Back to Life, Back to Reality...

This last week has been the most traumatic, stressful week I can ever remember having.  I truly don't know how human babies make it past the first year of life...or more to the point, how their parents do! 
Having my dog get attacked and bitten in the face was trauma enough, but electing to have his tail amputated two days later to remove the cyst that's been there for years...well, that was icing on the cake.

He did fine during and right after the surgery, but what the vet didn't take into consideration was that his "new" tail was just the right length to touch the floor when he was laying at rest.  Consequently, there was NO rest from Tuesday night through Friday, until after 2 kinds of pills didn't work, we were up in the middle of the night all week, he was frantic and anxious and in obvious pain... and finally the vet applied a pain patch and gave him acepromazine.

I am ordinarily not a fan of ACE.  We used it when he was younger because of his insane anxiety during thunderstorms.  I did NOT like the effect it had.  He was still clearly freaking out, but because of the medication, it was like this muted, drowning panic.  It was nooooot good, and if I had been the one to go the vet on Friday, I probably wouldn't have taken it from her...  Because it was my husband who went, and because he can't bear to have his baby suffer, he was all for anything that knocked him out for awhile.

So, we drugged him up, and proceeded to do so for the next 3 days.  I will say that it has definitely made a difference in EVERYONE's anxiety level.  And, he even weathered last night's thunderstorm pretty well - a feat, in and of itself.

Today, he seems almost back to normal, except for the soft cone and the missing 4 inches of tail they cut off.  My poor baby!!  I hate to see him suffer!  The stitches are dissolvable, so they should stop itching him soon.  Of course, his hair is going to have to grow back on his tail, his back and his front leg.  He looks like Franken-dog with all his missing hair and scabbed up nose.  I guess it will all be back to normal in a few months and we'll forget just how much trauma we all went through this week!

Here's to a low key, non-traumatic week...heck, month ahead!!