Spring(ing)

So much for my well-behaved pony - it really was too good to be true. Last night I thought I'd do some handwalking outside, maybe incorporate some hills. Tris started off great, and then threw a bucking fit for the remainder of the walk back to the barn, when he wasn't jigging.

Tonight, we went up to 15 minutes of handwalking, and he only had one short fit, but when I turned him loose in the indoor he rolled and rolled (flipped over 7 times!) and then came up bucking like a lunatic. He circled the ring bucking and cantering and came to a sliding stop in front of he when I called him over.

Flushing and soaking tonight was not the easiest - I mistimed it and the other horses got dinner while we were soaking. He did not approve, and took a few steps back toward his stall out of his boot.

The tissue is starting to grow in hoof-colored, which I am assuming is keritanizing, so that's good. The worrying part is that there is an area just to the left of the hole that looks and feels mushy - with what looked like a small hole - and I am wondering and worrying if perhaps it was an abscess that has burst with the soaking. It might mean there is still internal infection. I've sent off another email to the clinic. We'll see.

Progress Pony

No drainage except for a teeny drop of blood. Huzzah!

Farrier on Monday which means I am coordinating with the vet to pick up a tranq. It will be interesting to see a) if he goes back to his normal self, or something like it and b) how much of the holes are trimmed off.

Soaking seems to be working well, and tonight we accidentally hand walked for nearly 15 minutes and he was just fine - he also decided that trot poles were for trotting when I asked him to walk over them. Oops?

In conclusion, I present to you our soaking routine.

One Less Worry

First things first: Tris went outside last night! I took him to one of the small turnouts near to the barn and threw him a flake of hay. He behaved beautifully, just munched away happily. He went on a bit of a walkabout in search of a puddle to drink from, but that was it.

Unfortunately, the mud/puddle situation is such that I don't think he can go on more frequent turnout until he is more healed or it's drier. His boots are too porous. They are really meant for stall rest. So he will get occasional, supervised outings but mostly stick to handwalking.

In the good news department, he has finally started shedding! I spent a whole currying away while he was eating his hay. Spring is on its way!

And one step back

So, bad news first: Tristan's foot is definitely infected.

Good news: he is sound at the walk and trot, and the vet caught the infection, and we tranq'd him and she cut back a bit to get at clean, bleeding flesh. We sent pictures off to the surgeon and he was concerned but not worried.

Good news also that we are wrapping les, so he fit into his normal sized boot today, and he's cleared to do more handwalking and try some light turnout.

So I keep up with my flushing/wrapping schedule, and add a powdered antibiotic called metronidazole on top of the wound - it's the same stuff we were using in his abscess holes in the fall, for anaerobic infection.

The surgeon also suggested soaking the foot a few times, to draw out the infection. Basically treat it like an abscess. I'll dig out & disinfect his soaking boot in the next few days and start that on Wednesday, with his next rewrapping.

If he goes lame, throws a temp, etc, then we start to worry but until then we assume this is small, mostly surface, and while we are treating it aggressively, it probably won't be a setback.

Scroll down for pictures, first showing the infection/pus, second showing the cleaned out foot - it's grown back quite a bit, really, so that's encouraging.

CSI Vermont

Every time I toss out Tristan's leftover dilut Betadine, I can't help but think it looks like a murder scene.

2013 Area 1 Scholarships

I have been so busy blathering on about my own pony that I forgot an actually awesome thing that is going on right now: the USEA Area 1 Scholarship awards.

I'm on the committee that puts together the guidelines and then gets to review the applications, and it is one of my favorite things to do each year, to be so privileged as to get to share in so many wonderful people's hopes and dreams. I wish I could give every single applicant a scholarship, truly.

This year I am closer to that wish, because we have more than doubled our award money - we're giving a total of 9 scholarships of $250 each for those who want to pursue eventing-related educational activities - lessons, clinics, unmounted classes like TD training or course design, other out of the box ideas - you name it.

Application materials can be found on the Area 1 website here.

Spring...

Yesterday was the first full day of spring. We had several inches of snow on the ground and are getting more today. Tristan has not shed one single, solitary hair of his winter coat. I am torn between worrying and admiring his good sense, because it's not meant to go much above freezing for at least another week. (To be fair the poor pony also hasn't seen sunlight in nearly a month, so I'm sure that's thrown him off kilter.)

Healing continues apace. He has had three days of 5 minutes of handwalking and is doing beautifully, very eager to move out, sound to my eye. The drainage is, knock wood, slowly decreasing. When I sent the 2 week pictures to the vet hospital they said it looked good and suggested that the local vet could take a hoof knife and pare off the top blood clot to get a clearer sense of what the wound looks like underneath.

When I flushed last night, I used the tip of the syringe to move the blood clot (it's basically a scab) aside a bit, and there was bright pink flesh underneath. Yay for that. Tris was not wild about that, which leads me to think that we'll have to tranq him a bit if the vet's going to do that on Monday.

He'll also get the first half of his spring shots on Monday, and if the vet clears everything we'll decrease the amount of wrap I'm using and try to get him into the smaller size boot so a) it's less likely to fall off and b) he can possibly go on light turnout. (I'm fairly certain the larger boot would be destroyed in short order if it ventured outside, as it flops a bit.)

He's now eating his antibiotics as dressing in his regular supplements, mixed in with some mints for intermittent reward, and hasn't had them syringed in 5 days. They run out on next Friday, and we'll talk about getting another bottle and keeping him on them. He's down to 1/4 quart of grain a day, half in the AM and half in the PM, and holding his weight steady.

So hopefully on Monday we'll a) cut away the blood clot and take a good close look; b) get the ok to do 10 minutes of handwalking at a time, and possibly light turnout the week after that; and c) get a judgment on the antibiotics.

WHEW

So much better. Soooooooo much better. Thank God. Back to his normal self, well-behaved and patient. I was dreading tonight, making plans to beg the vet for drugs or the boyfriend for carrot-feeding duty. But Tris stood like a champ, fussed a little bit at the very, very end but only then and only for a few seconds. BEST pony.

In happy news, too, when I called the clinic to talk about the photos I sent them (they are still pleased) they gave me the go-ahead to do a little bit of handwalking as long as he stays comfortable. So tonight we did three! whole! laps! of the indoor! He was soooooo happy, moving right out and looking at everything.

When we left the indoor to head back to our stall he paused for a long moment and looked hopefully at the door to go outside. Poor guy. On Monday we'll be halfway to the low end of his estimate, though, and I he tolerates handwalking well then maybe the Monday after that he can go on short turnout - especially if we can wrap less and put on the smaller boot.

In my continuing attempts to document everything: here, have some random pictures of our wrapping supplies.

Bucket o'stuff: 5 gallon bucket filled with vet wrap, gauze rolls, and underneath some miscellaneous extras. Mostly what you see on top, though, all the way down.

Typical supplies for a night's wrapping. Starting with the  knockoff Betadine and going clockwise: betadine, gauze roll, vet wrap, betadine swab, baggie of gloves, two pairs of bandage scissors, and a roll of elastikon.

No Go

So we were meant to have a two week checkup yesterday morning...but due to a scheduling mixup with the vet, we're going ahead next week with a three week checkup instead. I took pictures and sent them to the clinic along with a detailed verbal description of everything, so I expect to hear back from them today.

I rewrapped his foot last night and it was awful. The foot itself looked okay, I think - some discharge, but not copious amounts - but he was just totally unmanageable. He reared, kicked out, tried to fall over on top of me, tried to bite me, yanked the foot away - you name it. I got at most stretches of 10-15 seconds to accomplish things before I had to hang on tight again and not let him put his bare, unwrapped foot back on the aisle. He did not respond to cajoling, growling, smacking on his shoulder, manipulations to try and find a more comfortable way for me to hold the foot - none of it. He just wanted me GONE.

I don't know why he was so awful. It could be that the flushing mixture was too cold. It could be that he was in some kind of pain - that the discharge is more worrisome than I thought. It could be that he is just DONE with everything. He's been on stall rest a little over three weeks now. He has 4-6 weeks to go. This is the longest he has EVER been in a stall. While he is still a gentleman to handle (for everything except wrapping) and he is showing no obvious signs of sourness or frustration, I'm sure he's bored and ready to move on.

I've made arrangements with the barn to get him his antibiotics tonight, as we are getting as much as 18" of snow today (happy spring!) and I might not be able to make it out tonight. Even if I could risk it - maybe - it might be smarter for us to take a little bit of a break from each other.

Below, two close-up pictures of the foot at two weeks out from surgery. Scroll down for them; I'll put some space in case anyone is squeamish.

Spring is still far away..

Not much to report. Healing continues. Two week checkup is tomorrow, and fingers crossed we'll be cleared for a bit of handwalking - I think we'd both like that.

In bad news, it's meant to be -5 overnight, and we are getting a blizzard on Tuesday. Ugh. Tristan's blanket was laid out and waiting for night check when I went to give him his evening antibiotics - have I mentioned how much I love the staff at this barn?

Just Keep Swimming

Though last night was to be my first night off from wrapping, I rewrapped anyway, because I was worried about him having stood in his dirty stall.

He had a little but of blood and discharge, more than I wanted, but not enough to go through the small square of gauze that was in the hole itself. The hole also smelled a bit funkier than I would have liked. I'll keep a close eye - he's still walking fine and in good spirits - but I can't help but feel it's a bit of a setback.

I think when they told me 6-8 weeks of recovery I was mostly excited about how short that was, how I'd be back to riding in May, possibly. I didn't think how long that was if you're worried practically every second of every day.

I took a picture of the gauze from his foot in the interests of disclosure; if you're at all squeamish, don't scroll down.

Onward...

We're now a week and two days out from the surgery; one week ago was his first full day home.

After Tristan's escapades on Monday in getting his boot and wrapping off, I checked on him first thing Tuesday morning and again last night. I flushed and rewrapped last night and it looked the same. The same stale betadine/hoof crud smell was present, and there was maybe a teensy bit of discharge on the gauze, but not much at all - if any.

He ate his antibiotics again with mints and a little bit of grain, and stood quietly to have his foot flushed and re-wrapped. I also got to explain his injury to some barn kids, who have their freaking adorable little dun pony named Petticoat across the aisle from Tristan for a few months while they put her back in work after the winter. They do short stirrup hunters with her and are smart, nice kids. I explained things in as non-graphic terms as I could and then explained how I was treating it.

Moral of the story: I need to find a Pony Club.  I don't have the time to commit to weekly meetings, but I can do judging and occasional teaching for sure. I've emailed the Regional Secretary for the Western New England Region and offered my services; we'll see what happens.

In conclusion, here's the vet's write-up of Tristan's Monday appointment:

Surgical site dry and clean with only the faintest smell that indicates very mild infection. Wound open and draining. Owner has been keeping it immaculate. Horse is standing on leg better than I have seen him do since I have known him, with the LF planted squarely underneath him vs pointed a bit. Plan to go to EOD bandage changes. Recheck 1 week. Owner to continue to monitor for drainage, foul odor, lameness, etc.

And then Tristan gave me a heart attack...

I went out to the barn at about 6pm last night to, in theory, get Tristan's evening antibiotics into him and check on the bandage to see if there was any drainage/bleeding after the poking around we'd done that morning.

He ate his antibiotic pills when I mixed them in with some dinner mints, and then when I pulled him out of the stall I saw that he had managed to shed both his hoof boot AND the dressing on his foot and was standing barefoot, surgical site exposed. I yanked him out of the stall, wrestled the bandage back on at least over his toe, and heated up water to start flushing ASAP. I had left my sterile bucket & syringe at home (we were supposed to go to every other day!) and rinsed out the clean bucket we'd been using to mix his antibiotics, as well as the syringe from the antibiotics.

I picked out 2-3 shavings and a small piece of hay that had gotten into the hole, carefully brushed the shavings away from the rest of the hoof, and then flushed probably half a gallon of dilute betadine down the hole. Then I gently scrubbed at it with several iodine swabs, and then squirted straight betadine in, rewrapped with clean gauze, vetwrap, and elastikon, and pulled the boot back over.

I tried to get the smaller size boot on his foot, but it just wasn't going yet - still a little bit too much padding. I latched the larger boot as tightly as I could, and wound the elastikon over the hoof as tightly as I could, but still worried about him all night. I went out about midnight to check on him, and then again this morning at 7am before work. Boot was still on both times.

I checked his temp and felt for heat in the leg this morning; both normal. I'll flush and rewrap tonight and do so daily for the next week, and keep an eagle eye, but I think things are ok. I've got a call in to the clinic to make sure there's nothing else I should be doing...but I caught it quickly, flushed it out thoroughly, and he's still on his general antibiotics. I think we're ok. I'm still sick about it, but hopefully it won't impact his healing.

One Week

We saw our local vet this morning for the one week checkup to make sure his healing was looking on schedule. Overall, very positive!

The vet liked how it's starting to granulate in with new tissue. She smelled a teensy bit of funkiness/infection but since there was no discharge, she wasn't particularly concerned. She gave the thumbs up to my borderline obsessive wrapping procedures, which go like this:

1. Sweep area around crossties hard, until I can't see a speck of anything resembling shavings/sawdust/anything.
2. Boil water, pour about 2" into a bucket (that I bring home each night to scrub out thoroughly with soapy hot water), mix with betadine, let to sit and cool off.
3. Set out wrapping supplies on top of a bucket for easy access: one roll of 2" gauze, one roll of vetwrap, one roll of elastikon, bandage scissors.
4. Cut two small squares of gauze off the wrap (to place gently in the hole).
5. When the water has cooled, draw up a fully syringe and place it on top of the betadine bucket.
6. Bring him out of his stall, take off both boots, sweep around again to get any bits that have come away.
7. Cut down the bandage on his foot, two long cuts at about 8 and 4 (if the middle of the heel is 12).
8. Pick up his foot and slide the bandage off down toward his toe.
9. Resting his pastern on my knee and cupping the hoof with my left hand, squirt about 5-6 60cc syringes full of the dilute betadine into the hole.
10. Soak one of the squares and place it - not stuff it! - gently into the surgery hole.
11. If he needs it, let him put his foot down and rest on a clean white towel that I put down on the aisle. (He needed this every time the first few; now he will usually keep the foot up the whole time. This is why I cut two squares, now: since the small piece of gauze is in there only gently, it's not uncommon for it to fall out when he puts his foot down.)
12. Wrap the whole foot with a whole roll of 2" gauze.
13. Wrap the whole foot with about half a roll of vetwrap.
14. Wrap all around the foot once with a length of elastikon, then cut a smaller piece and reinforce the toe.
15. Let him stand on the towel while I wipe out his boot thoroughly, digging out any small shavings that get in there, drying out the pad with a towel.
16. Put the boot back on his bandaged foot.
17. Pick out and dry off the LF. Every other day or so I squirt a small amount of anti-thrush treatment into the frog area, because it gets quite moist in there.
18. Wipe out the LF boot, shake out the pad, dry everything, etc.
19. Put the boot back on and bring him back to his stall. The first few days he got treats back in his stall; now I hold off because he was getting bratty about pawing for them.
20. Clean everything and put it away; repack the small bucket I use to hold wrapping supplies with more supplies for the next time; dump the remaining betadine solution and bring that and the used towel home to clean out very thoroughly.

The whole process takes about an hour. Add in medications, picking his stall if necessary, grooming him, cleaning up everything afterwards, and it's about 2.5 hours each night.

Anyway. Vet approved of everything, and gave the ok to continue with every other day wrapping. I'll still pull the boot off and check the bandage each time I see him, but my next full rewrap will be Wednesday night.

Vet was also pleased with the way he was bearing weight on that foot, standing with it much more fully under him than he had before the surgery - a good sign that he's already doing way better!

On my way home, she called me and said she'd checked in with the clinic. They were even less worried about the funky smell than she was - surgeon said that it was a small wound that wasn't getting any oxygen exposure and was staying moist, a little funkiness was 100% expected. They were thrilled to hear that he was looking sound and weight-bearing, and said that was the best indicator for now.

So - we'll check in again next week. In the meantime, it's something of a relief to know that I'll head out tonight and tomorrow night only to do his meds, and not the full 2.5 hour process.

Gee Thanks

When I logged in to my Mint.com account tonight for the first time in a week, there was an urgent alert telling me that I had high spending in the Veterinary category.

So glad they let me know...

Surgery Recovery

So I wrote about Tristan's surgery in some detail, and since it's been an absolutely insane week since then, I'll have to cover everything quickly. We're on the right track, but between work and spending hours upon hours with him each day, I'm beyond exhausted, and not sleeping terribly well from stress and worry.

Tuesday we brought Tristan home first thing in the morning. I had bedded down his stall with two fresh bags of shavings, fresh water, washed out his grain bucket, filled his hay net, and everything was ready. He was alert and awake at the vet hospital though he wasn't wild about his morning mash. They'd given him one last dose of IV antibiotics and bute, and went over his discharge info with me. He loaded not great, but he did get on, and rode mostly well though kicked around a bit when we were almost home.

One thing I found out that morning was that I had miscalculated what size boot he would need; his size 4 boots fit great but there was a great deal more padding and wrapping on his RF than I had thought there would be, so he needed to go up to a size 6, which the vet hospital kindly sold me and sent him home in.

I stayed with him for a little while and then headed home to catch up on laundry. When I returned that night he was listless and quiet, and didn't want to have his grain. I mixed it with everything I could think of - applesauce, sweet feed, molasses, bran, warm water, you name it, and he wasn't touching it. That meant that he didn't quite get his full dose of antibiotics and bute, unfortunately.

I rewrapped the foot for the first time that night so I could get him on an evening schedule. It wasn't a ton of fun. He flailed a lot, I was terrified, etc, but in the end we got it done and I spent a while grooming and fussing over him afterwards.

Wednesday morning he was definitely not himself: dull, quiet, hadn't finished his mash from the night before, had given up getting his hay out of the small-hole haynet. We took his temp - 99.5, normal - dumped the hay out of the haynet, and I asked the barn to get his drugs into him by syringe if he still hadn't touched his grain. He was drinking, peeing, and pooping normally, so not in crisis, but it was hard to see him like that. By late morning, perhaps an hour or two after the barn manager syringed his meds + applesauce down his throat, he had started to perk up and eat his hay.

Wednesday night I re-wrapped again, and dosed him with his evening meds, and he was looking a little better, and was much more cooperative for his wrapping. Thursday morning a little bit better again, continuing better Thursday night. That night I noticed some mud-brown colored areas of the hole that did not dislodge with flushing, and so Friday morning I sent an email with a picture off to the vet clinic. They said it looked good, nothing really to worry about unless he went lame, ran a temp, or the area increased.

Friday night he was just about entirely back to himself. When I pulled the wrap, there was a smidge of brown gunk that had come out of the top of his abscess holes, and I scraped some more out of the same. I flushed and flushed and flushed both the surgical hole and the abscess hole, rewrapped, etc. I rubbed some of the brown gunk between my fingers: not much of it, and it felt gritty, not like pus, and smelled like hoof crud, not like infection or necrosis. The vet intern emailed me back this morning and said that the foot was probably flushing gunk out of the recesses of the hole, and to keep an eye but not to worry too much.

There's definitely new tissue growth in the hole itself, nice healthy red granulation. I'll flush and rewrap daily until Monday morning, when my local vet comes to look at him. Per the clinic, Friday should have been his last day with daily rewrapping, but the brown gunk makes me a bit nervous, and it certainly can't hurt to keep up until Monday.

Surgery & After

Summary: Tris did really well for his surgery, and has been slowly improving since.

Tristan's stall at the vet hospital.

Hannah and I got there on Monday mid-morning, and Tris already had his catheter in his neck, for IV meds, etc. They had given him morning antibiotics and bute, and he was mad that he hadn't had breakfast and pacing a bit. We groomed him thoroughly and fussed over him and then left him alone for a bit to hopefully stop his pawing. I went and checked later and he was eating shavings in search of hay - doofus. So he had to wear a muzzle until his surgery.

Saying hi to Hannah. You can see his catheter under his mane.

Wearing his muzzle and getting a shot of antibiotics.

We went out for lunch and then after lunch I sat in his stall with him. He was clearly bored and a bit frustrated, standing and staring into the middle distance. The surgeon was running a bit late from morning farm calls, so they started prepping him at about 2:00. They tranq'd him, pulled his shoes, and did some x-rays to confirm everything.

Getting his pre-surgery x-rays.

The surgeon was incredibly nice, and pointed out the sequestrum - technical term for a foreign object causing infection, in this case the bone chip - as well as how they'd get in there. He was glad that Tris's abscess had come out the toe, too, because that gave him a clear channel to go through. He explained that he would make a hole about the size of a quarter, then go in through there with a tool that looked a lot like a very small, very sharp ice cream scoop. He'd remove the chip, and then scrape at the bone until he removed all the necrotic bone and debrided back to health bone. He described the sound of healthy bone as "crisp." (Ew.)

Pre-surgery x-ray with the vet's labels.

I had been doing okay all day but I got a bit teary and frightened when they led him into the room where they would tranq him for surgery. Basically, they would start the drip (he was not intubated, since they anticipated the surgery would take less than an hour) and then as he got sleepy they'd hold him up against the padded wall, encourage him to sit down like a dog, and then roll him down to his side. Then they'd hobble all four legs together and use a crane to lift him up and onto the surgery table.

Lie-down room on the right, recovery room on the left.

Hannah and I went to the waiting room for the duration, which was a very, very long hour and a half (including lie-down and recovery time). I read a YA fantasy book that basically went in one ear and out the other and checked my watch every five minutes and texted people. Sooner than I would have thought, though, the intern came in and told us that the surgery had gone well, he was in the recovery room, and they'd had to take a fair bit of bone but it was successful.

Surgical suite, with the door to the recovery room in background and the anesthesia machine foreground.

Ten or fifteen minutes later, they came to tell me that he was heading back to his stall. He'd recovered beautifully - apparently horses sometimes flail around, fall, crash into walls, etc., which is why the recovery room is padded. He'd just lain quietly until he could get up, and then stood.

Post-surgery, not a happy boy.

I visited with him for a little while, and told him how brave he was. He was staggering a bit, and not focused, very out of it - understandably! He was also bleeding right through the bandage. They explained that they'd put a tourniquet on the foot during surgery to help manage blood flow, and once they released it the blood would leak through for a little while until it clotted.

Bloody footprints leading from the recovery room to the stall.

The surgeon came to find us and show us the x-rays in a few more minutes. He said he evaluates surgery on two points: his gut feeling and the clinical signs. In this case, he said, both were good. He said he would be surprised if Tris didn't return to 100%. Hooray!

X-ray taken during surgery with a probe inserted to confirm that they were headed in the right direction.

Side view of same.

After surgery, with the hole and the missing coffin bone area. Not too bad, actually - there's still bone in the middle, they didn't take a clear slice out.

Side view of same. You can see the hole going up to the toe, and the scraping from both the top and bottom.

When we got back to the stall, we found Tristan enjoying a celebratory post-surgery bran mash.

Eating very slowly and very carefully.

His protocol going forward is actually fairly straightforward:
- 6-8 weeks of stall rest, the first 2 very strict, and possible handwalking or occasional turnout based on evaluation after that
- Bute am + pm for three days, then am for three days, then back to Previcox
- TMS tablets (sulfamethoxazole + trimethoprim): 10 am + pm for 2 weeks, possibly longer pending evaluation
- flushing and rewrapping every day for three days, then every other day for the duration
- checks with our local vet 1 and 2 weeks out

Here's what the hole looks like, basically; these pictures were taken the morning after surgery by the intern. I'll link to them instead of inserting them because they're a bit gruesome. Click here.

Tris will granulate in new tissue around the bone first, and then fill in the hole slowly, down through the sole, and then finally heal over the bottom of the sole. He'll be in his new boots for pretty much that whole time, and when everything is 100% healed over we'll see about whether he needs his shoes back on, or wait until he's back in full work or not.

As I'm now posting this almost a week after the surgery - I've been insanely busy - I'll follow up with a general post about the week since surgery, and then get back on a proper schedule.

Brave, brave pony

Tris did GREAT today: walked right on the trailer, hauled easily, and walked right into the clinic and into his stall.

I signed a bunch of paperwork, brought in his grain, and there wasn't much else to do. He started eating his hay immediately and behaved perfectly to have his vitals checked. He'll get a catheter for his IV first thing in the morning, and go in for surgery about 1pm. It will last about an hour. He'll get an EWT booster, since he's due soon, and be on lots of antibiotics and IV bute starting tomorrow.

When I got back to the barn I stripped his stall. Tomorrow night I'll spray it down with a bleach/water mix, then re-bed with fresh shavings, nice and deep. He can't come home fast enough.

Liveblogging!

Coming to you live from Tristan's stall, where the Smartpak small hole haynet is proving an outstanding investment. He's still working on his early morning hay with a fair bit left.

I ended up cleaning his sheath last night - got out a lot if gunk and a bean-sized bean. He was perfect for it - flopped his ears and cocked a hind leg in relaxation. Glad I got that done.

Everything is packed and ready and we are leaving for the clinic in about an hour. Surgery is at 1pm tomorrow. Wish us luck.