Where Have I been????

Well, I know its been a long while since I have posted and I assure you I have good reason. BarBea was still sick all last week. So sick in fact that I had the vet come back and look at her again on Thursday when she advised me to take BarBea to Ohio State University veterinary Equine Clinic. Ok, so a referral to OSU is never a good sign. That means serious business. After going through several emotions, such as panic, fear, disbelief, I got arrangements to get her to OSU Thursday night. A two hour trip.

We arrived at 10:51pm into the ER at Galbreath Equine Center. A vet looked her over to discover her small intestine was severely distended more than three times its original size, something she had never seen before. The options: surgery or she will die. Being a part of the family for 13 years, there wasn't options, it was fix her.

So, Friday at 1:00pm she was put under anesthesia and wheeled into the surgery room. At 4:15pm she was placed in a padded stall to recover from anesthesia. She was in surgery for over three hours where they discovered a mass (tumor) blocking her small intestine from her large intestine. They removed most of the distended intestine (about 25 feet) and reattached it to the large intestine, bypassing the tumor which was too deep to remove. When the doctors were getting ready to suture her up, she started to hemorrhage and they had trouble getting the bleeding to stop. This upset me terribly. The doctor came to talk to us after the surgery and said the next 24 hours will be very hard for her.

Well, that 24 hours has passed along with four more days and she's doing wonderful. I have been with her every day. I have made the trip to Columbus three times this week and have had very little sleep. Though, I wasn't getting much sleep before when she wasn't feeling well. Hopefully she will make a full recovery. I received a phone call just a couple of hours ago from her Vet, Dr. Smith. She said that BarBea can come home tomorrow or Friday, most likely tomorrow!! Of course the healing process doesn't stop with her leaving the hospital. She will have about three months worth of recovery before she can be a horse again. Hopefully, she will have a long and happy life, another 15 years with me. As you can tell, I'm very attached to her and so are my parents. When it's all said and done, we will probably have around $8500 in her recovery. That is a small price to pay for a loved one though, but there are people that won't pay that. I don't understand that. I would take out a loan if I had too. Luckily, my parents are paying for it and I will pay them back over time.

I would like to tell you how nice and friendly the people are at the OSU vet clinic. It was unbelievable the hospitality and friendliness that was expressed to us during our time up there. Better than any human hospital. The doctors were fanatic along with the techs and the students. I would like to thank every one of them from the bottom of my heart. Thank you!! It was amazing.

Anyway, that is where I've been. I was disappointed with the lack of emails concerning my lack of posting but that's OK, I guess. So people didn't miss me. I understand. Anyway, I should be back on a more regular basis now. The better BarBea gets, the more I'll write!!!