GOLPP! I'm having surgery TODAY!

I'm having surgery in the morning! As I mentioned in my last post we were worried that I had some trouble with my ticker. But I went to a special doc and got pictures made of it and it's all good! The bad news is I have something called laryngeal paralysis. It's where my throat doesn't open up wide enough for me to get good breaths of air. So I'm going to the doc and he's gonna sew part of it open for me! It's really scary though because things can go very wrong during and after surgery. Even once I heal I might still have trouble, But if I don't have the surgery we know I will have trouble with my breathing and maybe even pneumonia too like I had a few weeks ago, or worse I could suffocate to death very suddenly.
Here is what I sound like after walking from my bed to the kitchen...

Aside from my loud breathing there're other things wrong that we are learning maybe related to it. GOLPP stands for Geriatric Onset Laryngeal Paralysis Polyneuropathy. Doctors are starting to think that laryngeal paralysis is just the first sign of trouble with nerves. Doggies have this often have trouble with their back end being very weak and sometimes dragging their toes. Since I had knee surgery I'm always thought that my backside was weak because of that surgery. But I also drag my toes sometimes, which just started happening this past year. Also, for some odd reason, doggies with this time to be hypothyroid which I was just diagnosed with in July. So momma is worried that even if the surgery fixes my breathing, that other parts of me might start not working so well. It seems to progress slowly for most though.

We joined the LP yahoo group to get some guidance on what to expect. There are lotsa helpful people there. We learned that the best way to feed while recovering from this is for momma to roll my foods into meatballs and give them to me one at a time. She wanted to practice tonight, of course I am a gifted eater so it went great (except I guess I nipped her fingers a few times... But that's not my problem).

I want to also have some words about our dearly departed Mango. Momma and I were sooo shocked and sad that he went over the bridge and I know we were not alone. He was such a huge influence on us, from general blogging encouragement, to the fun of MangoMinster to the many new friends he helped us make, but also in the form of fun training ideas and a lot of laughs and smiles. I can truly say he changed our lives and there just are not words to express our gratitude or how much we will miss him. Run free big guy!