Thankful Thursday With The Big V

Vidock: Neighs, EveryFriend! Yes, it's me, The Big V, remote posting from my luxury accommodations at the Centre Hospitalier Vétérinaire Equin in St. Michel de Livet. Are you guys cheese fans? Because this place is just outside a town called Livarot and, just down the road, there is also a place called Camembert...

Anyneigh, here I am and I actually had my surgery yesterday! It was scheduled for this afternoon, but the surgeon had time, so they decided to just go ahead and do it! Everything went really well, and I am now lounging in recovery in my ultra-luxurious box. Mr. JP is busy today, so I probably will be going home tomorrow afternoon. It's a two hour trip from here to there, so a bit of a trek.

The problem I have is actually called ROARING, as in "Hear Me ROAR!". It is generally idiopathic, so nobody knows why it happens, but one of the two pieces of cartilage that are located in the larynx and open and close to let air through becomes paralysed over time, staying in the closed position, so the flow of air through the larynx is reduced. That's why I was getting so out of breath. They did check my heart first and it seems I have the heart of an athlete! So, they did surgery using an endoscope and a laser. It's called a ventriculocordectomy. Can you say that three times quickly? I only had a local anesthetic. #1 tells me she and Mr. JP will come and get me on Friday afternoon. I am supposed to get 1-2 weeks of box rest, followed by another month of vacation, and then I can return to work.

I don't have any pics of the surgery, obviously, but here are a few that #1 took of me yesterday, when I was getting examined.

The vet checking my heart:

 

I also got something called a "bag test" to check my breathing. They literally put a bag over your nose!

 

And then the one really unpleasant bit, the endoscopy to check my airways. Yikes! It goes in through the nose.

 

Check out my roomy accommodations!

 

And I have pals on all sides too!

 

So, today, we are all thankful that we finally know what was causing my problem, and that the surgery is over and done with. And we are thankful to Mr. JP who took me all the way there, and will come and get me tomorrow.