surgery for Gracie
Jan. 20th, 2022 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tungolWell, since my last post, Gracie slowly lost function and became paralyzed again. We've been navigating bladder expression mostly successfully, which is good.
I left a message for Dr. Swanson (our specialist vet) last night and got her call back this afternoon. She was incredibly generous with her time - Margaret and I ultimately spoke to her for about 50 minutes, and there was never any pressure from her. We decided to try the surgery, which will be tomorrow.
It's expensive, and it might not help, but the doctor says that pain control for this kind of thing is pretty good, so there's not a lot of downsides and it'll be good to be able to know that we did everything we could. Gracie will have to stay in the hospital overnight, maybe multiple nights. We'll see.
Funny moment on the call: Margaret said, "I love my husband and I want to make sure that he can live with our decision." The doctor's response was "At this point, I think I love your husband and want to make sure he can live with the decision too." She's really gone above and beyond in her care for Gracie. Margaret and I were talking about that; vets we've had have really responded to the dedication that we show for our girls. Vets have a hard job and see a lot of shit. I can afford in both time and money to be as dedicated as I am, and that seems to mean I can be one of the positive stories for them, and our vets have been willing to match the dedication that we show.
Like, in the interest of getting this surgery done as quickly as possible (because we believe that's most likely to give positive results), Dr. Swanson is (I believe) going to come in on her day off to do Gracie's surgery, and will need to come in again on Saturday to check on her. Above and beyond, and we're very grateful.
Are we crazy for opting for the surgery? Maybe? Probably? I've been back and forth on it for the past week, but decision time came and I couldn't find it in me to not choose hope. This cat is just so near and dear to my heart.
I'm really hopeful and nervous. Dropping Gracie off at the hospital tomorrow morning at 8am. I expect to hear from the doctor sometime after surgery, unless imaging shows something unexpectedly bad and they have to abort. Fingers crossed.
I left a message for Dr. Swanson (our specialist vet) last night and got her call back this afternoon. She was incredibly generous with her time - Margaret and I ultimately spoke to her for about 50 minutes, and there was never any pressure from her. We decided to try the surgery, which will be tomorrow.
It's expensive, and it might not help, but the doctor says that pain control for this kind of thing is pretty good, so there's not a lot of downsides and it'll be good to be able to know that we did everything we could. Gracie will have to stay in the hospital overnight, maybe multiple nights. We'll see.
Funny moment on the call: Margaret said, "I love my husband and I want to make sure that he can live with our decision." The doctor's response was "At this point, I think I love your husband and want to make sure he can live with the decision too." She's really gone above and beyond in her care for Gracie. Margaret and I were talking about that; vets we've had have really responded to the dedication that we show for our girls. Vets have a hard job and see a lot of shit. I can afford in both time and money to be as dedicated as I am, and that seems to mean I can be one of the positive stories for them, and our vets have been willing to match the dedication that we show.
Like, in the interest of getting this surgery done as quickly as possible (because we believe that's most likely to give positive results), Dr. Swanson is (I believe) going to come in on her day off to do Gracie's surgery, and will need to come in again on Saturday to check on her. Above and beyond, and we're very grateful.
Are we crazy for opting for the surgery? Maybe? Probably? I've been back and forth on it for the past week, but decision time came and I couldn't find it in me to not choose hope. This cat is just so near and dear to my heart.
I'm really hopeful and nervous. Dropping Gracie off at the hospital tomorrow morning at 8am. I expect to hear from the doctor sometime after surgery, unless imaging shows something unexpectedly bad and they have to abort. Fingers crossed.
