Casa LaPan, Infirmary style

Step 1 of getting my training buddies back started with sending my precious baby boy Baxter into the vet for surgery yesterday. I knew he would be ok, but this is the 3rd time we've had him in for mass removals in the past few years, and it just breaks my heart to see him like this. Thankfully, Shane was able to play doggy dad taxi and took him in the am so I could get my long bike ride for the week done, and then he picked him up as well because I just tear up seeing my boy hurt.

Some dogs are prone to these fatty masses growing on their bodies, and while for the most part Baxter is about as healthy as they come he does have these annoying "bumps" that just keep growing. The last time we did the surgery he was in a LOT of pain. He had one of the masses growing around his elbow/shoulder area so he was limping around a lot and reeking havoc on his running.

And, in the LaPan house having a runner on the injured list is NO bueno. Especially when you have 4 legs and running is almost higher on the list than peanut butter.

yes, my dog and i have THAT in common as well.

The last surgery recovery was rough on all of us. The tenderness from the location of the mass took a long time to fully recover and while his heart was 100% ready to roll after about 2 weeks 2 days you could tell he was faking his perfect stride and would limp around when he thought we weren't looking. Yes, he's good like that. But, so is this obsessive dog mom.

Finally about a month later he seemed to be back to normal, and somehow my house still standing. We built his running mileage back up to about 15 or so miles per week, capping it with a 6mile long run. It was fantastic, he was running so much stronger and for the first time in a LONG time no limping.

Covered under the wellness plan we have the dogs on is a dental. Aside from the monthly fee I pay, everything for that procedure is covered including anesthesia. It's the perfect time to have the masses removed with out crazy expenses.

Just so happens that his dental was due, AND my other training partner and hubby had scheduled his surgery as well. Without going into any personal details about S's surgery, to summarize he too will be having some "masses" removed that have been causing significant pain and making it impossible for him to bike, and almost impossible for him to run.

The recovery plan (as he's been told) is about 1month (similar to what I'm expecting for Baxter) for full recovery. Seems pretty reasonable considering he's been basically out of commission since November/December. So, what's one more month?

Thankfully, for the LaPan family it wasn't the dogmom out this time, cause I'm not sure if ANY of us could handle THAT again.

I'm not sure if it was my smartest idea, but I made the decision if I was going to have one LaPan down and out, I might as well get them both fixed up at the same time? I'll let you know how good this idea was in a couple of days.

So, Shane goes in for his surgery tomorrow and my hope is they can have some boy bonding time watching movies and popping pills together :-) And, at the very least hopefully they can keep each other company as they rest, recover and in several weeks start the road to recovery and building up their mileage TOGETHER.

Baxter's worst night is over. He spent all of yesterday shaking as he came down from the anesthesia. We bottle fed him water (out of the fuel belt bottle, of course :-)) and I made him rice to go easy on his belly and teeth. I slept with him on the couch until about 2am when the drugs must have worn off and he jumped up and b-lined for our bed. He's moving around MUCH better now, but I have to keep a constant watch on him to stop him from licking the stitches (~35 total) and ending up as a cone head (I just CAN'T do that to him).

Baxter is one tough dude. I guarantee you by the end of the week he's going to be begging me to take him out for a run. In so many ways this boy is JUST like me ("I'm fine, really let's go RUN"). As another blogger friend mentioned in a recent post, he is my soulmate.

If I'm being honest I think these surgeries and recoveries are a whole heck of a lot tougher on the dogmom than the actual dog, but I know in the end it will be worth it and he, along with his dogdad will be out on the road in no time kicking my butt again!

I promise S I won't post any sad, drugged up pics of him post op…but I might have a funny story or 2 to share, we'll see :-)

Please keep the good recovery vibes coming for both of my babies boys:-)