[Dailydrool] Our Elsinore's coming to, as I write

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

The surgeon has called to say our Elsinore is just coming out of anesthesia now. He was able to get about 1 cm margins on the mass (3-5 cm would have been optimal), which he called "narrow margins." He said the mass was very vascular, but she didn't lose any blood. While the tumor was within about 15 mm of her sciatic nerve, he was able to stay away from that and the base of her pelvic bone. The whole mass will go off to pathology, so it remains to be seen just how aggressive her cancer is. My fingers are crossed that it's one of the more friendly cancers. I'm also hoping the pain meds will do their job and everything else goes well enough that I can bring her home tomorrow. 

I'm glad her surgery happened before noon because the surgeon will be around longer to keep an eye on her for the rest of the day. She'll have someone with her all night tonight. And tomorrow I can bring her home? Which will start a new chapter in her cancer journey. The dreaded e-collar and the even more dreaded Tramadol. Getting the latter down her throat could make life around here very interesting indeed because our Elsinore does not take perceived assaults to her body lying down. Oh, no. She fights back with everything she has. But I'll worry about that later.

While she was in surgery, the piano tuner was here. I'd called for an appointment with him before we'd decided to have the surgery done. I wanted Elsinore, who so enjoys singing, to be able to sing during her last days to a tuned piano. Her accompanist may not be worth shooting, but at least she could have a tuned piano. And so she has now. I asked the tuner to pay particular attention to the upper registers, which are Elsinore's favorites. Once she's back on her feet from the surgery, I'll video both hounds singing their duets and then figure out how to get them on YouTube.

Thank you all for the comforting and encouraging e-mails you've been sending. Ken's been rather flabbergasted by it all. I can't tell you how much it means to both of us to know our Elsinore has so many hounds drooling for her and people cheering her on with this really frightening stuff that's going on with her body. 

Elizabeth