Bree came through the surgery very well.  She had the left adrenal
removed.  It was approx. double the size it should have been.
Her right adrenal was normal size, but it did have a small cyst on it
which he removed.  She didn't have any pancreatic tumors, which Dr. K
says are VERY common.  So, it turned out to be a fairly run of
the mill adrenal surgery, without any of the nasty complications.
 
As for me, I came through the whole ordeal rather well, too.  A good
friend of mine went with me, it REALLY helped to have someone to talk
to.  When I had Percy done, all I had to think about was what was
going on behind the surgery door, I was a mess that time.  It was a
little rocky for a few minutes this time when he took her in for the
surgery, but aside from that I was generally OK.
 
I guess I'll give a quick rundown of the events...  I wanted her
to get as good a night's sleep as possible, so I decided to not go
down until Thursday morning.  Unfortunately, that meant getting
up at 3 and being on the road by 4:30.  *YAWN*  Fortunately, she
only had to fast for 4 hours, and be off water for 1 hour, so she
wasn't completely miserable.  After a brief, unintentional, sidetrip
down 123, we got there at about 7:30.  He looked Bree over, and was
kind enough to fit Percy in for a quick unsheduled geriatric exam.
Then, we sat out in the waiting room while he finished up with all
of his other morning pre-surgery checkups.  Finally, they came out
and got Bree for her bloodwork.  She was lightly anesthetised for
that, and they brough her back out so I could hold her while she
woke up.  Then they took Percy in for her bloodwork (for the geriatric
exam), and I got her back asleep, too.  About 20 minutes later, just
as Bree was finally starting to wake up again, Dr. K came and got her
for the surgery.  I gave her a good-luck kiss on the head, and
handed her over.  I handed Percy over the the technicians (she stayed
just in case Bree needed blood during the surgery), and my friend
and I wandered out to get some breakfast.  I had been consciously
being very positive all morning as to not upset Bree, but handing
her over was difficult, and once I got into the car I lost it for
a few minutes.  Breakfast helped (I hadn't eaten, either, since I thought
it would be terribly cruel to eat in front of Bree since she had to
fast), and when we finally got back the surgery was over.  I got
the good news that there were no terrible complications, and he let
me go into the back to visit with her.  She was all wrapped up in the
heating pad on the floor, so I sat down on the floor with her for a
while, taking over flipping her over occasionally so she didn't get
burned from the heating pad.  (they do it, but it made me feel
useful)  It was difficult to see her that way.  Completely limp,
and very cold to the touch.  In fact, it took a while before her
temperature was even readable, the thermometer didn't go that low.  (that's
a scary thing to hear, too.  Even though I knew it's not uncommon)
After about 1/2 an hour her temperature was finally starting to come
up, so we decided to go find the hotel and see if we could check
in.  (BTW, it takes about 3 hours before they start to wake up)  We
came back a while later, I sat with her for a while again, then I
decided to rescue Percy from the "Jail" and go get everything
unloaded from the car into the hotel room so we wouldn't have to
worry about it later.  We got some lunch, and then went back to the
hospital.  Bree was just starting to wake up.  Her temperature had
finally gotten to 100, but when they turned the heating pad off it
dropped again, so they had to turn it back on to bring it back up.
So I sat with Bree for the next hour or so until her temperature finally
stabilized (she was able to maintain it around 100 by herself).  Then
she was released and we took her back to the hotel.  (it was around
4:30 at this point, and she was still VERY groggy.  Only waking up for a
few seconds occasionally, like when they took her temperature - she
didn't like that at all).
 
I was very impressed with her.  Even heavily sedated she was a perfect
lady.  The first thing she did when we got her to the hotel was to
struggle into the litterbox to go to the bathroom.  I couldn't believe
that she had the control to hold it until then.  And, you have to
realize how difficult it was for her to even get into the litterbox.
She could only stay awake for a few seconds at a time, and could
barely support herself.  Going to the litterbox was no easy feat,
even with my help.  I was truly amazed.  The second thing she
wanted to do (after a brief nap) was to get a drink of water.  So
I held her up so she didn't drown (them falling asleep while getting
a drink and drowning is a very real danger.  So if she were in the
hospital, they wouldn't have given her any water until she was
completely awake.  She was SO thirsty, I was really glad I was
able to help her.).  After she took care of those things she was
able to relax and go to sleep for a while.  Well, aside from the regular
awakenings from her cruel human to check her temperature.  It wasn't
until around 9PM that I felt confident enough that she wouldn't drown
or hurt herself if I left her alone.  Then we went out, grabbed some
dinner, and came back to her bedside for a few more hours until I
finally collapsed and went to sleep at around 2 AM.  (she needed help
crawling in and out of bed since it was too strenuous to burrow
under the blanked and I didn't want her to catch a chill.  She needed
help getting in the litterbox, I thought about taking it away so she
could just go on the floor, but I don't think she would be comfortable
doing that, and would try to hold it, which would keep her from
being able to relax.  She also could still use a helping hand for
support when she got a drink.)  Even though it's really difficult seeing
your pet in that condition, I was *REALLY* glad that I was able to
help make her more comfortable.  And, she would have been extremely
stressed out it I had left her in the hospital, she's a Mommy's girl
to the extreme, and gets highly upset when I'm not around.  I really
wanted to minimize that stress as well.
 
She made it through the night just fine (with this type of surgery,
one of the risks is that even though they make it through the
surgery just fine, for no apparent reason they just don't wake up the
next morning), and we had her into the hospital bright and early
this morning (Fri).  Dr. K gave her a clean bill of health, I handed
over a large sum of money (remember, I had blood work and an exam done
on Percy, too), then we went back to the hotel, checked out, and
headed home.
 
Today she has been eating and drinking.  She even makes a few attempts
at exploring every now and then.  However, going from one side of the
room to the other is about all she can take.  When she's awake, she
seems very bright and alert.  So, it looks like she's going to
be just fine.  :) :) :) :) :)
 
Thank you so much for all the well wishes.  We really do appreciate
it.
 
BTW, Percy's geriatric exam was good for the most part.  Her lymphocite
(sp?) count was a little high.  Not grossly so, though.  (I forget the
number)  It just means that I'll have to have another CBC run on
her in about 3 weeks, if it's still high then, we'll try again in 3
more weeks.  If it's STILL high, we could be looking at lympho in it's
early stages.  But, I'm not panicking yet.  The count can be high
for any number of reasons, including the cold that I'm just getting
over and she very likely could have.  Her lymph nodes aren't
enlarged, so he doesn't think that there's anything to worry about
at this point.  (She's 5, btw)
 
Now, I need sleep.  Badly.  *YAWN*  Thanks again for the support.  I'll
keep you posted.
 
- Nancy
 
Nancy Hartman     Internet - [log in to unmask]      GEnie - n.hartman4
President, Delaware Valley Ferret Club | CIS Grad Student, U. of Delaware
      ***  Caregiver to Percy, Bree, & Popcorn, the ferrets  ***
  "We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals" - Kant
 
[Posted in FML issue 0691]