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Sunday, July 18, 2010

I'm a surgeon now!

My friend's dog had a tumor hanging off of her face when I got here. It had been there for years and her vet, Dr. Minard of Elgin wanted so much money that she couldn't afford to have the tumor removed but the other day the poor thing got the tumor stuck on a part of her recliner and it ripped her lower eyelid, causing her to bleed a lot and the dog whined from the pain. We didn't want it to happen again so I told her to go get a clean razor blade for me to hack that sucker off with.

My friend went to the drug store and asked for a razor blade adding, "I need to slice something off of my dog's face." She went to get the razors and when she opened the cabinet that the razors were in, an alarm went off. I don't don't know why they couldn't have kept the blades behind the pharmacy counter but they didn't. Whatever.

I wanted the single edge and all the drug store had was double edge. The lady at the drug store told her to try the hardware store so she went to Ace Hardware. When she got there she asked for "the kind of blades you chop cocaine with." Her sense of humor is almost as bizarre as mine is...it's no wonder we've been friend for 40 years. I don't know what the hardware dude thought of her, but he told her where to get the blades so she grabbed a box and drove home quickly where I had been applying lidocaine to the dog's boo boo every few minutes.

While my friend was gone, I boiled gauze, tweezers, scissors and the braided floss in salt water so that I could begin the operation. I was ready and so was the dog.

I tied the floss around the stalk that the tumor was hanging from so that I could cut without letting the thing bleed. My friend held on to her dog and turned her head so she didn't have to watch and I picked up the razor blade and approached the tumor with it. For about a second, I hesitated from fear but seeing my friend with her head turned and the dog with the floss tied around the side of the tumor closest to the dog made me decide to just do it. So, I took the blade and sliced off the tumor. The dog didn't yelp a bit so I'm sure that what I did hurt her less than the original injury did. The sucker didn't bleed a bit (the injury bled a LOT). I applied a bit of antibiotic ointment to it and declared the operation over.

Today the boo boo is dried up and the dog is happy to shake her head without the tumor knocking her in the eye. She still seems to like me so I think I did a fine job. I feel good about what I did and I think the dog will be OK.

My friend thanked me but she needn't have...I owe her for taking me in without hesitating for a moment. Now...here are some pictures that you might not want to look at so consider yourself warned.

The orginal sore is what you see here after the surgery:



Here is the tumor itself:




3 Comments:

Blogger Peppermint Patty said...

All I will say is GROSS, but I'm a firm believer that if something is not meant to be on or in our bodies, GET RID OF IT!

You are my kind of friend. :)

July 18, 2010  
Anonymous Gib said...

Looks like a nice cat toy.

July 27, 2010  
Blogger Meg Kelso said...

Ooh! Great idea! Now all I need is a cat to give it to! Caryn's daughter put it in a jar so we still have it should we come across a cat with no toys!

July 27, 2010  

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