Thanks so much @Peri @Bow @outlander @Anastasia @BlueBay 😊💞🙏
and also for info @Eve7 @greenpea @NatureLover @WIP @Owlunar @Snowie
Yes Peri, our furbabies can be such a worry cant they, but there again I would never chose to be without them either. They do indeed enrich our lives. Your little Suzie sounds gorgeous and poodles are such intelligent little dogs too. And yes, although I have Holly now, I still miss her predecessors ... Tammie, Abbie and Bessie. Each time I have another dog, I think I could never replace my last dog. And of course you cant, they are not replacements. They are each unique and each just as special as the last. I think I just seem to love each one just a little more, if thats possible. Or maybe I'm just becoming more needy?
Anyway there is good news, I am very relieved to tell you. The increasing swelling in Hollys neck is not a rapid regrowth of the benign tumur the vet removed, as I had feared. I had been catastrophising ... thinking the worst ... perhaps because so often it seems the worst is what happens in my life.
The vet checked her over and said the wounds were healing well, and she was looking good. The swelling he said is fluid buildup, or a seroma. Seroma's can look and feel just like a cyst or tumour, which it does. This swelling is common after extensive surgery where tissue is removed. Same for humans too. It can build up some days after surgery or up to a couple of weeks after. Normally a drainage tube would have been inserted into the wound to drain the fluid as it builds up. But he said he wasnt able to do that because it would have been right up against the jugular vein and could have done damage. The fluid should slowly be reabsorbed back into the bloodstream over the next month or so. So I came away feeling a flood of relief and much lighter in mood.
It has been a busy week Peri, and another busy week ahead next week ... exercise class, oncologist and psychologist. Then Holly back to the vet for suture removal on Thursday. He suggested we leave the stitches until then, rather than Monday as originally scheduled.
I had a fairly quiet weekend planned, but it appears now that my sister might pay us a visit tomorrow. She and her husband live some 6 hours away, but they have friends 2 hours to our South. They are staying with friends there for a couple of nights. My sister has said she might drive up for a day visit. That would be nice ... I can handle my sister for a day. Much more than that ... we tend to clash.
I just got off the phone to a radiotherapy nurse from the hospital. They said last week that they would call and check in on me one day this week. I'd forgotten about it. I explained about the skin reactions and the general internal soreness. She said I was still pretty much in the peak period where side effects are at their worst right now. But that I should start to see some improvement from now on, and to keep up the ointment and moisturiser routine. The internal flesh soreness is from an inflamatory reaction to the radiation as well as nerve damage from it.
I very much value the support I have here, as well as the very real sense of friendship I get from many members here.
@Anastasia ... I have given some thought to your question about how best to support me during difficult times. But I will write separately on that.
Emelia 🤗💞🐶
