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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!


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