So two weeks have passed and no word from me.... lest Zane be alone in his pain, I too have developed my own set of cervical issues. I guess it's the price to pay for getting Zane through all of this. I have a degeneration problem at C4-C7. Sound familiar? Yup, that's Zane's problem area too. So for now, while I get frequent chiropractic adjustments, I avoid the computer since that seems to aggravate my neck pain the most. Before I sign off to wallow in my own self pity, I will post an update on the Zaniac.
Backing up to Zane's knee issues....I took Zane out to Veterinary Specialty Hospital in Cary to see Dr. Clark and do a fresh biopsy of the knee. Dr. Clark showed me on the xrays where Zane's fall on April 24th caused the breakage of two little tines in his implant. His said that this was just a slight set back in healing. Damage to the implants could cause a feeling similar to a deep bruise. Zane took a pretty hard fall to break a titanium implant. He assured me that the implants were still secure and that the bone was healing all around them. Phew! He didn't even need to knock Zane out to do the biopsy. Zane is so good about procedures. He just stood there like no big deal. So pending the results of a bacteria free culture, Zane will be set to go for his final neck surgery.
During the time waiting for biopsy results from May 6th until May 15th when we saw Dr. Clark to draw a second biopsy, I saw days when Zane was more wobbly than others. The day we went out to Cary was one of the worst days for Zane. Without a doubt, we all knew that the second surgery would be necessary to relieve the pressure on Zane's spinal cord. I called Dr. Bergman and we scheduled the decompression/ laminectomy for Tuesday May 20th.
Over the weekend, Zane's knee continued to improve. Since he is on bed rest from the fusion surgery, we can't let him take any walks. I think this frustrates him a bit because he seems to feel pretty good most of the time. He gets up and down without wincing and seems relatively comfortable.
Surgery part 2 day arrived and I dropped Zane off at Carolina Veterinary Specialists at noon to prepare for his surgery. Dr. Bergman called me after surgery to let me know that Zane was in recovery. He said this had been a difficult procedure in that the area of surgery is in the deepest part of the neck. He prepared me for the possibility that this would be a set back for Zane. We would just have to wait until morning to see how much this would affect him and to be prepared as he may not be walking.
It was a long edgy night wondering how Zane would pull through this, his 3rd surgery in 2 months. One of Dr. Bergman's techs gave me a call first thing in the morning with a status update. Zane is up and walking! He's doing much better than expected. She said that they would like to keep Zane for one more night so that they could keep him on heavy duty pain meds. I set up an appointment to visit Zane at lunchtime. Two hours later they called back to let me know that Zane kept "breaking out" of his x pen in ICU to hang with the techs. Dr. Bergman decided to release Zane to go home since he was so mobile.
I picked up a very groggy Zane in the afternoon. He couldn't stay standing for long. I did manage to get him home and in the house on my own. He slept intermittently for most of the evening with one trip outside to go potty. He had a lot of hind end weakness but could get to a standing position with help. He clearly has neck pain. He is wearing a pain patch to give him a nice continuous infusion of pain meds as well as taking Tramadol, Gapapentin, and Metacam. So now we just wait and see....again.
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