I thought I'd just post the (rather mundane thankfully) experience I'm
having with my first adrenal surgery.  Giesela is 5.5 years old.  No other
health problems.  The vet said her left adrenal was hard, pink and the size
of a pea with a black spot and what looked like some other growth starting
to grow on or out of it.  That was all removed.  The right looked ok and
was left alone (I had no idea they were normally so small - he said approx
3-5mm, so imagine a 5mm pencil lead!) One weird thing - he said down and
back aways on the abdomen wall was a pink nodule that he'd never seen
before - he took it out and sent to testing - it was "accessory" adrenal
growth - sort of like she was growing an extra adrenal gland in a new spot.
He'd heard of it but never seen it.  Liver and pancreas looked fine.  He
did internal absorbed stitches so her incision looked great (I went out of
town to a different vet than my normal everyday vet whose past stitching
looked much worse, this guy was good).
 
She came home same night, they had given her a bit of pain killer.  No
antiobiotics or further painkillers were prescribed.  Next morning she was
trying to break her teeth on the cage (she's normally free roam).  Moved
pretty well, slept more than normal.  Its day 7 and other than itchy skin
and still sleeping a bit more than normal she seems to be doing well.
 
Mary, Boris and Giesela
 
"For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts;
even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other;
yea they have all one breath;
so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast:
for all is vanity. "
Ecclesiastes 3:19
[Posted in FML issue 3168]