers and antibiotics.
I was really happy the surgery went to well and I went to pick up Vinnie, to bring him home. That's when it got complicated. The drain Vin has on his side disappeared! The tech couldn't find it anywhere - not in the kennel and Vinnie didn't have access to it to pull it out. The doctor came over and had to poke around inside the drain opening with a surgical scissors to try and locate it. Vinnie was in horrible pain, as he was awake! I tried to help hold him for the doctor and it was so hard to watch. The doctor couldn't find the drain. Vin was then sedated, again, and taken to x-ray. The x-ray showed the drain tube had retreated back into Vinnie's body. The doctor had to reopen part of the surgical site, get the drain back in place and add two more stitches to keep it in place.
I finally got to bring my poor baby home after all this. He was tired, weak and in quite a bit of pain. I stayed up with Vinnie, sleeping on the couch, next to him. He did great all night! He was eating as soon as we got home and that continued all night! He is wagging his tail, going up and down the stairs to go out and potty, he's keeping busy with his kong and in between all that taking short naps. I think he can only lay down for so long on his achey body before he needs to move around and reposition himself again.
The living room is converted to a hospital room for Vinnie right now. Vinnie is wearing t-shirts and laying on blankets and towels to absorb the fluid he is draining.
Vinnie has been so wonderful for all of this I have put him through. I love you Vinnie!
As soon as Jason and I carried Vinnie in from the car yesterday, I offered him a snack. It had been 24hrs since he had eaten anything! I made him hamburger and rice soup. He cleaned up that bowl - and all bowls I made him every 2 hours through the night.
Vinnie this morning, with his peanut butter and treat filled Kong. He's keeping his mind off things ;)
These surgical sites in pictures don't look as bad as it does seeing him in person. In the sunlight, you can see the drain sticking out and above the drain are 24 staples. This was the site of the lump that filled my hand from the outside. The "larger than a softball, 2-3lb lump" came from here! Vinnie does have his figure back now :)
This is Vinnie's chest/armpit area. He has two sets of staples here and you can plainly see the drain. I had just tugged on it to pull it out alittle more. I was advised by the tech that I need to gently pull on the drains to keep them loose, so the skin doesn't start to heal around them before all the draining is finished.~*~ Thank you to everyone who has expressed their warm wishes and thoughts to me, for Vinnie.
He is doing fabulously well for being 24hrs out of his surgery. ~*~
2 comments:
It's a good thing you had the lumps removed-sounds like they could have caused some major problems later on. Wishing you a speedy recovery Vinnie!
Wow! What a mess. That had to be pretty scary when that tube went back inside him! Hang in there kiddo! Don't worry.... all the ladies will still love ya' Vinnie!! :)
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