Surgery Day

Alex and I woke up at 5:15am the day of Heidi's surgery to get her there by 7:15am.  We piled in the car and made the trip to Raleigh.  Once there, we met with Dr. Marcellin who would be doing the actual surgery (Dr. Roe was not there that day but he highly recommended Dr. Marcellin who has been a vet for years and years as well.)  We agreed to have Heidi participate in two studies during this whole process.  One is a study that uses the human drug, trazodone, as a calming agent during the recovery process and the other involved a topical form of the drug meloxicam, an NSAID (for inflammation) also used in humans.  They applied the meloxicam to her knee before surgery then took a tiny sample of her joint capsule during surgery (something they assured us she wouldn't miss at all!) to test and see if the meloxicam made it into the joint.  So we discussed that further, then they took Heidi back to get her ready.  I tried not to, but inevitably I cried when we had to leave her.  If you know me, this probably isn't too surprising, and as silly as it is, this was the second time I was offered a tissue when leaving my baby.  (The first was when I dropped her off at the kennel before our Honeymoon!)  I'm such a wuss!  She was scheduled to go into surgery around 2 or 3 and they said they'd call when she got out and began waking up.  Needless to say I was a nervous wreck the ENTIRE day.  Finally, around 7pm, I got the phone call I'd been patiently (or not so patiently) awaiting all day.  The surgery went perfectly, there were no complications and she was resting comfortably.  Again, the tears flowed at the good news.  Luckily I was alone so no one had to know!  We were to pick her up the following day at 8:30am.  I couldn't wait!

one of the many reasons I love her... she thinks she's a lap dog!  Excuse the mess... it was right after the wedding!