Thank you for your positive vibes and prayers! I can feel your love surrounding me, and it gave Mom and Dad great comfort through this whole ordeal. My apologies they didn’t respond to your messages, but rest assured they are reading them all, and we are so grateful for your kindness.
So what happened? As you know on Wednesday I had surgery to remove a fungal infection in my nasal cavities, called Aspergillosis. The left side was a repeat of the procedure in September, and the right was a new infection. To treat the right side, a second hole had to be made in my skull to get the fungal cream inside. That surgery went well, and I left the animal hospital that evening tail wagging and oozing the medicine from my nose.
However, during the night the swelling in my head increased, causing my eye to bulge, and I was in a lot of pain. Back to the ER I went! Thankfully both my internal medicine doctor who did the surgery and my ophthalmologist were both working in the building that day. My eye doctor was able to assess me in the ER and determined that although the pressure in my eye was painfully high, the source of the complication was not coming from my eye. He theorized that something was behind my eye. Yet before that could be determined, the intense pain I was in had to be addressed. In addition to the eye pain, my face had swollen so much that my jaw couldn’t open. Let’s just say the ER vet put me on some good pain meds, that I can now check off “party like an ’80s rock star” on my up-and-coming rock star to-do list. But through it all, I kept my sweet and polite personality, and greeted everyone who helped me with a tail wag.
Once the pain was somewhat under control, a CT scan was done and the suspicions of my ophthalmologist were correct. Some of the cream injected into my head for the fungal infection took a wrong turn. Rather than it all going into my nasal cavity, some decided to take a scenic route and collected in a pocket behind my eye. Therefore a second surgery was required to remove this wayward fungal cream.
The surgeon, who happened to be the same one who did my emergency enucleation two years ago for GRPU, went in through the incision for the fungal treatment, followed the wrong path the cream took, and removed it. He also flushed it out as much as possible, and inserted a drain in my head to get anything that remained in there once the swelling goes down. Immediately following the surgery, he saw a “tremendous improvement” in the swelling around my head!
I wasn’t out of the woods yet though. The swelling continued to cause my eye to remain close, and the pressure in it remained high. However, I showed great overall improvement with the swelling in my face, that I was able to eat again! Another sign I was feeling better, I went from wincing when anyone touched my face, to cuddling up with my head on the ER staff’s laps, and letting them pet me. So it was decided to ween me off the rock star pain meds, and get me on something more manageable for sending me home. The same was done with my anti-inflammation medications, and my eyedrops were also adjusted.
By Saturday evening I was eating! And the drain in my head was doing its job! Best yet, I was able to walk to the exam room where Mom and Dad must have been waiting for me all those days. Although I vaguely recall it was a different room where I left them. Anyways, although looking very worse for wear, Dad said the drain in my head makes me look like a cyborg from Star Trek. I think that’s a compliment, but I’m not sure. Regardless, I was starting to feel like myself again, and my happy personality returned! So everyone breathed a big sigh of relief when it was determined I was good to go home!
Where do I go from here? Although overall the swelling has gone down, my eye is still swollen shut. It won’t be until the swelling improves that we’ll know for certain what damage, if any, was done to my eye. The ER doctor is optimistic that when I return to have the drain removed on Tuesday, the swelling will really improve once it is out, and hopefully I’ll be able to open my eye soon. But yes, this does mean I can’t see at the moment. Don’t worry! I’m not scared! As you may recall due to my Golden Retriever Pigmentary Uveitis, the vision in my right eye hasn’t been good for a while. So although I gently bump into things now, I happily smile and go a different way, as I maneuver around my living room and kitchen. The fact I’m confidently walking around only occasionally being guided by Mom and Dad’s voices, brings us all comfort. Hopefully after getting the drain removed on Tuesday, which happens to be my birthday, enough of the swelling will have gone down for my ophthalmologist to make an assessment after the Thanksgiving holiday. So please keep those prayers and good vibes coming!
Oh and in case you’re all wondering about the original surgery for the fungal infection that triggered this series of unfortunate events, my nose cannon is draining on both sides! I am an oozing mess! The surgeon also verified when he was in there cleaning me up that a substantial amount of the anti-fungal cream remained in the right nasal cavity. So paws crossed the fungus got the message and is packing up and leaving!
