My poor little one.

Clearly I have been busy, as most everyone else in the world...it can be the only reason I would neglect my blog for so long, right!? 
Well, of course, that is the main reason.
Summer, with my new schedule, just doesn't lend itself to much blogging.  I used to have 3 days when I could get up early and blog...my day off, and the two days I worked at the vet and didn't have to be in until 7 a.m.  Now, I have two days off, but since I am up at 3 a.m. the other 5 days, I've actually found myself sleeping in a bit, and not getting that time to blog, before heading off to do my chores and errands for the day.

As we've all come to realize, here in my blog world, I have become a master of excuses...but, I'm comfortable enough with that, that I find no need to apologize for it.

I had big plans to have a bunch of new stuff ready to sell at the craft/artisan fair I'll be going to early November.  Yet I have some how managed to make it to (nearly) mid-September without getting into my 'comfortable cushion' zone.  And now my in-laws are in town.  So, we will be spending a lot of time with them.  They would let me do my thing, but it's just two weeks we see them, so unless I feel an unrelenting urge, they will get the free time we have.

Today is actually a busy day for me, though, so I think I will take the day to myself.
Here's why:

Our little baby had a rough Labor Day weekend.

Saturday, when I got home from work, I noticed Moxie's right eye was looking a little filmy.  By the time I got home Sunday, she looked like she had a cataract.  She had a tiny mass on her bottom eyelid that we asked the Dr. about last time she had her check-up.  He said that they could remove it if, cosmetically speaking, we wanted to.  He said the only issue would be if it seemed to bother her, which it didn't.  We decided that, at her age, we would just have it removed when I decided to have her teeth cleaned so that she would only have to have anesthesia once. 

Except things never go as planned, do they?

After the long weekend, and then when I got home from work on Tuesday to see there was no improvement in her eye and that she didn't really want to open it much, I called to get her in Wednesday morning.

It was pretty nerve-wracking to hear the doctor say things like 'refer you to an opthemologist' (who was booked for at least 2 weeks!  And, 'the stain looks weird'.

Basically, he stained her eye to see why it was so filmy.  When he did that, you could see a green (from the stain) ring on her little eyeball.  That was the ulcer, probably caused by irritation from that tiny mass.  The problem he was having was the way the stain was forming.  It looked to him like perhaps the ulcer was already healing.  But more likely, it was because of how deep the ulcer was into the eye. He explained that if it got too deep, it would cause the inner liquid part to get sucked out.  I mean, without being too graphic, I'm sure you can figure out what would happen...it's just like any other liquid filled object with a pinhole in it!

He told us we could wait and try to see the ophthamologist in a couple weeks or he could schedule surgery for the next morning to remove the mass and see if we needed to to the more intense 'flap' surgery (I can't for the life of me remember what he called it!).  'Closer to $1000 range, if we do that,' he added. 

Well, she's our baby...we're not going to say no!  Having worked there, I knew the surgeon was highly skilled.  I knew they wouldn't do anything that didn't need to be done.  And I figured I could get a break if I needed it.

Decisions made, we got some antibiotic eye drops for her.  But that's not all!  This is where my love and awe of biology really hit a high note!  They drew some blood from her.  Then, they spun it down to separate the serum.  Then, they handed it to me in an eye dropper bottle.  'What do I do with this??'

Give her 1-2 drops in her eye, twice a day!  Is that crazy??  I have been putting part of her blood back into her eye to help it heal!  Science...biology...it's so damn fascinating to me!

 

So we took our little girl home for the night...loved her as much as we could before Hubs had to bring her in on his way to work the next morning.

By noon, I got a text that she was out of surgery, and doing fine.  They removed the mass, but just did a procedure on the cornea where they sort of rough up the edges of the ulcer to make it easier for new cells to form and heal.

So, now we have this to deal with for two weeks!

Poor thing!  She doesn't even like wearing sweaters!  Jason said she cried for an hour the first time she had it on.  So, she only has to wear it when we're not here to make sure she doesn't scratch her stitches out.  The bummer is that, with the in-laws in town, we are not home as much as we normally would be!  She doesn't even seem to notice it anyway, but if she goes to scratch her ear of neck, and then decides her eye is a little itchy, that's when we stop her.  She such a good girl, though...the hardest part is having to put some sort of eye drops in SEVEN TIMES A DAY!  They gave us a second antibiotic drop after the surgery.

Today, I'm taking her in to get more blood drawn for more serum.  Then next week some time she will have her check up to make sure things are healing properly.



I'm not sure it's clear here, but right by where that white dot is, she has a sort of 'divet' on her eye.  That is the ulcer, and it looks like she has a tiny crater on her eye.  Just below is where the mass was removed, where she had 2-3 stitches put in, and where the eye boogers are collecting these days!

 

I am hoping that one of the doctors can look and see if they think I can stop putting the e-collar on her.  Her eyeball is much clearer, but I don't know what the ulcer should look like.

 

So, that is my excuse for not hanging with the in-laws today!  I want to spend time with my ailing puppy!  Though, to be honest, she acts as if nothing has happened.  I'm a very proud dog-mom!