First of all, this isn't a joke and I hope it doesn't offend anyone on the board who has undergone a liver resection. Today, my last furbaby had a partial liver lobectomy due to a fairly large tumor (10cm X 9.5cm X 5.5cm) in her left lobe. All indications so far (fine needle aspiration cytology report, imaging reports and lack of any other growths in two years) seem to point to a benign tumor or at the very worst, a slow growing malignant tumor. The vet had hope to be able to just remove the tumor but I received word that he had to actually remove part of her lobe.
So, my questions are:
1. what to expect
2. how long did people take to recover
3. silly question.....but as the liver regenerates, do you feel 'differently'? (Not sure what that means...tired, harder to digest foods, etc.)
4. Besides the obvious abdominal pain, does removing a part of your liver cause any type of other pain?
I just don't know what to expect. I fully recognize that how a human/furbaby react is totally different but...I just need to get a rough idea of things like time frame to recover, eating habits, does this surgery affect intestinal function, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Barring any significant bleeding or other complications, I will be picking Roxy up on Thursday evening and bringing her home. I recognize this was a serious surgery and only want to be prepared. When Lesley had her spleen removed, that was also serious surgery and she rebounded quite quickly. Our furbabies can't talk so we really have no idea how they feel, what to expect, etc.
Thanks for any advice/tips you may have.