Heading Home

Well, we are officially on the road to recovery for the first hip. Hudson had his left hip done yesterday, and this morning I received a call that he had been up and walking this morning, so he seemed to be doing really well. Since the fiancé and I had to work, we decided to pick him up around 4:30 this afternoon. A little extra time with professionals is always good.

I was relieved to know that he was going well, but I was very nervous to pick him up. All day, I stared blankly at a computer screen, thought about everything we needed to do to prepare for him during a meeting, and mentally prepared myself for the trip to pick up Hudson from the hospital.

When it came time to leave work to go get him, the nerves really set in, but I was ready to see him.

At the vet, my fiancé and I went into a room where we would meet with a technician to go over some post-op care and get Hudson back. When the technician came in, she immediately commented on how nervous we looked. I guess it was obvious. Then she asked if he ate rocks. We said yes and explained his knack for digging up rocks in the yard. She then showed us the rocks on his x-rays and jokingly recommended that she send an estimate for rock removal home with us. Hopefully that will not be in our future.

The post-op care sheet wasn’t nearly as in-depth as I was expecting. Basically, the rules are as follows:

            - No running in the house or yard

            - No jumping on or off furniture

            - No climbing up and down flights of stairs

            - No playing

            - Confine him to a small area, especially when alone

            - Keep leashed and use a sling when outside

For such a short list, it sure doesn’t leave much to do. He is on three medications…Tramadol (pain relief), Cephalexin (antibiotic), and Rimadyl (anti-inflammatory)…for 6 days each.

When he came in, he looked just like his usual self, just with a sling and cone, until he turned to the side. About a quarter of his body is shaved down to the skin. He has 3 fairly large incisions sealed up with staples, and a large red patch under his tail from irritation both from the incision and some general irritation. We stopped on the way home to get some Desitin to help take care of that.

Right now, he has been home for about 3 hours, and we are about an hour away from his next pain pill. He is clearly uncomfortable as he is crying and struggling to get comfortable on his bed, but I want him to be able to make it through the night, so I don’t want to give him medicine too early.

Even though I can tell he hurts, he is doing a great job walking outside.

 

We just keep reminding ourselves that it should only get easier from here.