When Life Gives You Lemons...

everything stops.


This past week has been a doozy.  Our smallest, snuggly pomeranian had a very rough week.  I wish I could say that I was able to "roll with the punches" and "rise to the occasion" and any other phrase that might seem appropriate.  But instead, I was overcome with the commitment of being a "mom" and needing to put my "kid" first.  I put the rest of my life on the back burner to make sure that AP was in the best possible spot.


I must say that I could not have done the above without my wonderful husband.  He was able to do what I wasn't and rose to the occasion and got Arnold to the vet, comfortable, and diagnosed so that he could be set up for his Friday not-so-fun day.


In order to know what happened to Arnold we have to go back to before the wedding.  Arnold had an incident at the dog park that landed him at the emergency vet in a lot of pain.  Unfortunately during that trip, and a subsequent trip, they weren't able to pinpoint what was wrong with our little guy.  There was talk of a pinched nerve, rare diseases, and a handful of other scary thoughts.  Luckily none of these seemed to be the case and we carried on. Until last week.


During a normal night, Arnold was begging for food in the kitchen and I bumped into him.  That sent him into the familiar leg up, screaming fit we had witnessed a few times before.  Knowing that he has recovered without a hitch twice previously, we gave him some pain meds and headed to sleep.  12 hours later, he was worse for wear and another vet visit showed that he officially had a dislocated hip.  


Come to find out, the two previous events were the same but the hip popped back in.  This week, it stayed out (of course, the time we don't go to the vet immediately!).  After the aforementioned vet visit by Scott and Arnold it was determined that immediate surgery was the way to go and we got him in for the next day. 


This story is long enough already so I will spare you the details of the surgery.  If you are interested, he had a Femoral Head Ostectomy.  This procedure sounds HORRIFYING but I can assure you, our little guy is much happier than he was two days ago and is resting comfortably and even walking on the leg 1 day post-op.  

Arnold snuggling in, chicken leg and all.

A few other notes:

• This surgery was a blessing.  Come to find out, AP has a heart condition (congenital, very early stages, and common) that we now know about and can treat so it won't cause the little guy any problems for a long, long time.
• Arnold is actually a giant ball of fluff, not actually a giant pomeranian.  Who knew there was a body under all that fur?
• He looks like a pin cushion.  His leg, chest (for the heart ultrasound), front two legs (IVs), and other back leg (for a pain med patch) are all shaved.  I would be lying if I didn't say it was actually really endearing.  
• He is doing great.  Everything was completed according to plan and he is in a happy (and cozy) little spot.

So, while my work, work out, and social calendar are a bit jumbled, my littlest pomeranian is on the mend.  I am continuing to remind myself that this is all temporary and all of our lives will be back to normal in a few short weeks.  Sometimes it's good to drop the "other" stuff and just spend some time at home.  Or at least that is what I believe as I type this curled up to my two poms on a Saturday night while watching chick flicks!