Sleeping like a baby.......

Olive Update:  I'm so happy to announce that my little Olive has survived her awful and frightening week!!!!

Just to recap: (in Justin's words...from an email he had sent to his brother (they tend to talk "medical" )

Olive spent 3 days is the animal hospital . 
On Monday she started to throw up and didn't stop. Even if she drank water she would throw it up so we portioned it out little bits at a time and waited for her to get better but called the vet to get in ASAP just in case. We had to wait until the next day at 4 pm. Within 24 hours she lost about 2 lbs (she only weighed 10 lbs when she was healthy). That’s about 20% of her body weight.   She was completely emaciated and weak. We caught her in the bathtub trying to lick the facet as it would drip. She was so thirsty but we knew if she drank too much she would throw up and become even more dehydrated. She threw up several more times throughout the night and I stayed up with her and attempted to give her moistened bits of bread but she refused to eat. When I picked her up she tried to bite. She has never bitten before so we knew she was in a ton of pain.

When the Vet first saw her she literally gasped and put her on fluids right away.

Our Vet is fantastic, we know her from Seville and I have done photos for her before so she gives us a little extra attention I think, at least we like to think that but she is just a great vet to everyone I am sure. She is pretty far away from us but very worth the drive. 

Blood draws revealed potassium levels were at critical levels but her heart function was still in good shape so we caught it in time obviously. X-rays showed there was a massive blockage found in her stomach (some type of foreign object and it was big). She was scheduled for surgery the next morning. In 2 hours surgery they removed a huge blockage from her stomach and had to make 6 additional incisions to various portions of her small intestine to remove more compacted material. The material seems to be bits of string and fabric from a fluffy blanket she loves to sleep on. That blanket is now in the trash and we are changing her bedding and toys to ensure this doesn't happen again. The vet says she could have had this in her for months and it all of the sudden just got stuck in the wrong place.

 Lucky there was very little necrotic tissue but they still had to remove 10mm of her small intestine. There were multiple bruises found in her intestine and they had to essentially unravel the intestines and straighten them out. Due to the extent of the damage and intensive surgery they removed an outer lining of her stomach and wrapped the intestines with it to help them heal. I forget what the doctor said it was but I guess it is rich in nutrients and regenerates itself readily so it will grow around the stomach again with no problems. The intestinal motility looked good after it was unraveled so it looks to be functional.

I was able to visit Olive the last night for about an hour and she was all doped up but looked very healthy (this was the sad photo listed below) in the face. Her ribs, spine and pelvic bone were still protruding out as they were when we brought her in but she literally has no body fat on her and has had no actual nutrients for days. They had her wrapped up in heavy blankets to maintain her body temperature. They also still had her on a potassium drip and her levels were stabilized at that point and her perfusion and capillary refill are where they should be. She was chuck full of antibiotics due to the surgery and of course, the fact that they had to cut her GI tact and expose the rest of her body to potential bacteria. They had her on some really strong pain meds so she was pretty out of it. She tried to make sounds every now and again but was still very weak.  She also has about a 3.5 inch suture on her abdomen.

Continued (in my words)
I would call the vet to check on her and they would tell me that she was very quiet and looked very sad.  Okay.. the worst thing they could tell me was that she looked "sad" ~ that broke my heart!!

Luckily the day following the big surgery... they felt it was okay to release Olive to come home!! 
The first night home was a little scary, but day after day she's getting stronger and stronger. 

The cutest thing is that I have dress her up in little night shirts so she doesn't lick her stitches....(she's the most darling lil patient ever!)

Thank you to everyone who cared enough to ask about her... I really appreciate it... and now I'm officially terrified to have "real children" :)