Scheduling Surgery

We had a 9:00 a.m. veterinarian appointment with Riley this morning, to be examined by the younger brother of the original veterinarian whose services we first began with over twenty years ago. The older brother has long since retired from active practise and busies himself with the administration of their jointly-owned-and-operated veterinarian clinic which also employs other veterinarians along with a host of support personnel; technicians and office staff.

This was my first venture into their new building. They had long operated out of a building that was once a one-story family dwelling converted into a veterinarian clinic with a main reception area and small examining rooms radiating off that main area, and laboratories installed in the basement portion. We knew that they had been trying for years to buy the two residential properties on either side of them, one of which had been priced reasonably, the other at a colossal sum. They themselves occupied a low-rise hilltop corner of a major traffic intersection. They needed more room for parking, and plans extended to building an entire new facility to exist alongside the old one.

Finally, they were able to proceed with the property purchases, tore down the old dwellings that had long stood on them before the area had been built up and the roads become a major artery, and construction began. It was completed in the spring, and while my husband had been there several times, this was my first time. Off the main reception area of the new facility there was a large 'store' selling pet-related merchandise. And off the main corridor a web of examining rooms spun off.

There was a steady stream of people with their dogs coming through in the time we were there. A three-year-old boxer, full of nervous energy, one of the tallest greyhounds we'd ever seen, a few yellow Labrador retrievers, a shy but friendly five-month old Australian shepherd, and a six-week-old fluffball of a rolly-polly large breed that might have been a Bernese Mountain dog, kept on a leash, frantically foraging around the floor, scrubbing about under chairs and between peoples' feet, and constantly falling over its own uncertain paws. An emotional tonic for whatever ails you.

We spoke at length with our old friend, the veterinarian who knows us well after all these years and recalls amazingly well, given the huge numbers of people and their beloved pets that he sees, the details about our two companions, Button and Riley. Riley's lipomas have grown alarmingly over the past few months, and they have extended and multiplied as well. From the baseball-sized one located on his right hip to the others extending under his stomach, they are frightening to us. Their presence hasn't hampered his movement or caused him any discernible discomfort.

His skin stretched taut over the hip-located lipoma is now bare of hair, and I am careful to try to ensure that the area is covered when he is out lying in the sun as he so loves to do when it isn't too hot out. Their presence and continued growth is dreadfully unsettling. Neither of us wanted to submit him to surgery again; it has been almost seven years since the original surgery to remove a similarly-baseball-sized lipoma that had grown under his right-side stomach area.

The vet checked his vital signs and all is well; he is strong and healthy for a thirteen-year-old Toy poodle. He isn't overweight and that's a sign in his favour. We discussed the details of another surgery for which a veterinarian surgeon specializing in lipoma removal comes in on a regular basis for that purpose, to the clinic. We will make that decision, pro or con in the next week or so, and in a month or so surgery can be scheduled.