Needed: Healing Energy & Positive Thoughts

This week was supposed to be a week where I could relax and do things around the house. I had grandioso plans. I have a few walls that need to be painted, and I have my flower gardens to clean out. Of course Kenzie was a thought as well. All your comments really helped. I decided that I would go ahead and see if we could "try her" here at our house. I was going to call Shirley and arrange to get her, but that little nagging voice kept telling me to wait...I stopped listening to that voice and decided to make the phone call, and I'm not kidding, just as I was going to make the call, the phone rang and it was my vet...

Hamlet as you may recall is a senior boy that came to us as a foster dog via the rescue last fall and we later adopted. He was left in a garage of a home that had been foreclosed on. You can read his story here: http://lifeatgoldenpines.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-addition.html

Hamlet had a rather large lipoma on his shoulder when he came to us--You can kind of see it on the above picture. For those who may not know, a lipoma is a benign fatty growth. We had it aspirated to see if there was anything suspicious about the lump, and there wasn't, it was just big...However, over the last couple of months its grown and gotten tighter within the tissue of his shoulder; and about 2 weeks ago, it became infected. We hoped that 2 antibiotics would do the trick to get rid of the infection but it hasn't. My vet felt that Hamlet needed to see a surgeon about having it removed. (She wasn't comfortable doing it because of its size and location) I really don't like the idea of putting any dog under anesthesia, let alone one that is 13-14 years old, but there's really not any other choice.

I took Hamlet for a consultation on Wednesday. The first surgeon (recommended by my vet) listened to all of my concerns reassured me that it could be done safely, and gave me a quote for a little more than $3000 (£1950) needless to say I was a bit overwhelmed by that amount. I called a 2nd surgeon who happens to be one that I know from my time as president of the rescue. Dr. Walker, did all of our orthopedic surgeries for the rescue, (including my boy Josh and Maguire) and gave a very generous discount. I took Hamlet to see him in hopes that "maybe" he would be a little less expensive. We had the same discussion as I did with the first surgeon, and then we discussed the money. I showed him what my quote was from the first office and he told me he would do it for half. Needless to say, I was again overwhelmed, but this time by generosity! He told me that because I'd taken in Hamlet and so many other dogs, he wanted too.

Hamlet's surgery is scheduled for this afternoon. It goes without saying that I am really worried about him having such a tricky surgery at his age. So, I hope you'll send healing energy and positive thoughts for him that all will go well.

Finally where does this leave us with Kenzie?? Right now in the same place, because Hamlet has to be a priority. But maybe, just maybe I'll make that phone call and that'll change...