Tiny Tiger Surgery!

In retrospect, we aren't sure exactly how it happened. Maybe it was those handstands off the living room couch, or the acrobatics on the parallel bars. (I warned him about that!) But the Tiny Tiger sustained a neck injury that worried us. In fact, we assessed the danger of his head popping off to be Quite High Indeed (QHI)!

So, with some trepidation, we tried to keep the patient quiet and calm, and we scheduled surgery for 1 pm on Saturday afternoon. As it turns out, the surgeon was a few minutes late for the 1 pm appointment because . . . ahem . . . she is also the housekeeper, chief dishwasher, main baker, and laundress, who had many other things to do around the house first.

This was a picture of the Tiny Tiger just before the surgery. Everyone was quite impressed by the Great Big Needle, and we tried to keep the Tiny Tiger from seeing it, but even his whiskers looked stressed. (A curved upholstery type needle was deemed to be best for this particular job.)

We listened to the Tiny Tiger's heartbeat. No, we weren't sure exactly what we were listening for, or how it was supposed to sound, since we had never listened to a tiger's heartbeat before. But there was something in there going thumpy-bump, so we thought that was a good sign.

This was one of the final pre-op photos. Everyone, including the surgeon, was a bit nervous. We all held our breath as the surgery took place. A row of tiny, neat stitches was needed, and in record time, the surgery was completed. We are happy to report there were no unexpected complications.

We immediately placed the stethoscope on the Tiny Tiger once again, and confirmed that his heart was still beating. Hooray, the Tiny Tiger was still alive! Shortly thereafter, the Tiny Tiger was moved to a bed in the Head Splort Recovery Ward, under a tiny sheep blanket. (How small was the blankie? We could fit just one sheep on it, that's how small!)

And then the little quartet gathered atop the sheep blanket, and they sang quiet, peaceful, calming tunes to put the patient in the right frame of mind for recovery. They also brought a lovely Get-Well card with flowers on it. That's what friends are for!

I am writing this update on the next day, and I am pleased to report that the patient had a very good night and is fully recovering. The stitches are the self-dissolving kind, so eventually they will disappear on their own. No additional treatments or surgeries are expected to be needed, thank goodness.

Get Well Soon, Tiny Tiger!


The soundtrack to this scene of the routine heartbeat check before the surgery has to be about a heartbeat. So here is Survivor, with American Heartbeat.