Vet Stem: Surgical Procedure - Fat Extraction

Tuesday was my surgery day. I had been on IV until just before we left the house. We arrived at MY clinic around 10 o'clock in the morning.

Upon entering the clinic, I did my usual "Miss Sunshade is in da house" announcement. My Auntie Janice greeted me, then she gave me a shot in my MUSCLE BUTT...... She said it was the pre-med to get me a bit sedated. (mum: a dog will tend to wake up in the state they went under in. Preferably, you want a dog to wake up calmly from the anesthetic especially if they have just had surgery. So a sedative is given to make the dog sleepy before the induction).

Mum took me for a short walk because I hadn't done my #2 yet. I do NOT like to poo in my yard, and since I had been on IV for the last 20 hours, I was not able to go on walks.


I did my SuperPOO and then I started to get a bit wonky, so we headed back to my clinic.


Then I was given the induction and I fell asleep...... The following was told to me by mum.

Auntie Janice started to intubate me,


Intubated,


Hooked up to oxygen and isoflurane gas to keep me anesthetized. Auntie Janice prepped my belly for the tummy tuck, while Auntie Jen got the blood pressure monitor ready,


I was moved into the surgery room,


Auntie Janice put on her surgical scrubs and prepped me,


All ready to start,


This is a video of my fat extraction surgery (I'm ALL muscle, like they're gonna find any fat on me!!). However, due to the graphic nature of the video, you may want to skip the video. I will summarize the entire surgery in the pictures below.

First incision was made. Auntie Janice uses laser for her surgeries instead of a scalpel because it causes less pain, less bleeding, less swelling, less chance of infection, and faster recovery period.


According to mum and Auntie Janice, that's my fat she's holding. Its hard to believe they actually found some,


(mum: Sunshade weighed 75 lbs today. She should be between 63-65 lbs... and no, we did not extract 10 pounds worth of fat out of her unfortunately LOL)

After the extraction. That's *ahem* my "oil" on the surgical sheet...


All closed up! Bootiful job done by Auntie Janice,


See that area around my tummy where its wet looking? Well mum petted me there to tell me I was a goooooood gurrrrrrl,


And well, what can I say, mum has always had super dry hands, so I thought I would take care of her you know?? (yes, I'm always looking out for my mum, even when I'm out cold) (mum: that's the "oil" from Miss Sunshade's fat fat...hehe!)


I'm thinking about starting my own line of moisturizers. What do you think?

(mum: Please don't be disgusting Sunshade, you're going on a DIET as soon as you've recovered!)

This is my Auntie Jen, proudly posing with my "happy fat" that's all packaged in the box, ready to be shipped to Vet-Stem lab in California,


The FedEx guy showed up to take my happy fat away!


Technically, that was the end of the surgical procedure for Vet-Stem.

However, this was not the end of my day.....


You see that radio-opaque object?? Well that's in my stomach. A year ago, when we took x-rays of my sore back, we saw something in my stomach. Mum and Auntie Janice opted to not do surgery then because we didn't know how long it had been in there, and it didn't seem to be causing me any problem. I should mention, I had not had x-rays of my back/abdomen taken for about 7 years prior to this discovery.

Since I was already going to be put under for the Vet-Stem procedure, Auntie Janice and mum decided that we should try and get the object out too today. Can you tell what it is??


Instead of making a cut into my stomach to get the object, Auntie Janice got another vet who had an endoscope to come in to try and scope the object out. Reasons being, one, it is less invasive and easier recovery for me, and two, we don't want to risk wasting any stem cells to the stomach cut. Remember in my previous introductory post regarding stem cells, we talked about how they travel to the site of trauma to try to repair damage? Well we want those stem cells that we get back from the lab to go to my sore joints and spine and not to a stomach cut!


This is Eugene, the endoscopy vet. He is Russian, and his beard is as long as mine! Getting the endoscope ready,


My jaws were jacked open while Eugene put the black tube all the way into my stomach (boy am I glad I was under!). This tube filled my stomach with aire so he could see the object in my stomach clearly,


Digging around while Auntie Janice keeps my esophagus open, and Auntie Jen makes sure my blood pressure was all good,


While Eugene was working on getting the object out, Auntie Janice used her new laser toy on me to help with faster healing,



OH! I think he got something! The black tube turned into a vacuum and suctioned onto the object,


And pulled it out! It's a ROCKIE!!! (and some plastic that would have passed on its own)


This video was taken after the rockie was taken out. Mum was so worried that Dr. Eugene may not be able to get it, she totally forgot to do anything with the camera while the rockie was being extracted. (mum: it was rather hard for me to watch him pushing and jerking the rod that's INSIDE Sunshade around like that. But I guess that's how you work the endoscope......)

Mum and I play a rock throwing game at the beach where mum would throw rocks into the water, and I try to catch them. Of course, mum tries to throw them so that it would be impossible for me to catch. Unfortunately, nothing is impossible for me.

I remember this particular time, mum picked up a rockie and said something about how cute the rockie was because it was heart shaped. So I told myself I MUST catch the rockie so mum could keep it. Well, I did more than just catching it. I caught it, and it went straight down into my SuperSTOMACH! That's one way of keeping it for mum!!

I love you mum! Here is the pressie that I had been keeping for you, its the heart-shaped ROCKIE!!! Don't lose it ok? Its worth $400 Cdn!


(mum: Sunshade likes rocks, but I have never seen her "eat" them. She would carry them around but always spits them out. This must have been an accident where she caught it when she was excited and it just went down. My girl doesn't eat rocks!!!!!!! Or plastic.... sigh....)

After the successful rockie extraction, I was moved onto the X-ray table,



Since there are certain positions that are impossible for me to get into unless I was under, this was a good time to take x-rays of me in those positions. My lower back and hips,


My neck,


X-ray of my neck and skull,


Mum didn't get a picture of my lower back/hips, but according to Auntie Janice, I got good hips, but the space between my L6-L7 vertebrates seemed to be compressed. (mum: that could be the source of her neuro issues...)

Finally, I was all done! Disconnected from the anesthetic machine, and about to wake up,


The moment I woke up! With my Auntie Janice and Auntie Jen by my side!!


Mum brought my blankie, and sat with me while I was waking up. Auntie Janice took the picture for us!


My face was squished against mum's leggie, and my eyes weren't focusing yet,


I got a little cold despite the warm bean bags Auntie Jen put around me, so mum covered me with her jacket.



Then I saw something,


And I woke up fully,


Enough for me to go home! I was in surgery at 10:45 in the morning, I woke up at noon, and went home at 2 in the afternoon!!

Auntie Janice told mum to cook bland food for me for a couple of days instead of feeding me raw as it would be easier on my stomach. So mum cooked me mashed butternut squash with coconut oil and honey, as well as ground turkey with garlic + one egg + 4 egg whites.


I get to eat three to four times a day instead of the usual two for the next couple of days!


Dinner served to my face!


I tried to avoid touching the butternut squash mush as I'm not a veggie canine,


Mum's hand got tired of holding the bowl, so I had to eat from my food stand.....


Still trying to eat around the squash mush,


See,


I had a little bit of left over,


My stomach isn't feeling the best because of all that aire that got put in while retrieving the rockie, and my jaws are sore from being jacked wide open......


The incision on my belly hurt a little too whenever I try to lie down, so I sit around a lot,


The worst part is that I still have another 24 hours of IV at home, that means another 24 hours of exile in the pen.... Good thing mum will stay up and keep me company the next 24 hours too.

I go back to see Auntie Janice on Thursday to have my stem cells injected into me. Lots of positive thoughts and prayers for me ok??

PS. In case you were wondering, STINKY has been staying with his little gurrrrlfriend Lola for the last couple of days. They have a lot of fun together, and no stinky is bothering me and my belly tuck. A win win situation!

Lola on the left, STINKY on the right, sharing a couch.