Home Sweet Home

My little Frankers has been home since Thursday! They kept him for two nights since he had a lot of swelling and drainage. He was super anxious the first day back home, but after some good rest I can tell he’s been feeling better. For the most part he’s been getting around really well on three legs! He does seem to hesitate more with figuring out how to sit or lay down, but he can be up in a second if he wants. And he pooped twice on Friday, which I wasn’t expecting since most people said it took almost a week for their pups to poop post-surgery so I was very excited. And he’s been pooping pretty regularly since then, so yay for a properly functioning digestive system! πŸ˜‰

It’s definitely been weird for me though. Every time I see the giant suture line I feel a little bit of a shock. I can tell at times he’s been in some pain or a little freaked out, and that’s hard for me to swallow.

He sometimes really scaresΒ me with how much activity he wants to do (*child you just had major surgery calm yourself!*). The other day I noticed that he had started dripping blood, a pretty good amount, and he was anxious and running around while I was trying very hard to calm him down. I thought he might have torn it open or something so we ran up to the vet, with him bleeding and me panicking the whole way, but my vet said it’s just drainage and he didn’t rip any stitches open. She did give me some sedatives, because apparently not even a missing leg can slow him down.

And sometimes he really worries me with how little activity he wants to do. Frank is not, by nature, a very relaxed dog. Before all of this started it seemed like he was constantly in motion. It’s hard for me to watch him lay on the ground and not want to move.

On the whole though he’s been doing so incredibly well. Praying there won’t be any complications (*ahem, I’m looking at you infections*), because I don’t think my fragile heart could take it.

Sometimes I just stop and wonder how we got here. Not too long ago he was running around, an unstoppable force on four legs (and I really do mean unstoppable, this kid has got some muscles). How did this happen? Why? Sometimes I weep. I weep because I just can’t make sense of what happened to him. I try not to think about the four-legged life he might have had, but it’s still hard for me to imagine what his new three-legged life will be. People keep saying he’ll be happy and won’t even notice it’s gone, which I know is true but it’s hard at this point to visualize it as a reality for him. But we are already on this path, and all I can do is keep as much positivity as possible and be strong for my boy while he needs me.

PS. He’s supposed to get his stitches out on Friday if everything looks good!

3 thoughts on “Home Sweet Home”

  1. Just give him time. His tripawd life might be a little different, but it will be wonderful!

  2. The ADORABLE IRREPRESSIBLE FRANK IS HOME!!! πŸ™‚

    YAY!!! πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

    And yes, too much activity (which is just about anything this early on) can definitely cause some bleeding and seepage.

    Frank needs to ONLY do potty breaks at this point. This is MAJOR SURGERY and it’s perfectly normal that he does NOT feel like doing much!! Humans would srill be in the hospital on a morphine drip!

    Frank is NOT feeling sorry for himself!! Once recovery is over you will be soooo thrilled to see how happy he is with that bum leg gone!! πŸ™‚

    Keep us posted!

    Hugs!

    Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!

  3. Frank is a pretty awesome doggie. I’m glad he’s got the zing back but yeah, even after stitches come out you need to build up activity s l o w l y. He’ll get there.

    And it’s perfectly normal for you to grieve the missing leg. We all did it. In time though, Frank has some tremendous lessons he’ll share with you, you about living in the Now and not looking back. It’s a hard one for us humans to learn, but if your heart is open to this new way of thinking and living without regret, it can change your life for the better.

    We hope things are going well. Keep us posted!

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