I feel great!!! And I'm a Therapy Dog now too! (and have my- CGC!)

Wow, ever since I had that liver shunt surgery I feel like a new iggy! My liver function is totally normal, I've grown tons of hair and I eat like a piggie.
Oh, well, I did promise to tell you more about my surgery, so I shouldn't get ahead of myself, huh?
Ok, well it was terrible. It was long and very very painful. I was in surgery for hours, they couldn't FIND my shunt (it was all the way down in my colo-rectal region...hello? It's NOT supposed to be there! that's one of the most uncommon places for it to be. Well, I am exceptional, so I guess that's maybe why). To top that all off, I had about TWENTY FOUR surgical staples to close me up. Boy were THOSE uncomfortable. See that second to last pic of me with all the stuff around my neck and leg? That pic was taken the day after my surgery while I was at the hospital still. I don't look very happy do I? Well, I wasn't. They had just taken me off a morphine drip and I was really starting to feel that thing the humans call "pain" and I moaned the whole time my mom and dad were visiting. I know it kind of made them sad, but I coudln't help it. You try having yourself cut open from front to back and see how you feel. I bet not good!
My mom took such great care of me though. She made our front room into what she called "the recovery suite" and she slept on the floor on a futon mattress, she hand fed me and cleaned me up everyday because I really had trouble with potties. I kept wetting the bed a LOT...so mom had to basically cover the whole place with potty pads. I feel bad about that, but I was so sore I couldn't really feel anything to control holding it til' I got to my potty area. Sorry mom!
Anyway, I was in ICU for FOUR days (yes, away from mom and dad. I hated that, and so did they!) before they let me come home. Mom said it was ok because she knew I was in better hands there in case anything went wrong. I don't know what she was worried about...I was fine!
So Mom and dad came to visit me twice a day everyday while I was in the hospital. I hated that they had to keep going home without me. But on Saturday, Feb. 19th, I got to go home finally. I recovered at home for two weeks and then got my staples out. From then on it was smooth sailing! I love food now and have so much more energy and I'm not...what did mom call it..."lethargic". ;)
The really cool news is that in April mom had enough faith in us to take me to a class and then the test to become a therapy dog. I coasted thru the tests and did great. I had to make my mom proud after all she did for me with that whole surgery thing. Also I really was excited to become a therapy dog. I passed the CGC (Canine Good Citizen) and TDI (Therapy Dogs International) tests with flying colors and now I get to go visit elderly people and make them smile. Mom is really excited because this coming Wednesday, the same day as my sis Rusty's surgery (she's got a diary about hers too!) we're going to the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit. Mom says there are some really sick people there who especially need some love and cheering up from a little girl like me. I'm so happy! I love making people smile and feel better. Especially since I KNOW how it feels to be sick all the time and have to be in a hospital.
I'll let you all know how my visits go, but I'm sure it'll be so fun. Mom said she always has to take kleenex because I make her all teary-eyed when she watches me making sick people happy. I think she's happy I found her so we could do this together. I'm happy too. But I always knew I'd find my mom...it just took a little time!

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