Fingers Crossed!

It’s been one of the longest weeks of my life, and it’s still not over…

Just after my last post we had to take Pepe our first son, and Schnauzer back to the Vet for an ultrasound on his liver, as he had been having some incontinence problems from the rear end, unfortunately the morning of the Ultrasound, I had been out, and on my return, Pepe ran to greet the car, and Marcela says, as he went up the steps, he went down.

So we went for the ultrasound appointment early, the Vet said he didn’t think it was the hip but his knee, and he would have it X-rayed as the same time. The process here is somewhat complicated, unless it is a big chain of Vets, most don’t have their own equipment, another Specialist does the rounds, with his/her equipment in suitcases.

Pepe had his Ultrasound and X-rays, and then we were given one piece of bad news after another. The worst being that Pepe has cancer, the Ultrasound seemed to show that Pepe has the cancer in his spleen and his liver, but the Vet isn’t convinced, and wants exploratory surgery to confirm. If the cancer is just in his spleen, they can remove it, and hopefully that will stop or slow the process, but if it’s in his liver, like humans, its terminal. So Pepe goes for the surgery this afternoon.

Now all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.

As for Pepe’s leg, potentially it is just as bad, because, he has damaged the cruciate ligament in his right knee, the same leg as his bad hip, he can’t put any weight on it, the Vet, says he may be able to get away without surgery, and only therapy, but… and it’s a big but, the x-rays showed that his left back leg has elbow joint problems, the bones are not sitting correctly, and the pressure of taking all his weight on the one back leg, could cause that to collapse, if both go at the same time, it’s probably terminal.

Nothing is being done, with his legs until after the exploratory surgery, as if that wasn’t enough, he also has a bladder stone, but as I have told the Vet, it is causing no discomfort at the moment, he is urinating fine, no traces of blood, so if the cancer tests are terminal, then I wont have the stone removed, if they remove the spleen, in so doing removing the cancer, then remove the stone, the Vet is in agreement.

Whatever the outcome today, Pepe needs his right leg seeing to, he is in pain with that, and walking for the most part on three legs, spending most of the day resting, fortunately, he is eating well, and doing all his bodily functions, so we can but hope.

As for me, I went for my Hip Protesis Revision in Medellin the other day, the Specialist is happy with the Hip, but not with the Surgeon who caused the muscle damage when doing the knee block in May, she has given me a list of exercises to do, and I will start them once we have Pepe sorted.

The Specialist also believes the decision by my Orthopaedic Surgeon not to replace my knee, is questionable, she stated it is one view, but now there are Surgeons, who do a partial knee replacement, there are three components to the knee joint, and any one can now be replaced, although there are a limited number of Surgeons able to do the procedure in Colombia, one of her Colleagues does them, and she has referred me to him for evaluation, to see if it would help, my appointment?… Christmas week! thanks a bunch.

I decided it was time for some in house upgrades, the wardrobes in our bedroom, and the guestroom, were DIY jobs, not very professional, but they functioned, since Marcela has a dressing room, I have this small space

This photo is the guestroom, come Marcela’s Gym! however with the changes of climate here, mildew has been a big problem, I started by installing airvents to the outside in both bedrooms, but this didn’t work, it helped when we left all the doors open, but in no way did it solve the problem. I then bought small electric dehumidifiers, and they have made a big difference, they draw so much water, I have to empty them every three days, but the doors still needed to be left open, this was both unsightly, and dusty.

So two days ago, I removed the doors

filled all the hinge screw holes, then painted the frame, with two coats of undercoat, and one of topcoat

It certainly brightened up the room, I painted the draw fronts with the blue chalk paint, I used for the Mother-in-law, and we bought curtains to front the wardrobe, it looks a lot better, and allows air to circulate.

That’s our room done, now for the Guestroom.

Time to wrap up, before you all fall asleep, keep your fingers crossed for Pepe, poor lad he has no idea what’s going on.