I didn’t go too overboard with too early an arrival like I easily could have. The 10:20am appointment seemed to crawl its way to its sticking point. Anyway, we showed up at 10:05am to a nice, warm smile from Autumn, then Dawn, then most of the others.
The Red Heeler(so I have come to understand better than well) is a heady, sensitive, highly intuitive, well mannered, socially conscious breed of canine, and the staff at Opthamology for Animals seem to know that as well as anybody else might. Quinn slowly pin-balled herself around the lobby taking handouts from any and all hands.
She weighed in at 50lbs, and I wasn’t surprised. Call it her surgery weight. The last several months I had been spoiling her rotten with all sorts of extras.
In came Dr. Gratzek. In a matter of seconds she put her helmet on her other helmet which went on her final helmet. That might be my only exaggeration in this book, but it makes my point best. She then reached for the blue laser instrument. She used the laser in each eye for about 15 seconds. She then waved her hand back and forth in front of Quinn’s face for another 5 seconds or so. Thirty seconds later, this was our conversation:
She: Do you think Quinn can see?
Me: Uhh, well, I would have to say not really, though she finds her way, but yes I would say she is totally blind, wouldn’t you agree, or can you explain the question and define what you mean by the word see?
She: Well quite often people in the seat you are sitting in right now tell me their dog is totally blind in both eyes, but that same dog can run in and out of every room in this office looking for whoever it might be they are looking for.
Me: Oh God no, Quinn could never do that! She probably couldn’t even find her way out of this room, let alone another one.
She: If there was a candle burning on the ground do you think Quinn would walk into it?
Me: Every single time!
She: Ok Aaron, I’m finding zero sensitivity to light in either eye. The pressures aren’t crazy high, no higher than they were five months ago. What she is dealing with now is a corneal ulcer, and that is why her left eye is swollen. It’s quite painful for her which is why she is keeping her eyes closed when possible.
Me: Uh. Yeah. Hmmm.
She: [seemingly shaking her head No] I can do surgery on the ulcer which will fix that problem but it won’t have any barring on her Glaucoma. Again, as you know, it’s not a matter of IF they will need to be removed, it’s a matter of when. I think now is the right time.
Me: I agree, let’s take them out.
She: I tell you what we can do. You can bring Quinn in at 8:45am on Thursday before the other animals scheduled that day for various surgeries. Dawn will be there and she is going to be the one that administers the Pre-Anesthesia. You can be there with Quinn as all this is going down, and as soon as she begins to feel the sedative, then we’ll take her into the surgery room and you can leave.
Me: Wow that sounds incredible, thank you!
She: And then we will call you..probably before 11am, and you can be right there for her as soon as we determine that she can stand on her own.
Me: OK great.
She: OK Aaron, don’t worry, she’ll do great. I probably won’t see you again until you return to have her stitches taken out in two weeks.
Me: OK, thank you so much for everything!
She: You’re welcome Aaron. Quinn will be fine. I should at least warn you that it might be hard to initially see her with her eyes sewed shut. It takes a little time to get used to.
Me: Actually, I don’t think I am going to be affected by it too much. The past three weeks or so she has spent most of the day with her eyes closed anyway.
She: Excellent, and take care.(handshake)
I felt good. It felt right. I was sure that I had prepared Dog and Me for exactly this time in both our lives. We were ready. Barbara Lawrence had been right. She had said all along that I should, and eventually will, be thankful, that I have had this past year to prepare myself for this very day.
I opened the sliding side door, and with the ever so slight brace & delay, coupled with a hint of command and encouragement, Dog blindly and courageously jumped up and into the van and made her way to shotgun.