off to alabama.

I know that not everyone cares to hear the looooong version of this story, but I know we have lots of dear friends and family members who do. Feel free to skip to the very end if you fall in the first category. For those of you who want the whole tale, this will save mine and Kyle's moms from having to explain it to all of you on the phone :)

If you're new to this little blog and to our puppy's story go here to read about when we adopted him last January and here and here to read about the emergency surgery he had in November. 

Ever since Tucker's surgery, we have been watching his left eye like crazy. Kyle and I each say "Let me see your eyeball, buddy" at least twice a day. At least. 

About a month ago, Kyle was on the floor playing with Tucker and then the two of them got lazy and were resting on the floor. Kyle and Tucker were practically nose to nose on the floor when Kyle told me that he saw something wiggling in Tucker's eye. We've 'seen' lots of things in his eye since surgery but they all turned out to be nothing. This looked weird though, so we called our ophthalmologist who sent us to our regular vet for a checkup. The consensus between our vet and our surgeon was that Tucker's pupil was still a little too big for what they are comfortable with, so we increased how many eye drops Tucker was getting a day (from one drop a day to two drops a day). 

Last week I took Tucker back to his ophthalmologist for a checkup, to see how his eye pressure was and check out the 'wiggling'. The surgeon told us that what we had thought was a wiggly lens, was actually his iris. Without drawing a diagram of the eye, long story short is that his lens is not curved and holding his iris firmly in place and as a result, his iris is able to wiggle in his eye. Our surgeon said that he doesn't have many membranes holding his lens in place and there is a great possibility that it could become unattached. If that were to happen, the lens would either go forward in his eye and have to be removed, or fall back in his eye in which case we could remove it or leave it based on the specifics. Each option posed definite concerns and could have started a chain of other eye problems. The surgeon told us that she wanted to get some additional opinions before deciding what she would like to do. We are suspicious that what may have happened in his right eye was that his lens became unattached, went forward in his eye, his pressure sky-rocketed and it was all downhill from there.

Our ophthalmologist wanted to get opinions from some other eye specialists before jumping to any conclusions in deciding what we should do. She heard back from five respected ophthalmologists and four of the five had the same response, remove the lens in his left eye and insert an artificial lens in its place. If his lens were removed but an artificial lens was not inserted, he would be incredibly farsighted and there would be potential for other things in his eye to move around. The artificial lens will hopefully maintain his current vision and prevent any further catastrophes.  

That's what we have decided to do. We feel like we would have to be crazy to go against what four respected surgeons suggest, five if you count our own surgeon. 

Apparently the act of inserting a new lens is a very specific surgery that not all surgeons are trained in. Our surgeon isn't one of those few so she is referring us to a colleague and good friend of hers in Alabama.  

So we will be traveling to Birmingham next Tuesday and Tucker will undergo surgery that morning. The hospital is only a few hours away but we've decided to get a hotel because we  are obsessed with our dog as if he is our first born child want to be close by in case anything happens. We would very much appreciate if you could say a few extra prayers for us. We are praying that Tucker comes out of this surgery perfectly and that his surgeon faces no complications or challenges while she is operating. We are also praying that we will feel a little more at ease with the whole situation. 

We have complete confidence in the opinion of our doctor in Atlanta and the surgeon we will be seeing in Alabama. However, Tucker has had eye surgery before and nothing about it went smoothly or as planned. There were lots of specific circumstances that surrounded that surgery, a major one being that his eye pressure was off the charts, but we're still nervous. We are trying to stay positive and as my mom says, 'not borrowing troubles'.

We've been holding off on sharing the whole tale until we had Tucker's surgery scheduled, which we took care of yesterday. We still have a few questions to get answered before we leave for Alabama and also in our pre-surgery appointment but are confident and decided that this is what is best for Tucker.

So if you like sweet, snuggly puppy dogs and you like to pray, say a few for us next Tuesday! I'm sure we will be more than a little nervous but we are very ready to have this whole ordeal behind us!

How about we leave on a happy note! Surgeries, wiggly irises and all, Tucker is still the sweetest, snuggliest, happiest dog I have ever known.