One Long Day

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty long day.  It was the sort of day that feels like it will never end.  I don't suppose it helped any that we were up at Oh Dark Thirty, either.  For once I woke up before the alarm clock went off and Lilac wasn't barking, nor was Morgan doing stealth patrol.  I almost felt a little guilty waking them up.  Okay, I admit it, I didn't, it was nice to see them on the recieving end for a change.  Bunny was stretched out, enjoying an early morning birthday tummy rub and then I crawled out of bed to start getting ready, since we had to get moving earlier than usual to get Blueberry to the vet.

Mr. Taleteller took Blueberry to the vet.  I could handle things all day if I didn't have to be the one to leave her there.  I gave her a hug and kissed her lumpy head and off they went, her travel bed along so she'd have somewhere comfortable to rest while she was waiting for her surgery to start.  I put food down for the rest of the group and I thought Morgan might actually weep tears of relief.  Waking up early and then not putting food out nearly threw her into panic overload.  Fortunately, the food went out in the nick of time before the sky actually fell. 

So, I went to work and tried to keep busy and not worry over her.  Within ten minutes of getting into the classroom with the kids after bus duty, someone had peed on me.  For those who don't know, I teach PreK, so life at work can be interesting.  The day went downhill from there.  By lunchtime, I still hadn't heard from the vet's office and I was getting anxious.  So, after lunch when the kids went down to sleep, I called.  Imagine my surprise when I heard that Blueberry hadn't gone in for sugery yet.  There had been an emergency that came in and she was still waiting.

One of the reasons I like our vet is that if you have an emergency, they get right to you.  However, it's hard to be really appreciative of that fact when you got up at the butt crack of dawn to get your dog in so that she could have her surgery done early and be ready to go home when you get off work.  I called again after school was out and found out that she was currently in surgery.  They thought I'd be able to take her home at 5:30, which was a two hour wait.  I reasoned that I could at least go by the dog bakery and get a birthday cake for Bunny since I wasn't going to have time to bake one. 

Finally, it was time to get Blue and I was at the vet's office.  I went in to talk with the vet about how things went and things that we need to do for her after she goes home.  She's got some new food to try and some mouthwash, both of which are to help keep her teeth clean.  The vet was optimistic about the lump.  He said there was only one blood vessel going into it, so it wasn't getting fed a lot and that it was a good thing.  The lump will be tested and we'll know more about what it was in a week, but the vet seemed to feel like there was a good chance that we've gotten it before it can be anything that needs more treatment. 

Blueberry did have a hard time coming out of the anesthesia, and she was thrashing around quite a bit from what they said.  She has some red spots across her chest, belly and the insides of her legs which we're watching closely.  They think it's most likely petechial hemorrhaging, but it could be her blood not clotting.  As a final indignity, they gave her a bath.   She was still really shaky and needed some help to get outside, but she made it.  I guess she wasn't staying anyplace where they force a bath on you after cleaning your teeth.

We got home and Mr. Taleteller carried her inside.  There was a crate set up for her in case she wanted it, but her first priority was drinking a lot of water.  She also wanted to eat, so I gave her some of the new food.  Mr. Taleteller left to go to class with Morgan, since we figured keeping her busy would be better for Blueberry than having her sniffterogating her about where she'd been all day.  She laid down in the crate, but then decided she wanted to lay on the couch.  Of course I picked her up and she promptly made herself comfortable in my spot.  Normally, I'd make them move from there if I wanted to sit down, but I didn't have the heart.  She laid her had against my pillow and closed her eyes, finally resting comfortably.

So, that's as much as we know at the moment.  It was a huge relief to sit on the couch between Bunny and Blueberry and listen to Lilac barking at Blueberry's new bag of food.  Sometimes I guess we all need a little reminder about how good it is to be home.  Bunny's planning on enjoying her day tomorrow with cake and attention while we're all home together.  She seemed happy enough with having Blueberry home for the night, although I noticed she seemed even more happy when she saw that there was new food to investigate.  We will share more news when we get it.  Thank you to everyone who offered us support, well wishes, and good humor here on the blog, on forums we visit, through e-mail and on Facebook.  It has helped us more than we can say!  Now I'm off to see if I can grow that money tree in the back yard.