Text Box: We had a lot of complications with the catheter as my veins are all blown from all the surgeries I had. Mom had to take me back to Dr. Rick on several occasions because the catheter would slip out or she could not inject the medicine. After the third return to Dr. Rick he gave Mom a bag of saline mixed with heporin so that Mom could flush out my catheter every four hours so it would not get clogged up. Flushing my catheter out every four hours made things a lot easier on Mom as she was able to give my injection through the catheter with ease. Boy I hated that! I even got so impatient at times that I would pull my leg away while she was trying to give me my medicine and if that didn’t work I would start biting her arm and wrists. She was not a happy camper when I did that and I know all she was trying to do was to make me better and I just made it harder for her. I’m not too proud of myself for that but, man that was not fun to go through! Okay, I am now reaching out to my friends and supporters to see if they can donate to help me a little more so that I can finish up my surgeries and be as normal as I possibly can. The 30 Collies in Mom’s care uses up most of her regular funds especially the older Collies in her sanctuary and I am no exception and need that special care. To date, my surgeries have exceeded $19,000., in medical expenses, with not knowing how much more Mom will incur to take care of me. Donations of close to $8,000., from hundreds of my caring friends stopped coming in as of April. Due to my most extensive of all surgeries back in March, with my stay of almost two and one-half months, all my donations are now gone as that stay cost over $8,000. Since April, Mom has been paying for all my surgeries and medicine all by herself along with taking care of the other Collies. One of her senior rescues became very sick and was rushed to Dr. Rick late one night because he had a twisted stomach and needed surgery really fast so that he would not die. While Dr. Rick was doing the surgery he also found that he had a hernia so he repaired that and neutered him too Boy, I’m real glad I didn’t have to go through that, sounds like it really hurt! Anyway, Mom’s expenses have gotten way out of hand and I know she is worried. When Mom took me in a year ago last October, I became her responsibility and she keeps taking care of me even though I know expenses for my surgeries have put a great burden on her especially when I develop those nasty bugs in my nose. If you guys can donate once again out of the goodness of your heart to help me get those surgeries to try to make me whole again, I would be very grateful and I know Mom would really appreciate any help she receives. One of my donators who was so generous to me last year has donated generously again this past week, so that will be a start for these other planned on surgeries. Mom drove me to MSU yesterday, January 5, 2005, so that Dr. Shores could examine me and start a course of action for these other surgeries. Unfortunately, Dr. Shores was tied up in a real complicated surgery so he could not visit me yesterday so one of my other surgeons looked at me. After about one and one-half hours of examining me he went to talk to Mom and he told her that I would need one to three more surgeries to pull my cheek area down over my gum again since the previous surgery to accomplish this did not work. Anyway, instead of using the tissue extenders for now, they are going to try to take more flaps and extend my cheek area down over my gum. They also found a hole in my gum which covers my upper canine and this makes me prone to infections. They are planning to take yet another flap to cover this hole up. At this point the surgeons are not concerned but told Mom to keep a close eye on it. They will consider tissue extenders again only as a last resort. Before they go to this last resort, they will consider removing my canine so that there will be more tissue available to pull down but, they are not to keen on that idea either. They are just going to have to see how each surgery progresses.

©   2005 Collie Rescue of Mississippi

Last updated 1/06/2005

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January 6, 2005 Update Continued