Patchwork Pup

Betty, our warrior puppy, has had her big surgery and, as of today, has left the hospital!

On Monday, she had her laryngectomy and myectomy - officially separating her trachea and esophagus such that she now breathes through a small hole in her neck, thereby eliminating the constant risk of aspiration.

The surgery took about 4 hours and involved 4 different surgeons, three otolaryngologists from UC Davis School of Medicine (MDs) - led by Dr. Peter Belafsky, and one soft tissue veterinary surgeon from UC Davis Veterinary School of Medicine. Betty's two primary vets, Drs. Stanley Marks and Tarini Ullal, were also in the OR. A neurology team helped to do intraoperative muscle testing to look for evidence of muscle dysfunction throught her throat/neck. The only muscle that was abnormal was her cricopharyngeus, the exact muscle removed as a part of her myectomy. The absence of other muscle abnormalities is reassuring to me, since it further suggests that this might be a localized problem.

We will have additional results in the next 2 weeks as to what the tissues of her larynx look like after pathology review and that is likely to shed more light on exactly what caused this problems to begin with.

As far as her post-op recovery goes, she spent her first night in the ICU, being closely monitoring, particular for evidence of issues with her new stoma (the whole that allows her to breathe), trouble with controlling her secretions, etc. Yesterday, they restarted her tube feeds and she had no issues with regurgitation. Plus, her energy started to come back.

Today, she was raring to go, such that it was hard to get a good picture of her with her senior vet student, Jen. Quite a fan of freedom!

To promote her healing, her primary surgeon, Dr. Belafsky, and his wife, Angela, have generously agreed to help care for Betty at their home for the first part of this phase of the journey. After 1-2 weeks, we will try feeding her by mouth again and then she will have a repeat swallow study before deciding she is ready to return to Alaska.

She is soaking up lots of doggy and human snuggles:

Betty has been blessed by incredible medical care and has been surrounded by so much love. Watching her strong recovery over the past 2 days, I have a renewed sense of hope and am so excited to see the return of Betty's joyful, sweet nature.

* We are calling her a "patchwork pup" because of the various patches of hair missing her on legs, throat, etc. from all of her medical adventures thus far.