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Rosie's Rose Garden – Life!

Rosie lives to smell the Roses and Survive Cancer.

Rosie’s First Week After Amputation.

Filed under: Uncategorized — rosiesmom at 10:22 pm on Thursday, March 25, 2010

   

I’m HOME!!!!  This is me on day 6 after Amputation Surgery.  I feel tired, but I’m doing very good.  I don’t have as much pain as I did before with my bad leg.  It was hurting so much I couldn’t walk and I was falling down all the time.  Now I can hop around and I’m getting pretty good at it.  I still have a little trouble steering, walking a straight line, but I can hop really good.  Since I was already hopping on 3 legs anyway for the past few months it has not been too  hard getting used to being a tripawd.  The best part is my extremely painful leg is gone.  My incission is not bad.  Doctor did a real good job.  It’s healing very well.  My doctor says I did as well as any dog after amputation even thou I’m 12 years old!!.  So you older dogs there is hope and I’m living proof!  I still have life left to live in my Rose Garden – Life!  I want to smell the flowers, the grass, the air, enjoy the breeze and just enjoy being with my pawrents!  I’m so glad I did the Amputation.  The week of Amputation was more stressful than now.  We were so worried if I would be okay.  But I’m okay.  I made it thru and I’m getting a lot of sleep to help me recover.  But I enjoy my walks outside, I can walk the whole fence line, but sometimes I’m too tired to walk back. So Mom and I stop and I lay down a little bit before I walk the rest of the way. 

My mom ordered me a stroller, I think she thinks I’m a baby,  so we can go on walks in the neighborhood!  But I’m going to show her I don’t really need it, she probably wasted her money buying me a stroller.  But I’ll ride for her, it may be fun.    

 Anyway my friends in Tripawd land.  I’m trying to recover.  I was feeling pretty good up till Monday above.  Then on Tuesday I started to feel really out of it.  My pain pills were done, but I think I need a few more days of pain killers so I can rest comfortably.  I just can’t seem to get comfortable.  Laying down is the hardest, getting my body down on the ground.  Mom bought me a new bed but I don’t like to lay on it.  She keeps calling me over to the bed, but I’d rather lay on the cold hard floor!  It’s cooler.  So mom got me some more pain meds today and I feel a little better.    

 My pawrents gave me a bone.! The good kind!  

Bones are great!

 

I'm tired!

 

A week after Surgery!

 

ROSIE’S HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL!

Filed under: Uncategorized — rosiesmom at 3:14 pm on Saturday, March 20, 2010

 

Rosie with her Doctors!

 

 

Rosie did it!  Here is my little girl upon seeing her for the first time she came walking (hopping) in the room with her blue baby in her mouth and a pretty scarf around her neck to hide her incission.   We picked her up on Friday March 19th, at noon.  She was so happy to see us.  She was full of energy we were so suprised to see her walking right in the room happy as can be.  What a relief.  We were very encouraged to see how well she could walk.  The picture of her with her doctors at the University of Florida Small Animal Hospital in Gainesville, Florida.  Dr. Sarah Lyles on the left of her was her Oncologist who monitored her Chemo so well, and her Surgeon, Dr. Nick Bacon immediately to the right of her did all three of her surgeries.  He did such a great job with the surgeries very neat and clean and straight cuts.  And to the far right was the Student assigned to take care of her – Cole Carter he fed her, walked her,  gave her all her meds while she was at the hospital  he was her Daddy  for a few days! They all did such a fabulous job taking care of her!!! We are so happy to have her at  home again.  She crashed last night when we got home, slept solid all evening and night.   But today she is doing really well.  She woke up happy and grabbed her baby and walked around with it in her mouth! 

We took her outside with the sling.  She attempted to walk down the fence line, which is quite a walk, but she tried to do her routine!!  Amazing.  She seems less painful than I thought.   I can tell her face is a lot less painful looking than before.  She’s just tired, but not a painful look.  Her pain is GONE!!!!  I can’t believeit!  What a relief this is for all of us to know she is not in pain anymore.  She is trying to figure out the one leg thing.  She breathes heavy, but as she gets used to it she will get stronger.   

She was on 16 pain pills a day!!  Now she only has 8 pain pill a day until Monday and then she will not have to take anymore pain pills!!!!  And she has antibiotics too, but after Monday no more pills!!! Except vitamins!  I can’t believe it.  That alone is such a relief.  This seems easier than before as we were giving her pills every time we turned around.  This has been much easier care than before.  And she was limping so bad before I had to watch her every step.  So this is actually not bad. I think the 2 weeks will go very well.  All that worry.  We hope she does well.  They said that usually dogs who have amputation do well at the hospital and show good signs and then when they go home they crash when they get in their own environment and get kind of depressed.  But she hasn’t done that yet.  

We’ll keep you posted.  But the Little Girl has her life back! And we’re so proud of her for all she went thru. 

Rosie’s Mom – Relieved!

Rosie’s Amputation Day!

Filed under: Uncategorized — rosiesmom at 8:57 am on Wednesday, March 17, 2010

MOM AND DAD GETTING READY TO SAY GOODBYE BEFORE SURGERY

Rosie Checking into Hospital

Dear World:  This was a stressful day for me “Rosie” and my family.  We had all kind of tests yesterday.  We stayed overnight in a hotel, which was actually pretty cool, it’s fun going on trips, I always like going for rides in the car.  I thought we were going to Disney World or something.  I was unaware of wear Mommy and Daddy were taking me.  I know they love me so I didn’t think I had to worry.       

I usually don’t worry about anything because I am a Golden Retreiver Dog and all I think about is eating, sleeping and finding sticks, and loving my pawrents!  They love me good and I love being with them.          

Me “Rosie” at a HOTEL! This is Cool going on a Trip!

  

  

This is me the morning I woke up March 16th in a Hotel near the hospital.    Then we are at the hospital my last picture before Amputation.  I am totally unaware of where I am and why I’m here.  I know I’ve been here before but not really sure what they are going to do to me today!.    I know it will be a difficult day the way Mom and Dad keep hugging me.    They took me in at 9:00 a.m.  and I was in there for a long time.  I couldn’t see mom and dad and wondered where they were?  But then about 4:00 they gave me some good drugs and I had a nice sleep.   I didn’t feel a thing!.  My eyes opened at 6:00 p.m.  and I heard my mom and dad were still sitting in the waiting room waiting to find out if I woke up after surgery or not.  Well I DID!!!! YEAH!!!.      

I am 12 but I’m not giving up yet.  THis has been my 3rd surgery in 7 months so I was relieved to wake up too.  I feel kind of loopy.  I didn’t want to get up or eat or drink anything yet.  They called my Mommy this morning and told her I was having trouble getting up and breathing kind of heavy.  Well I always get out of breath,  when I was in pain.  I hope that clears up and gets better after I get over this recovery time?  I’m out of breath.  That worry’s mommy.  I know she is worried about me!!!!      

They helped me get up to go Pee with this stupied sling.  I didn’t like that at all.  They told mom that I didn’t like it.  So she’s wondering how she’s going to take me to the bathroom.  Maybe after today I’ll feel stronger and I’ll be able to get up on my own.  They are giving me good drugs for pain and put a nice ice pack on my incission for swelling.  I hope I’m going to be okay.  My mommy will be lost with out me.  I’ll let you know latter how I feel.  Thanks for checking on me all you nice Tripawd friends and for caring about me.  I have a lot left to do.  They say I may be able to come home on Friday!  Miss my Mommy and Daddy a lot right now and they miss me.        

Think about me!      Rosie 

P.S.  Here are some pictures of me the last few weeks before my Amputation.  I was having fun.  I hope I have fun again!    

    

Rosie my Little Girl before Cancer.

Filed under: Uncategorized — rosiesmom at 6:56 pm on Saturday, March 13, 2010

  

Rosie at 7 wks old!

Rosie was a sweet and happy little girl here at 7 weeks old.  I wanted everyone to see her as she was when her Life first started in her Rose Garden.  She still is sweet and a beautiful little girl.   Now Rosie is 12 years old just in Feb 2010.  She started limping last year in July after jumping out of the car.  We thought she sprained her leg.  Little did we know we were about to begin a long journey fighting “C” (cancer) a bad word around our house as I had breast cancer myself 5 years ago.  She was there for me threw all the bad days of my treatments and she helped me get through it all.  Now I need to be there for her.   Rosie is named after my favorite flower the Rose!  She is like a Rose in the Rose Garden, beautiful and delicate.  That is her personality too.  She is kind, loving, loyal and always there for me.  She has qualities I wish some humans could have.  I look at her and she makes me feel like smiling she has been like a best friend, always there for me to be with.  I love her so much!     

Rosie’s  Rose Garden is struggling to stay in bloom since  August of  last year.  We found out Rosie had this Osteosarcoma in her left front leg near the shoulder.  When my vet called me on the phone to tell me she had “C” I could hardly believe the words,  it was like 5 years ago all over again when I found out I had cancer on  the phone.   All the helpless feelings come back.    

  

This is Rosie now 12 years latter.  She still has that sweet face!     We finally found our way to the University Of Florida Small Animal Clinic at the College  in Gainesville, FL where they have the best Doctors and technology around here.  Within 2 weeks of finding out what she had we were speaking to the surgeon/oncologist there.  They were talking about amputation and I couldn’t even imagine taking her leg off.  I couldn’t understand why they couldn’t fix her leg.  We went to UF because we heard about a new procedure that was limb sparing called “Stereotactic Radiation Surgery”  (SRS).  We wanted to find out more about it and if Rosie qualified(it is not for the faint of wallet, by the way).  Well long story short, after several xrays and tests, she did qualify.  SRS is a one time dose of strong radiation that is done from all angles circumfrencing the tumor so the outside skin only gets hit one time but the tumor gets hit by the Radiation many times in the center of the target.  It actually kills the tumor and the bone becomes dead in that one spot too.  That’s the risk, the bone can become brittle there and fracture.  There is a 70% chance of no problem and then she walks fine afterwards.  They have had some good success with it.  However it was an expensive gamble.  I took the gamble and hoped for the best. Amputation is still  the first choice of treatment by Doctors. But both treatments accomplish the same thing.  The cancer is gone until one day it returns.  

  

 Rosie had other complications, when they did all the tests to qualify for SRS they found a massive liver tumor in her belly.  It was also cancer but a different kind not related to her Oesteosarcoma.  So they said it was contained and that they could take it out.  So within 2 weeks she had 2 very complicated procedures.  She got thru both of them and came home walking very well.  For 2 weeks we watched her walk like herself.  Then suddenly she started limping again!  After xrays and to our dismay her leg had fractured!  We had already started chemo.  She was to have Carboplatin.  So we all agreed to continue with the Chemo and continue to see if she was weight bearing, which she was.   So now 5 chemo treatments latter which ended in Jan  5th, 2010 she is still limping, and worse than before.
 
 
  She’s on so many pain killers it’s not funny.  She has a hairline fracture that must be causing her enough pain that she lifts the paw up a lot of the time.  She doesn’t use it to get up.  She does use it to walk.  But she treads lightly on it.  She can actually run better than she walks as she thrusts herself forward, it’s more like a skip and a hop.   I think her pain has become much worse and it’s so hard to watch her struggle with every step she takes.  So our Rose Garden is not so rosy right now.   But Rosie is so determined to be her sweet self.  The Drs are recommending  !! Amputation!! And we are finally trying to come to terms with this decision that we avoieded for so long.
 
 
 After plenty of tears and research and wakeless nights like tonight, and talking to all of you nice folks on  Tripawds, we found the courage to call and make the appointment to take her in Monday March 15th with possible surgery on the 16th.  We have 2 days left.   It took 2 weeks to get this appointment.  All I can think about is what I will do when I have to leave her there.  I don’t know how we will do it.  With lot’s of prayer to give us strengthwe will do what’s best for Rosie. It makes sense to Amputate to relieve her of her pain, and get rid of all these pain pills  wrecking what is left of  her liver.  But even thou it makes sense, my emotional side does not make sense of it.  I don’t know how to reconcile the emotions with the sensibility side of this decision.  It’s so hard after trying to save her leg for 6 months, to make a 180 degree turn and do the opposite.  We go Monday.  I’m dreading it.  Here are some final pictures I just took of her now before we go. Rosie, we love you, and hope our story will inspire some other scared person like us who just wants to be happy and keep living in what we call our Rose Garden,   LIFE!  We’re not ready for it to end yet. 
 
My last day at home before going to the Hospital tomorrow!  It is such a nice day today. We sat in the yard I enjoyed being outside with my pawparents.  I’m hopeful and confident that this leg has to go.  The pain is so bad and I can’t stand it anymore.  I hope we will be okay.  We have to be positive.   I have to go enjoy the rest of the day now and pack for my big trip tomorrow!! We’ll let you know what happens. 
   
 

 

 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

   

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