Skip to main content

Day 2 - Saturday 15 September - The operation


In the morning my mummy received a call from the hospital. They told her that everything was fine with me, but that I hadn’t eaten anything yet. The nurse once again said that is wasn’t certain if I would have surgery that day. She also told her that my family could visit me at 7 pm regardless and they would keep me up to date.

Around 3 pm my mummy received another phone call from the hospital (they’re sure good at keeping them informed!). It was the surgeon who had operated me and want to tell her how the operation went. He said everything went smoothly, without any complications and he was positive that I would make a full recovery. He had used a metal plate, pins, screws and metal thread to keep the bone together and said I would probably be able to go home at 7 pm after my family’s visit.

At 4 pm my family arrived at the hospital and were shown to one of the waiting rooms. Interestingly this room was adjacent to the OR and since the door was open my mother could look inside to see a man in a long blue coat operating on an animal. A nurse came and closed to door, and my family sat down to wait for someone to bring them to me. After about 20 minutes the man in the blue coat walked out of the OR towards the desk in the waiting room. He was followed on foot by a woman carrying a plastic cup with water in one hand and a can with diet coke in the other. She trusted both towards the man. “Here”, she said. “You need to drink both of these”. He accepted the cup of water, but rejected the diet coke. “If I drink more diet coke I won’t be able to sleep tonight”. He laughed as she scolded him and reminded him to stay hydrated.

My family watched the exchange and then continued talking about me. The man perked up. “Did someone say ‘Ruby’?” he asked. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is B. I’m the surgeon who operated Ruby.” He smiled. “I’m happy to inform you that the operation was successful and Ruby is recovering. Would you like to see the post-operation x-rays?” My family said they did, and he then proceeded to show them the pictures of my leg after the operation (see image) and explained in detail what he had done. He did not expect any complications. After my family thanked him and shook his hand, he left to go back to the OR. He had to move on to his next patient. As my family passed the door to the recovery room where I was, they could hear a can being opened. Guess doctor B wasn’t getting any sleep tonight…



The nurse finally took my family to the recovery room where I was sleeping in a recovery bench with a heated floor (to keep me warm post-operation). She let them open the cage so they could comfort me, since they said I found everything very ‘exciting’ (which is a nice euphemism for ‘scared out of her mind’). I was very drowsy, couldn’t open my eyes, and while she cuddled me I started purring softly. The nurse told my mummy that she could take me home, but she did not feel confident enough, so she asked if I could stay for another night. The nurse was perfectly fine with that and said: “Of course. It’s no trouble at all. In fact, that way we can enjoy her for another night, because she’s such a sweetheart!”


This gave my parents plenty of time to try and arrange a bench for me. Fortunately one of my mummy’s relatives, uncle H, has dogs and used to have a large German Shepard. Even though the Shepard passed away years ago, he and his wife hadn’t thrown the bench away. He brought the bench to my house and told us we were allowed to keep it as long as we needed it. Hopefully that won’t be longer than 4 – 6 weeks!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day 5 - Tuesday 18 September - There's no getting out!

I felt really good this morning. I could stand on my leg, could walk quite well, in fact. In fact, I decided it was time I left my safe haven and ventured into the real world again! I tentatively placed my two front legs outside of the bench and was about to venture forward by moving my hind legs when I felt a palm on my face, stopping me and preventing me from going outside. ~denieeeed~. I wasn’t that upset though, and just calmly went to lie down on my blanket. After some time, my mummy opened the door to cuddle with me and give me my food and medication. Today I saw my stepbrother Sirius again. I really missed him, and when he entered through the bedroom door, I laid down on my blanket and started purring. I even stretched my front paw out so he could touch it, but he just sniffed and jumped onto my bench! My mother was unsure whether she should let him near me or not, since I still smell a bit funny after spending a few days in the hospital. Eventually she decided to tr...

Day 7 - Thursday 20 September - Metallic scrunchies!

Today was a bit chillier than yesterday, so I felt a bit tired and lethargic. Because I wasn’t as alert as usual my mummy checked up on me because she was worried. She felt my ears and they didn’t feel as warm as usual, so she made me a hot water bottle and wrapped me in a towel. That perked me right up! I snuggled in the blanket practically the entire day.  Not the entire day though, since she got me a cat board for my kibblets! Doctor M recommended it to her. She said that her cats love it so much that she now uses it every day for all their dry food! My mother had high hopes for it since it was a board, and not a tower, which meant that I could see all the little kibblets lying there, just waiting for the grabbing…   At least, that was the idea! I didn’t feel really hungry today, perhaps because of the cold weather, so I didn’t feel like fishing for kibblets and gave up after half a minute or so to watch CatTV. There was one thing my mummy gave ...