As of this afternoon, there was not a Christmas tree set up and decorated at my house. I remember as a child having the best time stringing lights around the tree, putting on the ornaments (one for each year since I was born), and setting up all the other house decorations. It would be a weekend event in my house, usually about three weeks before Christmas.
As my siblings and I grew older, leaving the house one by one, the time that the Christmas tree was resurrected each year was pushed back ever closer to December 25th. In recent years, with my younger sister and I both in different states, and my brother not really interested in the situation at all, the once integral part of the holiday season celebration has lost its importance. When I came home from work tonight, there was a small, humbly decorated, artificial tree, maybe three feet in height, standing tall on top of a cabinet.
Apparently, there were other people decorating Christmas trees today. "Buddy" presented early in the afternoon at the emergency clinic. From his boisterous level of energy and happiness, I never would have guessed anything was wrong with him. I was never directly involved with the case, but I followed it, just the same. "Buddy" was enjoying the Christmas tree decorating so much that he decided to snack on some of the decorations, namely a long string of popcorn. A few pieces of popcorn might not have been a problem. The culprits of "Buddy's" problem were the string and the needle at one end of said string.
The needle plainly showed up on the radiographs. There was no questioning that the dog had ate the Christmas decorations. I guess he thought he was helping in some way. Or perhaps the taste of the popcorn was just too much to bear, and he couldn't resist the buttery, salty, yet sweet, goodness. It must have been the movie theater butter kind. Who really knows what any dog thinks before they chew on something they should not. Whatever they are thinking, the owner is usually thinking, "Oh, no!!" It might taste yummy for the pet, but the owner may have a bad taste in his mouth after seeing the bill.
The doctor attending to the case decided that the best approach would be endoscopy. The endoscope is a long tube that allows the doctor to visualize the inside of a hollow organ, in this case, the stomach. A little grasping instrument is attached to one end to retrieve the string. Two of the other techs were with that doctor, while I was in the main treatment area, dealing with other things. An hour passed. Another half hour. For whatever reason, the doctor couldn't grab the string. With the dog still under general anesthesia, she came out of the surgery suite and added the necessary charges to the estimate to do an abdominal exploratory surgery. After some reluctance, the owner agreed, knowing it was the best option for "Buddy." If the string wouldn't come out the easy way, it would come out the this way.
That was the plan anyway.
Another hour into the surgery, and the dog was being wheeled back out of surgery and into the radiology room. The needle and string were elusive to say the least! The cliche phrase, "a needle in a haystack" is not really about haystacks, but about canine abdominal organs. A second set of radiographs gave the doctor a better idea where the string had migrated to in the abdomen. I am not sure, but I think that second set of radiographs was taken with the dog's abdomen still open. It would be hard to imagine that the doctor sutured it all back up, only to open it again a few moments later. With the new radiographs, the doctor was able to finally retrieve the string, about 4 feet long, with the needle still attached.
Meanwhile, with only one doctor to see new incoming patients, charts were getting backed up, and the stress levels were rising slowly, but steadily, and noticeably. Among the patients that passed through our exam rooms today, there were few that were uncomplicated. "Gigi" - the nine year old Yorkie in renal failure, on top of a pyometra. "Brandy" - the dog that was nearly torn in half with a laceration. "That One Pomeranian That Tried To Eat My Fingers" - with congestive heart failure. "Puppy" - an English bulldog puppy, only a week old, with congenital defects. There were plenty others that moved in and out through the six hour shift, but their names and details of their cases are just a blur right now.
When I left just after 8 p.m., "Buddy" was in right lateral recumbency, recovering in a heated cage, and probably wondering why his tummy felt like someone had ripped his insides out and shoved them back inside. Okay, so there was no "ripping out" involved, but I can imagine that any kind of abdominal surgery isn't comfortable. Although I'm not working tomorrow, I think I might call just to see how he's doing, just to satisfy my own curiosity. At the end of the day, I suppose the lesson learned, albeit a $2,000 plus lesson, is to keep a mindful eye on your dog when decorating the Christmas tree. The decorations are not edible! Stick to Christmas cookies, as long as you're not a dog.
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