Surgery Day. . .

 This is what Lucy looked like on Sunday evening when we left her at the vet hospital.  She was loopy, sedated and bleeding from her nose.  It was very, very sad.

This morning we went back to the hospital to check in with the vet and visit with Lucy before her surgery.  I'm pretty sure she knew who we were but she was still pretty sedated.  It was hard to see her that way but at least we had a chance to tell her how much we loved her and scratch her ears.

We played the waiting game for the rest of the day.  We were hoping to hear something by mid afternoon but the surgery didn't even start until around 5:30 in the evening.  There wasn't anything we could do at the hospital so we spent the day trying not to think about it and staying as busy as we could.  Gloria used up all of her Easter side walk chalk making this:

We spent the evening with family at Rob's parents house and it helped to have something else to think about for awhile.  We waited anxiously to hear from the vet and finally got the call around 8:00.  I don't fully understand what was said but what I do know is that we really won't know anything for certain until Wednesday or Thursday.  The surgery consists of a laproscopic biopsy of Lucy's liver so I guess that means they make a few small incisions and go in and take samples of her insides.  They didn't see any immediate signs of cancer so that is good, although it's possible that the lab could still see that when they do whatever it is they do. Unfortunately, they did find that the liver was very diseased which could mean a couple of things.  It could be chronic active hepatitis (no cure) or infectious hepatitis which can get better with drugs as long as the liver isn't so diseased that it can't regenerate.  They said the best we can hope for is that the hepatitis is caused by a toxin and that her liver isn't damaged beyond repair.  The lab results will tell us exactly what the problem is but we won't have these answers until Wednesday or Thursday. 

Meanwhile, they were pleased with how well she did in surgery and recovery and they said we could come and visit her in a couple of hours.  All four of us went back to the vet hospital around 10 p.m. to tell Lucy good night.  She was very sedated and I'm not sure she knew who we were.

It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that all of this has happened over the last week.  It wasn't too long ago that she was jumping around in the backyard with the kids during their Nerf gun battle. 

I'm trying to stay positive and I feel the good thoughts and prayers from friends all over the place.  So much hope and encouragement.  Plus, this little bit of sunshine helped a whole bunch:

So. . . more waiting.  We'll go and visit Lucy again in the morning and look at the possibility of bringing her home in the afternoon.  It's hard to say what the day will hold. . .