Happy Halloween! We're going to a party at our friend Calvin's. I don't have a costume (poor planning, I know, but here it is Halloween day & too late to really do anything about it, so there you are), so I thought I'd just wear a really funky outfit and say I dressed as someone cooler than I am.

Yesterday I had lunch with a couple of folks I met online. We get together for lunch every couple of months, usually at Rick's Diner. It's funny because we don't have a lot in common in terms of where our lives are, but I really like them and have a good time with them. I think the net is really good for that: letting you get to know someone aside from all the stuff like do you have kids, what do you do for a living, and so forth that might interfere with getting to know someone, say, at a party.

Just got back from taking Lina to the vet to have her stitches out. This time I thought ahead and called to see if they were running behind. But it still did me no good! They said they were right on schedule, so I showed up at 10, and still had to wait until 10:15 to get into the examining room. Maybe for them that is right on schedule.

After all these trips to the vet, at all of which nasty things happen to her, poor Lina's whining the whole time we're there is reaching manic proportions. Seriously, she's getting to the point where she disturbs other animals (and people). Unfortunately it's only going to get worse. Because Dr. Lindeke confirmed today that she does have a torn ligament in her knee.

I'm not really surprised, because it's been over a week and she's still limping just as much. We're tentatively scheduled for knee surgery next Wednesday, but they have to confirm it because they only have one doctor who can do knee surgery, and she 1. is part-time there and overbooked; 2. only wants to do knee surgeries on animals less than 50 pounds. Apparently the larger the animal, the more difficult the surgery. I would think the reverse, that tiny knees would be harder to work on than big ones. Just like baby clothes are more difficult to sew because everything is smaller. But then, I'm not a doctor so what do I know.

Anyway, if this doctor at St. Francis can't do Lina, then we have to go to some veterinary surgical practice in Raleigh that Dr. Lindeke recommended. She said it's a state of the art facility and they'd do a really good job, but it would also be more expensive there.

On the other hand, the good news is the biopsy came bak and there's no sign that Lina had a tumor after all. The diagnosis is "Focal chronic ulcerative dermatitis with granulation tissue formation." Which apparently means "big inflamed lump on the skin with no obvious cause." [Warning: Gross Medical Information Ahead!] Dr. Lindeke was so amused by the lab report that she gave me a copy. It suggests the possibility "... that the dog had licked or chewed off the tumor in this area." In other words, if she ever had a tumor there, she ate it. Can I just say ick? I mean, ick. [End Grossout Warning]

So it seems this has turned out to be the month of veterenary bills. Poor Lina. An added complication is that, as always, they'll be spending Thanksgiving weekend in a kennel. So we either need to have the surgery immediately, so she'll be recovered by then, or wait until December.