Thank you, everyone, for your very supportive notes, thoughts, and wishes. We can't tell you how much we appreciate each and every one of them.
Lulu underwent surgery yesterday and we picked her up from the vet at about 6:00pm. The torture of waiting all day for the call that she was out of surgery and okay was difficult, and we were so relieved when we spoke to our vet and she told us how great Lulu was doing.
Before Lulu was discharged we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some necessary supplies. Unfortunately, it seems the extreme weather around the country has impacted the delivery of their food shipments, leaving the grocery store looking a little sparse. You're in luck if all you were shopping for was avocados and a bag of banana chips.
We were able to scare up enough of what we needed, in spite of the reduced selection, and Wendy cooked up a bunch of mashed sweet potatoes for Lulu. We picked up a few other great snacks for her, like salmon and carrots. Then we eagerly headed to the vet to pick up our patient and bring her home. She was drugged, but still rather enthusiastic to be leaving the vet, as you can probably imagine. In fact, as soon as they brought her out she started galloping wildly and pulling towards us. So much for keeping her calm and still!
Lulu's incision and stitches are massive given the tiny little bump, but the goal with the surgery is to get sufficient margins to hopefully prevent a recurrence, so the scar is always much larger than the tumor. As you can see, she'll have some good stories to go along with this scar.
Lulu slept pretty much through the night (unlike her parents), and today is resting comfortably. She's a little loopy, but at the same time, a bit too bouncy for her own good. I think she's feeling great, overall. We're doing our best to keep her from running up and down the stairs, chasing Mel, jumping on the couch, etc., but it's a difficult thing with our puppy that enjoys climbing trees and chasing squirrels.
We have a few days to wait for the biopsy results that will tell us the grading of the tumor. From that point we'll be able to determine our best course of action in future treatment. Until then we'll just be keeping her calm and showering her with our affection. Who are we kidding? The only change is that we're trying to keep her calm. Our affection is always a given.