Pete

Hope you are feeling better as each day goes by. Mt first flap was also taken from my thigh.

Apologies if you have already answered this in another thread, but I was wondering how/where did the docs access your tongue to do your glossectomy and build your free flap? Was it from around your neck?

Karen

They went in with a horizontal incision on my neck front again, but also through a vertical incision through the right side of my neck -- Busy as beavers they must have been, with two portals into my throat!

Now that the failed portion of the flap has be removed, the vertical slice has healed nicely, but there are still two very small places in the horizontal slice where it occasionally still leaks. I'm getting a lot less secretion drainage at the trach and the suction machine has definitely not been having to work as hard the last few days!

I'm seeing the nurse practitioner again today (It's been weekly followups with her since the surgery) -- That's another good thing about using a CCC instead of a single Doc's office -- She is the key person regarding the followup care, taking care of home delivery of food and pump sets, trach support machinery (air moisturizer, suction, etc.) and she will be arranging stuf like swallowing test/therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, etc., writes prescriptions, cleans out sutures, etc.

However, not all teams have the nurse practitioner -- She did a presentation recently at a conference on her role, esp in the followup after the surgery.

Hi, Pete,

Glad to hear you're doing better. I hadn't read this thread for awhile and have really enjoyed hearing about your rats. At my first teaching job we always got baby rats for students to train in operant conditioning, etc. The standard routine was to euthanize the rats after you have finished the experiments. I couldn't bear to see them killed and actually found homes for them but ended up having to keep 2 males. They are very social, curious, entertaining, and love to be held and petted. The males do have to sort things out in terms of dominance!

Actually, taking home the "used" rats is likely the way pet rats got started -- It would be hard to work with them without becoming attached!

Oh Yah? Just try me! I am POSITIVE I would not become attached!

Donna

Of course, there are the folks for which there is no hope, whatsoever! <grinz>

It has a lot to do with the fur-less (not hairless, just furless) tails -- Squirrels are built essentially the same but the fur on their tails makes them cute! My "hair-less" (really fur-less) RatHarriet (She wasn't 'Harry') was so ugly she was almost cute -- Same for hairless cats and dogs.

The Quack Pack has become tame enough that I can pick them up individually without trauma, so I weighed them last night:

RatPhooey (who is still licking my hands) 9.2 ounces
RatHuey 11.2 ounces
RatDewey 14.6 ounces

Not going to mistake these guys for gerbils!

I never weighed my biggest rat, Ratatouille, but he had to be bigger than all three of these combined!

RatDewey is unusual because he very gently takes treats offered by hand -- RatHuey snaps at treats like they were the last ever in the world, even trying to yank on the spoon if I'm giving something like yogurt or cottage cheese -- RatPhooey is in-between, wasting no time getting his share (he often runs off immediately to stash it and come back for more) but not endangering my fingers in the process.

Pete

Does RatDewey need a diet?? That's almost a pound! I think that RatPhooey just likes you and that is why he keeps licking you. You sound like you are feeling better than you were. How was the appointment with the nurse practitioner? Any new news?

Is it more normal for the to snatch the treats? or to stash the treats? If one would bite you are there any health risks for you??

They sound similar to my dogs - I have one that is very much the gentleman, one that almost takes fingers if you are not careful but is learning that also tries to bite the spoon. All of my dogs can eat from a spoon, know what ice cream is and the most fun of all - will let you squirt Reddi Whip in their mouths. LOL

Patty

They will get bigger -- RatDewey looks fat and lazy when he is sprawled out sleeping, but you should see him move when he wants to -- Rats can be faaaasst!!

Have to be careful with something like a spray because rats (and horses) can't vomit...

They are competitive, so it is natural for them to snatch, but one trains them at first by letting them sniff and examine fingers for a while -- Feeding from an open hand, like with a horse, is safer, but harder to control. I have only been bitten once and that was when I stepped on a rat with bare feet when living in my tiny RV (6' x 10' inside; a 13' Scamp trailer) -- My son made the mistake of opening the cage door before cutting some meat into small pieces and one of my previous RatLadies accidentally bit him -- Not really any different than any animal bite.

Not sure yet if RatPhooey senses I'm sick or if licking is his way of greeting -- Rats groom each other, so they do the same with human buddies -- They also 'barber', chewing off hair, but that's more of a dominance thing.

So far, no bruxing, where they rub the outer incisors sideways against each other to wear them down and keep them sharp -- When rats do it, they are generally content, so it's nice to have a bruxing rat sitting on your shoulder -- OTOH, when Guinea Pigs do that, they are angry!

Pretty soon, I will start taking them out of the cage and tossing them onto my bed pillow, then catching them and doing it again -- After a while, they will run down to be thrown again -- Then I will graduate to all of them doing it, racing each other to my hands -- They really like games like that.

Pete that sounds too funny. Now do you have to reward them with a treat to get them to come back for more or do they actually enjoy it?

Patty