Tyler's Okay!

Everything actually went really well. What a relief.

Originally I was going to take him to the vet's and stay there through the surgery, till he was ready to go home. But when I got there about 10 till 9, they told me that the doctor had already started another surgery, and it might be several hours before they even got to Tyler. I figured sitting there for hours would just suck, since I was pretty stressed as it was, so I decided to go home.

Meanwhile, yesterday after I got out of the vet's I had called my boss to ask for today off so I could be there during Tyler's surgery, and he gave me a really hard time about it. So on the way home, I got to thinking, and decided the heck with it - if I'm just going to be sitting at home chewing my fingers off, I may as well go into the office. That way, my boss would have to get off my ass because I didn't take the day off after all, and as long as I stuck to simple projects that didn't require much thought, I should be okay.

So I ended up going to work anyway, and just calling the vet's office every hour or so all morning. And they were really great about it, too - never seemed to mind and always had a decent update for me.

Tyler had no problems with the surgery, everything went well. His pre-surgery blood work was all good. And the best news of all ... the doctor said after he removed the tumor or mass or whatever they want to call it, he didn't think it looked like it was cancerous after all. Just a benign tumor of some sort. That would be great - even though the vet told me yesterday those things rarely spread, it would be even better to know it wasn't that at all. They sent it off for a biopsy anyway, just to be sure, and I should get the results in about a week.

Tyler's home now, snoozing on the floor. He's still pretty dopey, but I don't think it's from the anesthesia - they said he came out of that with no problem. They gave him a pain shot that must be pretty potent, because they said it wouldn't wear off for 24 to 36 hours, and that's what I think has him so dopey now. He can walk around fine, in fact he trotted out to the truck when we left the vet's. But mentally he's pretty fogged. I'm sure he just needs to lie quietly and rest this evening, and maybe by tomorrow he'll start feeling closer to normal.

Well, things couldn't have gone any better, if it had to happen at all ... anesthesia can be risky in older dogs, they've told me before, but apparently he had no problems at all during the surgery or afterwards. As long as he can get through the next couple days without any major problems or too much pain, we'll be home free.

Now if I can just get rid of this monstrous stress headache I've got ... .