Luna’s Spine Surgery and Recovery

[FINAL UPDATE 11/24 1:42 pm]

Hello all. We’re back for one final update. In an effort to not rewrite things from scratch, I will simply paste what I wrote for Luna on my other social media. Thank you for the well wishes while we still had hope.

It has been the most distressing week of my life. My best friend. My baby girl. My daughter. My sunshine. She’s gone.

Luna had been stable since last Saturday. Thing were looking great. Natural complications from the impact and major surgery. But nothing that indicated Luna couldn’t eventually come home with us. We were so excited. We bought everything she would’ve needed. We rearranged the apartment. I was dancing again. Celebrating a victory that wasn’t mine yet. Things changed Wednesday night. Luna developed a pneumonia from not being able to move. It was too much for her sick body to handle. Her body wasn’t accepting the implants in her spine well. They would’ve needed to be removed and we would’ve just needed to hope the spine would heal by itself. She was stuck in the suffering loop. My girl was tired. It was time.

All my life I wanted a dog. A best friend who really knew me. All my best and worst parts. Someone who did not judge me but rather someone who only knew how to love me and forgive me for not being perfect. I waited 22 years to meet that soul in the form of Luna. Life finally made sense and I could feel myself developing a sense of peace. Luna was a place of safety at the end of a long day. She was a source of comfort in the loneliest times. I became the best version of myself bc of her love. Luna was supposed to meet the rest of our future family. She was supposed to grow old with us and shrivel up like a cute little raisin as she aged. She was supposed to enjoy this next stage of our lives.

I don’t know how to move forward. Everyone else’s life goes on except ours. I could write forever about her. But I think I’ll leave this post with some lyrics from Rent which I think perfectly captures my emotions right now.

“Without you, the ground thaws, the rain falls, the grass grows. Without you, the seeds root, the flowers bloom. The children play, the stars gleam, the poets dream, the eagles fly. Without you, the earth turns, the sun burns. But I die without you.”

Thank you for your love.

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[UPDATE 11/21 11:45 am]

Hi! Back again with another update. We held off on updating for a few days because things have been generally quiet with some minor concerns. Here’s what we know up to now:

Luna has been relatively stable for the past few days. We were originally expecting her home Monday but doctors wanted to run some extra bloodwork to make sure her platelets and bilirubin looked good. So that delayed her release. There was a concern with potential liver issues and pancreatitis. But the bloodwork luckily showed big improvements. She’s had edema (swelling) in her back legs, so they had to give they had to give her a special dose of albumin (deals with the swelling) to help treat that. It was expensive but it was either that or hold her in the hospital for longer. So, either way, it was going to be more costly. We ultimately just want her home. We’ve been eagerly waiting for her return!!

Today, the care team would like to focus on having her eat. She has been pretty stubborn about eating, not even being interest in her food from home. This is to be expected though. She hasn’t been home in over a week, she’s been on countless meds, she hasn’t been in a comfy bed, hasn’t seen us much aside from briefs visits. Doctors want to see her eat at least a little bit. But we’re pretty certain once she’s home and happy she’ll start eating again. She’s always been a little picky about food so we’re not super surprised this is a difficulty for her. Once she’s able to eat on her own, she’ll be discharged so here’s hoping that improves today too.

She will also be custom fitted for a wheelchair today!! Super exciting. They are hoping the wheelchair will help with the edema because it’ll promote blood flow. They’re also hoping it’ll motivate her to eat and begin her long rehab journey. If you ask me (Steph), she sounds like she’s got two paws out of the hospital! Just putting on the finishing touches to make sure she can make a safe transition back to her mommies.

Overall, things are pretty positive for now! Please still keep her in your thoughts until she’s safely home. Please enjoy one of our favorite Luna pics below (she spotted Minh-Chau in her car while I walked her and she ran up to say goodbye ).

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[UPDATE 11/18 10:35 pm]

Hello everyone!! We’re back again with another update. It’s been QUITE the 48 hours. To recap:

Despite being told Luna was successful with her surgery, on Friday morning, we received devastating news that Luna was experiencing complications from the accident. The doctors said she was losing abdominal tone and she had a fever. Abdominal tone is essentially the resistance you feel when you press down on your abs. Luna had none. That combined with the fever, doctors were very concerned Luna had developed myelomalacia. Myelomalacia is a softening, or a necrosis, of the spine. It’s the spine dying. It’s a slow moving and insidious complication which would move up Luna’s spine and slowly kill the relevant parts once it got there. If it spread to her lungs, she would suffocate. So a phone call about myelomalacia was awful because it essentially would be the confrontation that Luna needed to be put down. As you can imagine, Friday was incredibly tough. We couldn’t stop crying and just imagining how to move forward with our lives post-Luna.

We took an emergency trip with our parents to the hospital and brought her stuffed animal friends. We talked to her all about how we already rearranged the apartment to accommodate her needs and how we were so excited to bring her home again. Well, she must understand English pretty well because, despite being heavily sedated, she got so alert! She lifted her upper body and started squeaking and her heart rate went up so fast. She was so happy to see us!! Lit up even more when my dad got there (he’s her favorite person). We had every last person we knew sending Luna prayers and good energy the whole day just hoping for a miracle. And it worked!

Doctors called Friday night that Luna was still stable. They followed up Saturday morning that she was actually showing signs of improvement in abdominal tone and her fever broke! Aka no myelomalacia!!!!! Luna is actually doing so well now that the doctors are weening her off pain meds and focusing on her nutrition since she doesn’t feel up to eating yet. If all goes well, our girl can be home Monday!!!! We spent the whole day shopping and cleaning. We literally played party music all day and just danced. We can’t believe it. It’s a dream come true.

Here’s hoping everything stays smooth. Till next time, goodnight!!!!

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[UPDATE 11/16 9:42 pm]

Hi! It is with great pleasure I tell you all that Luna had a successful surgery. Today was a particularly stressful day because we were unsure of what the MRI would show and if there would be complications with surgery. We were fearful that the MRI would show further complications to her spine that the other scans couldn’t. The doctor called me after the MRI was done to let me know there were no further major issues to worry about related to the spine. There was compression due to the nature of the injury. But nothing life threatening. No damage to organs. Minor fluid build up in the stomach but nothing seriously concerning.

Regarding the extent of her surgery, the matter causing the compression was removed. They placed titanium plates in her spine to align it as much as possible and reduce pain. Her lacerations to her head and gums were sutured. Antibiotics to prevent infection there. She did have to get one of her toes amputated in front because it was damaged to the point where bone was showing when they rescued her. It’s more of a cosmetic issue than anything. Doesn’t impact her ability to walk which is incredible. All in all, we couldn’t be happier with how today went. It was the scariest day. I can’t express in words how devastating it was for the doctor to tell us everything that was wrong with Luna. We were literally physically shaking especially when talking about her spine. But she will be okay thankfully. She still can’t feel her back feet but that’s an issue we will address in rehab. She is anticipated to come home Sunday night.

Below is a picture of what she looked like when we left her in the hospital last night. We gave her so many kisses and reassured her we were there for her no matter what and she’d be all better in no time. Again, thank you everyone for your kind words and generous donations. All this is possible because we have the most incredible community. We can’t thank you enough.

Until our next update, everyone have a great rest of your night and hold your loved ones extra close. Stay safe.

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[UPDATE 11/15 11:17 pm]

Hi everyone. We just got home from the hospital. Luna is being treated at the Schwarzmann aka the best pet trauma center in the tri-state area. She’s in excellent hands. Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning. Additional things that the trauma specialists informed us were some broken front teeth, gum lacerations, nails torn out, one paw was exposed to the bone, concussion, and her heart obviously took a hit as well given the nature of the injury. All in all, the prognosis remains the same. A very long journey ahead of us. But with time and love and grit from Luna Bean to spring back into action we can do it. Obviously the Luna we knew two days ago is no more. I don’t count on ever seeing that version again. But I know my dog. She’s a fighter. She’s adaptable. When I saw her in the trauma center I saw that same glow in her eyes I always knew. Telling me we’re gonna make it through this just as much as we were telling her the same.

I am posting pictures of our medical bills for transparency’s sake. I’m doing so in hopes of encouraging people to donate. We’re not highballing anyone. We’re obviously not seeking to profit. We just really need help. As much as possible.

The $573 was for her transportation from Oradell Animal Clinic to Schwarzmann because her surgery was too serious. $1,900 is what we paid for her treatment at Oradell. $20,115 is the estimate for her spinal (and other injuries) surgery. That could be higher or lower depending on how tomorrow goes. The number highlighted in blue represents 50% of that amount which was due today for them to begin treatment at Schwarzmann.

Thank you for loving Luna. Will continue with updates as they come.

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Hi everyone. As you may know by now, Luna is the love of our lives. She is loved by so many. The most special girl in the world. Unfortunately, in an incident yesterday involving her babysitter in Hackensack, Luna escaped. We searched all night and day and finally found her at approximately noon today. By time we found her, she had been hit by a train. Fortunately, she will still live a long and happy life with us without many long term complications. Unfortunately, she will very likely need a wheelchair for the rest of her life. We’re dedicated to giving Luna the happiest and most successful recovery possible. It’s what she deserves. But it comes at a high financial cost we cannot handle alone once we consider the surgery bills, meds, and rehab. Putting her down was never on the table for us. So this is our only path forward as a family. Any little bit helps and we are so grateful for all that has been done for Luna already. Our community is so beautiful and strong. Thank you.

Of course, we will be very transparent about all finances as soon as we get final numbers. This is still a pending matter. But based on doctor estimates, this is roughly what we can anticipate this journey will cost. Thank you again.