Stitches out, starting chemo today (Surgery Day Plus 17)

Darby got her stitches out two days ago.  We had kept an inflatable collar on her for most of the past two weeks, so she didn’t irritate the incision site, and it had healed very nicely.  We took it off that morning, and the site doesn’t seem to bother Darby at all.

The oncologist wanted to start chemo that day, but I was skittish.  I wasn’t impressed with Darby’s behavior then, and thought it might be better to start chemo when she was more “normal.”  The vet said that, at that point, 15 days after surgery, she shouldn’t be in pain anymore.  I guess a lot of healing can happen in that second week after surgery!  We discussed the unusual behavior I noted in my previous post, and agreed that her lethargy and trouble walking could be  due to being over-medicated on the gabapentin.  The vet suggested we could stop that cold turkey.  So we did that yesterday, and Darby is much better!  I even took her for a couple of short walks yesterday around our cul-de-sac.  She seemed raring to go; the only puzzling thing I saw was that she wanted to run the whole way, straining at the leash a little.  I wasn’t sure if this was exhilaration, or if it’s just easier for her to run than walk.  But she’s sleeping less, and doing more normal things like barking at passersby, so we’re encouraged.

My husband and I disagreed over when to start chemo.  I wanted to wait a week, to get the gabapentin out of her system and allow her to normalize a little.  My husband agreed with the vet, who was concerned that any delay in  starting chemo was an increased risk of cancer spreading.  I relented, since Darby seemed to have such a good day yesterday.  All systems ahead!