The big day was Thursday !! The past day and a half have been ruff. Niko started to not act like himself after me and Tom came back from the church carnival. He was just mush, no smiles, and wouldn’t move. He wouldn’t eat. Niko normally eats like there’s no food in the house. It wasn’t until Thursday morning at about 1:30am when he woke us up to pee which he never does, did he start acting like himself.
The morning of his surgery he was running around to go for a ride. He was happy. At 8:30am Tom, Tom’s mom and me were at Central Connecticut Veterinary Hospital. Dr Taylor went over everything for his surgery and we said our good byes. Tom went back to work. Me and Celeste stayed at the hospital. Especially after what happened with the first surgery, no one was making me move. Celeste had same thought in her head. Niko is our boy and we weren’t leaving.
About 10:40, Dr. Taylor came out, the only thing going through our head was what happened now. Well our Niko wasn’t clotting like he was supposed. It was concerning to the doctors. On the extreme end it would have meant Niko wouldn’t survive the surgery. They decided to defrost the plasma and he would need a transfusion. His surgery would be further delayed another 2.5 hours.
All we could do was wait, the longest wait ever. It was 2:40 pm when we were told Niko would go in for his surgery.
Then it was more waiting. They told us it would be two hours. It was past 5pm when we were told he was out of surgery and safe. This was the second worst day in Celeste’s life. The first being when Tom decided to crack his head open playing gladiator in a trash can.
We got brought into the back room to see Dr. Taylor. When Dr Taylor came in she explained, how every second Thursday a board certified anesthesiologist is at North Haven. Our little boy was having his surgery the day she was there. She said Niko was amazing and did very well. They did end up removing 5 ribs. They had to remove part of his diaphragm because the tumor was attached to it. They were able to use some of his lower skin to close up his chest wall bc part of his chest wall had to be removed. They gave him blood during surgery because he was losing a bit more blood then they had hoped. After all those fears of him bleeding out, he made it. I asked dr. Taylor if he was breathing on his own. She said they took him off the ventilator before the surgery was over and he was breathing on his own. That’s my little boy!!
We asked Dr. Taylor if we could see him. He was out cold. It wasn’t an easy site to see him completely out. His eyes all glassed over and his tongue hanging out. He was alive and he made it through the surgery, that’s all that mattered in that moment.
We won’t have him home until Saturday at the earliest and Sunday at the latest. He’ll be at the hospital for the next 48 hours to make sure he does well and there’s no issue.
One of the worst 12 hours of all our lives just waiting at the hospital. I can’t wait to have him home. No large dog will be allowed near him bc he won’t have his ribs to protect his lungs. But he’s alive and he made it through and that’s the most important thing in the world. His primary tumor was removed.
Best damn new in the world came Friday August 12.. Niko was up walking and peeing .. He didn’t do this after the first surgery :)) BIG VICTORY !!
Denison Ohana 