Learning from Maggie’s Surgery
I got a call back from the vet today. Since Maggie’s surgery was a fairly new one, I wanted to give her my thoughts. If you listened to the long 12 minute description of what went down during the surgery, you know that there was an unexpected stricture blocking her ureter (the tube between the kidney and the bladder). Had they known about that in advance, they would have known that neither type of surgery (Ureteral Stenting and Ureterotomy) would have been effective. While they would not have been able to save Maggie, they would have been able to avoid the expense, time, and pain/stress (for Maggie, Me, the surgeon, and the vet). Techniques like CT scan or ultrasound are costly, but they could have picked up the presence of the stricture. I’d been thinking about this since Saturday. I figured they would have been talking about that over at the vet school (and they had), but I wanted to be SURE they had. My thought was that maybe strictures are much more common than they think. Maybe they are the reason that Ureterotomies often have the complication of leaking afterwards, because if the blockage is somewhere else other than at the site of the stones, then removing the stones won’t fix the problem. Anyway, I think there are maybe about two people I know who find this interesting, but perhaps these thoughts will be of value to other pet owners and vets who may come across it in the future. Just more to think about.
The vet is calling me back tomorrow morning after her meeting with the nutritionist for the best recommendations of food for Jeep. I’m, of course, interested in the best, state of the art food for prevention of stones of all types for Jeep. As if Jeep weren’t spoiled enough, she’s going to now get the best care I can manage. At some point, I will have to say goodbye to her first, but I want to do all I can to make sure she lives a long happy life – as long and as happy as is possible for a cranky 12-year-old head-case of a feline!
By the way, I couldn’t have been happier with the care I got at the Vet Teaching Hospital. My vet and the student I worked with called me regularly, took the time to explain every part of the procedure to me, and even respected me in the conversation when I said, “OK. Enough. My head is full. No more anatomy for the day!” I’m so lucky to have them down the street. I could tell they liked Maggie (I mean, she’s awesome, so no surprise there!) and that they really felt awful that they were unable to save her. But it wasn’t for lack of trying.
As I share about this stuff, I’m going to keep including the donation link – at least until I hit about $2,000. I think the grand total is about $4,600. I’ll find out for sure tomorrow. They are doing an audit to make sure all the charges are accurate. So far, I’ve raised $1,025. Yes, I have RIDICULOUSLY awesome friends, many of whom are animal lovers.
