Molly, Molly, Mollyy

See that cute dog right there, she's probably my best friend.

I've drafted a dozen bog posts about Molly, because I could talk about my dog all day, but each fell short. I was having a difficult time expressing how much we love and care about her.

This is a story about the day we almost lost her, and how it forever impacted our lives.

//There are photos in this post that are graphic//

On November 21, 2016, I took Molly to get spayed. She was on her heat cycle, and little did I know, that was EXTREMELY dangerous. The vet was well aware, and didn't express ANY concern. We obviously had no idea that anything could go wrong since the vet conveniently didn't say anything.

That day was Curtis' 22nd birthday, and we had plans a few plans for that day, but those quickly changed. I woke up and took Molly straight to the vet. They wanted to get her in early so she could recover before she came home. I dropped her off around 8am, and came back to pick her up around 4pm. I think we got home around 4:15. I made her a little bed with a blanket on the floor, next to the couches so she could sleep, and be near us. Around 4:30, I went to check on her and noticed some bleeding. Not much, just a little around the incision.

I called the vet to make sure everything was okay! The tech talked to me and said it should be okay, but if there's more to call back. So, 15 minutes later, I checked again. There was a significant amount more now. So, of course I call back, this time a little more worried. She says it's fine and there's nothing to be concerned about. Okay, so if the vet tech thinks it's okay, it must be.... right? Not. Probably 10 minutes later, I check and there is a puddle of blood on the floor. Bigger than my hand. As I had mentioned, I had made her a blanket bed on the floor. The blood had managed to flow so fast that it went through the blanket onto the floor.

By this time, I am freaking out. Losing my mind! I call the vet, and they're closing in a few minutes. She asked me to email her the picture, and once she saw it, she said something along the lines of, its fine, but if you want you can take her to the emergency vet...... IF I WANT... my dog is literally bleeding all over the place, and she saying its fine, and she doesn't need to be seen, but if I want to for my sanity, I can take her in. She the proceeds to tell me that the vet left a while ago, and maybe I should go to another vet in town. So I call one close by, that's open until 6. They told us to bring her by, and they would check her out.

I'm on the couch sobbing because I think my dog is going to die, meanwhile Curtis has her standing up in the kitchen trying to clean the incision, because the vet tech had suggested that during one of the calls. But, by this point the bleeding is getting pretty fast. He starts wrapping her in the blanket, but it's soaked in blood. So he has me get an old t-shirt. He wraps her in that and we put her in the car. The few seconds it took us to load her up, she was bleeding all over the ground and the car.

Curtis told me he would sit in the back and hold pressure to the incision! We get to the vet, and pull up in the area that is an unloading zone. I leave Curtis and Molly in the car to get help. The vet comes out, looks at Molly for just a few seconds and tells us to go to the Pet ER in Brunswick. My car was low on gas, I think it had 45 miles to empty, and the Brunswick Pet ER was 39 miles away. We made it to the ER with 5 miles to empty. We got Molly all settled, signed the forms, and left her over night. They told us they would give us answers in the morning, and watch her closely.

// I completely recommend them to anyone who needs to take their animal to an ER. The prices were great, and the staff was amazing! //

We were supposed to have dinner with friends that night. I was going to make chicken wrapped in bacon, and we were going to play board games. After eating pizza and cake with our friends, I remember finally sitting on the couch. The house was silent, tv was off, and Curtis looks at me and said "you made it really hard for me today. My dog was bleeding out and my wife was just sobbing!" I just sat there for a moment because I was so thankful. I have no idea what I would have done if he wasn't there, or if he expected me to do anything that he had done.

The next morning, I went to pick her up. She had slept with a pressure wrap to stop the bleeding. They told me she had a hematoma burst. This is basically a clot or a pocket of blood that was caused by the surgery. If she wasn't spayed on her heat cycle, the risk of this would have went down significantly.

We had a follow up with our vet that morning, and she proceeded to tell me "well yeah, I guess I should have left my yoga class to come check on her." I'm sorry... but what? Your yoga class was more important than my dog bleeding out. They took her bandage off, to check that her incision was good and there was no signs of infection, and then kept her for most of the day for observations. When I picked her up that evening, she was her normal, crazy self, and it was a breath of fresh air.

We really thought we were going to lose her, and I think that was a huge turning point. She went from our dog, to our child. She is spoiled rotten, but truthfully we're okay with it. We love our Molly more than words can explain, and we're so thankful that she is here with us a year later.

sincerely, stephanie