A Lucy Update

Frankly, it’s been a horrendous four days over here. Obviously Lucy’s surgery and the adoption of Novalee made for some not-so-great days. What’s made it worse is that Lucy is back in the ER vet for the night.

Since I brought Lucy home Friday evening, her appetite had continued to decrease. She’d eat maybe 75 percent of her food in the morning and then less and less as the day went on. And I was feeding her super small amounts every 4-5 hours so it’s not like she was getting a ton of food at once. I knew she felt like crud but the problem was she needed to take her six (yes, six) medications with food to feel better but she didn’t feel like eating.

The less she ate, the less medicine she got into her system and the crappier she felt and the more dehydrated she got. And the cycle continued until she felt so badly she puked – medicine and all – what she managed to choke down Sunday morning.

There was a list of warning signs which, if they happened, I was instructed to call the vet and of course vomiting was one of them. So Lucy and I spent almost four hours at the ER vet this morning/afternoon to figure out what exactly was going on.

The vet on call scared me to death when he said she might have a perforated intestine from her stitches stretching and causing tiny perforations which required, yes, more surgery. Fortunately it appears she just needs some stronger anti-nausea and pain meds to start feeling better. But, because she was dehydrated and hadn’t actually ingested all of her meds since her initial discharge Friday, she got herself another overnight visit.

I was so relieved I almost cried; the vet really had me thinking worse case scenarios. And then I forked over $1100…

Which brings me to what else is on my mind – money. I worked very hard for the past 18 months or so to put some amount, any amount, into my savings account each month. Of course I always tried to save money but the last 18 months were spent with precise budgeting. That work has been completely erased by Lucy’s surgeries and subsequent care. Don’t get me wrong – there was zero hesitation on my end to pay for whatever Lucy needs. That’s why I have a savings account, after all. It just hit me how easy it is to be back to “square one” so to speak after months of diligent budgeting.

Lucy is worth it 10 times over and there’s no way I would have ever not paid for what she needs, it just adds stress to what was already a stress-filled four days.

The good news is the vet assured me that Lucy should be like a new dog tomorrow morning and will only improve from here on out.

I want this happy face back.