Just a quickie here as I’ve been getting a few messages about the dog.

This may in the end have been a false alarm about her possible torn ACL in her other knee.

My dog, who is endlessly injured in one way or another (seriously I really do not suffer Baron Von Munchhausen syndrome.. ) recently ate a bunch of foxtails. Well.. I think her intention was to eat grass, but ate one foxtail, it aggravated her, so she ate more grass, etc etc.. 10 minutes later, she’s hacking, coughing, desperately trying to clear her throat and I’m on the phone to the vet.

By the time we get there she is a bit better, my vet thinks it OK to take a wait and see approach. Well I lasted about a day. She went in the morning of the 2nd day to be knocked out to get her throat checked as clearly something wasn’t right. Yup, she had a foxtail stuck in her tonsils. There was another that had abcessed in the side of her throat but they weren’t able to get anything from there.

Since she was being knocked out I asked also for a nail trim and for them to check her leg while she was sedated for any drawer movement.. Nothing. Though the vet said that there was some “lateral” movement, whatever that means, but no drawer movement. So, she has something wrong, but not yet needing any further action.

She came back from the vet very groggy (falling asleep standing up trying to watch me!! soooo cute!) I had to lay her down so she didn’t hurt herself! But no more throat clearing, so that was taken care of.

Three vet appts since the knee began bothering her and three different vets, but the concensus is to wait and see. I take her to the park daily for 1 – 1 1/2 hours and she barrels about, rock climbing, swimming, playing and ball chasing and is not even limping anymore, so maybe it was some sort of strain. If something bothers her I give her 1/4 of a Rimadyl and by the following morning she’s right as rain. And I’ve not even given her any for a couple of weeks now.. so.. your guess is as good as mine. Needless to say, I’m not worried right now about it.

Though of course she is limping once morel.. but, I should say, not limping from her knee..

Now she’s done something else.  Darn dog. I found another foxtail in her front paw which,  with a bit of a struggle she let me remove, but then she was limping madly – actually hopping –  on her back paw (operated leg). Poked around her toes for yet another foxtail but nothing. Later that night upon re-examination I found a pretty nasty slice in her paw pad, probably from the rocks at the dog park, or more likely some broken glass, as the cut is a clean slice.

Poor pup.. does it ever end?

In other news.. my latest obsession? Wardrobe_remix on flickr. I started a flickr group for the people that knit my designs to post their pictures, then one day was wearing an outfit that I liked, so.. it ended up on W_R.. and now? I think everyday about what I’m wearing. Working at home it’s easy enough to get sloppy. Especially when my primary outing is to the dog park – silly to look too nice there, you only are going to get covered in mud and slop from the goofy happy wet soppy dogs. But I don’t know, W_R is fun. It’s made me look at what I wear more carefully, and care about what I put together, even on a day when I don’t want to document my clothes. So the picture? it’s a wardrobe_remix one. My plan is to include Freia in each one.. I’ve only done a few, but it’s a start – if a late one.

Freia finally got her freedom and for two months was the happiest, sweetest, happy-go-lucky pup. No more sneering at other dogs, just play play play. Made me realize how much the injury has affected her this last year.

Sad to say though, about 3 weeks ago she injured the other knee. Though till then she never showed any signs even under sedation, the additional stresses can and often do take out the good knee. The ratio of dogs is some 50% go on to require surgery on the other leg, so I’m bummed out, but not entirely shocked.

She is bummed out too. We still go to the park and I let her run about, but if she does more than an hour and a half of intense play then she’s out for the count and very limpy the remainder of the day, though right as rain the following morning. Though I’ve not had confirmation from the dr. yet, I recognize the signs. The soreness and limping after exercise, and toe-touching the rest of the time. And of course, out at the park, running about, you’d never know there was anything wrong with her.

Such a drag.

I have a call into the doctor today and I guess I will take her in next week for confirmation and schedule the surgery for the following week. It’s a bit tricky as I go to Ohio for TNNA in June, this would put her 6 weeks post op when I have to go, but her doggie day care can do the job of walking her at that point. She will be mobile and the hardest part will be keeping her calm more than anything. The timing of the surgery is tricky as I have a series of shows from June on, so I really have no 8 week stretch when I will be here.  At least if I do it now, even if it seems early, then it’s done and she will be able to enjoy the summer. I have to keep in mind, though this injury is not (yet) as severe as the first one, it won’t get any better, short of keeping her on a leash, which only disguises the injury, it is no cure. And I certainly don’t want to keep a 3 year old, high energy dog on a leash for months on end again. I promised myself that if the 2nd knee went, I wouldn’t wait.

The rest of my life has been quite a ride too. I’m referring to it all as a series of unfortunate events. Nothing major, but an endless river of annoyances.

• Garbage disposal broke, replaced, new one broke.
• Computer crashed beyond repair and wasn’t backed up for 3 months, but that wasn’t the worst of it, I also lost over a year of data for my company’s accounting. Fortunately taxes had been done, and I have everything printed out, but I will be spending the next few months re-entering it all.. this time I’m backing it up.. lesson learned.
• Car needs a service.. again
• When doing the data entry for the new laptop I accidentally deleted a day’s worth of work.. luckily this time I had it backed up, but still.. sheesh.
• Oh, and the new laptop? (paid for with my tax refund – in one door, out the next) The new laptop that I received just a week ago needs to have the keyboard replaced. Luckily I have on-site service and though they tried to tell me that it was easy and I could do it myself, I figure the way things are going right now.. bad idea.
• Spent $20 on new bulbs for my under cabinet lights in my kitchen, still didn’t work. Bought a new set of under cabinet lights. Did, at best, a mediocre job of installing them, the wiring is sort of funky. Had a friend come over to help me pull the fridge out so I could remove the last of the wiring of the “broken” lights only to find that the plug had simply become dislodged and my old, nicely installed lights actually worked just fine.. Guess what I’ll be doing this weekend.. replacing the new ones with the old ones… sigh..
• Wrote a list of 10 goals for Knitwhits, been already shot down on 2 of them.. ouch. (but I’m not giving up on that.. I’m stubborn that way and will pursue these ideas further) I’d give you more specifics on them but they aren’t really things I can talk about in a public forum. Still stings  though!

So.. see what I mean? nothing life-shattering, but just sort of tedious and endless.. at least I haven’t stubbed my toe lately – that’s always an eye opener.

Oh Brother.. so much for willpower. Well Christmas was the beginning of my downfall.

I think for about another day or so I kept Freia in her Xpen, but probably daily have given her more and more freedoms. It started with letting her watch me prepare dinner with her lying down on the rug nearby. Then she got a case of the zoomies one day and tore around the house like a 4 month old puppy. She survived that just fine, though I thought I would keel over. I kept watching her for a limp, but nothing. So then one night I let her have the whole bedroom, instead of only access to her sleeping area. Another time I let her hang out outside the pen in the livingroom, but kept the stairs blocked off.. you see where this is going, right?

The one thing that I did notice, and this was a big giveaway that she was feeling good, is that her behaviour went completely down the tubes this week. She was very snappy to other dogs, becoming extra territorial and bitchy. Watch out, Freia’s back in town.. Well. Not if I have any say in it. I realised that I’d completely slipped in the training/reminding of good behaviour since her injury in May. I let it slide. Not so good. So this was also a crackdown week in the training dept. Lots of kibble rewards for ignoring other dogs on our walks. By day 3 she got it, now she’s back to signalling me when she sees another dog, not by growling at them, but by turning to me for a treat.. Good girl! This isn’t going to make her an angel overnight, but will act as a reminder of what is and is not acceptable behaviour.

What I love about this is that now, a week into it, she’s no longer the dog freaking out, she’s the good dog ignoring the other dog (who’s barking it’s head off) As far as she’s concerned, she has more important things to do than worry about other dogs on our walks. Dogs to her mean something good might come from me to her, if, and only if, she’s good and ignores that dog. You gotta love the trainer that came up with this, it’s so simple and works like a charm. I almost want to tell the other people with the crazy barking dogs, but I’m still getting too much satisfaction out of having the ‘good’ dog!

New Year’s Eve. Some doggy parents came over for a glass of champagne. Freia had not seen one of the parents, the owner of her best friend, Rufus, (the dog who sadly was killed in a car hit & run earlier last summer) since her injury back in May. She was sooo excited to see him – she brought him her bones, gave him lots of smoochy kisses and tail waggles and finally just curled up as close to his lap as an 80lb dog can get and contentedly gnawed another bone. Well, since that night I just decided to continue letting her run free in the house. A little bit of guilt and concern for getting into trouble with the surgeon at my appointment this week, but then I would look at her thick, bony, grown-in rock-hard knee and it just seemed OK. She occasionally had a bit of limping which would quickly pass and I chalked it up more to a muscle ache than anything else.

So, today was the big day. Day 56. It’s been 8 weeks since the surgery. The first two were hell. Trapped downstairs with spiders crawling over us at night, uncomfortable, sleepless nights for the both of us. Lots of medication for her, multiple times a day. By Day 5 we’d cut back one of the three meds, by Day 10 we were done with the antibiotics, after 30 days, the antinflammatories were tapered to one pill every other day, till finally two weeks ago, no more pills. It started to feel like we were getting somewhere. I’m so glad to have found the ortho that I did. He encouraged exercise within limits which helped keep us all sane. Somehow in the beginning 5 minutes was all she wanted, and at week 3, 10 minutes was just right. Having an adaptive dog has certainly been very helpful for me. She’s been a most excellent patient.

She’s definately a little frightened of the ortho, though she doesn’t hold it against any individual there, she looked at me when I led her in as if to say “what?? again? how many times do we have to do this? Is this gonna hurt????” poor thing. I dropped her off at 8am, and came to pick her up and meet with Dr. Sams at 11:30. He said that “she looked like a million bucks” and proceeded to run through her freedoms and restrictions. Basically it ain’t bad, she can do almost anything on leash, her main restriction is no full out crazy play at the dog park. She can hike, swim, walk, play gently – all within the limits of her not-as-fit-as-she-was body.  As she rebuilds muscle, my concerns to watch for are her achilles tendon and patellar tendonitis. Since it’s been such a gradual, yet consistent, increase in her activity, she has so far not shown any signs of soft tissue injury. He did also caution me that someday she will probably tweak her knee and may need rest and NSAIDS for a couple of days – along the lines of how my own knees are after 30+ years of skiing. If the tweaking lasts more than a couple of days then to call him for a check up. But that’s all she wrote!

Day 1 - Day 56

Day 1- Day 56 - side view

In another 4 weeks he wants me to come in for one more Xray, she still has some bone growth to come in yet, but overall she’s done great. He expects her to be toe-touching for another 6 weeks or so, but that also six weeks from now, she can.. wait for it… wait for it.. be OFF LEASH at the dog park again!! woo hoo! That will be one happy day for this not-so-little dog!

Well, I’m going to combine these last two weeks as for all of week 5 it continued to be more of the same. Freia went up to 15 minute walks 2 or 3 times a day, we continued with her “weight training” – the little weight wrapped around her operated leg to make her “high step” like a Lipizaner pony and use that leg muscle.. looks a bit silly but it works!

By the end of week 5 I was starting to get a bit concerned as it really seemed like not much was changing. She’s been walking well since the start, but was still a bit wobbly/hobbly in her Xpen.

What a difference a few days would make. It could have been the change in the weight used – going from 2 oz to 4 oz - or maybe it was just time, but at the beginning of week 6 I started seeing little things that were good, very good and encouraging.. Just a little more excited, a little more bounce in her step, a bigger squiggle and wag in her tail. And as the days have worn on (and on… ) this change for the better is sticking. She was definitely still a bit gimpy when she was only making little steps – that seems to exaggerate her limp more, but on the move, well, she really was on the move!

She started a new trick, cute in a lap dog, unusual to say the least in an 80-pounder. Now when she’s excited she gets up on her hind legs and does a little leg hopping act.. a bit like what I imagine a dancing bear to look like. Yup, she’s feeling pretty good! Since it doesn’t appear to be hurting her,  I’ve let her do it rather than force her back down and risk injury that way.  She seems to be no worse for it in any case.

Week 6 was also Christmas week which meant a road trip 2 hours north, an unfamiliar environment and her nemesis.. young children. Acepromazine became my friend once more. Safely ensconced behind two stacked baby gates with her bed, multiple favorite bones and she was pretty good.. She got in a few cat naps but was mostly just kind of dopey.

My little 5 year old nephew even gave her a treat or two and she was tolerant of him and she might have admitted to liking him if it didn’t completely ruin her street credibility. All in all she was very well behaved, almost grown up, didn’t go completely nutso, though she was, as always, in complete adoration of my mum and stepfather – the meaty bones she gets from them probably has something to do with it. She was also very happy to have a bit more freedom around the living room later that day and the following morning. Then.. little devil, when I had my back turned, she climbed out of her Xpen (only partially closed) ONTO the very slippery polished coffee table! I caught her nose in the cookies.. sigh. The following morning (once again waiting till my back was turned - this one’s no dummy) she carefully climbed onto the couch, she’s clearly feeling back to her old self. I had a little heart attack over her on the couch as she’s really not supposed to jump up on anything, yet with her dancing bear act of late, a slow steady careful climb on the couch won’t really hurt.

So now week 6 is done, she’s clearly feeling good, feeling a lot like her old self, and though the days are flying by, this next two weeks, and hopefully final weeks of restriction, will apparently be on the challenging side. Since we’re moving about a bit more I’ve also upped her food as she was very obviously and vocally letting me know that she was getting hungrier.

Two more weeks to go, I’m counting the days, hours and minutes. In another week I’ll be counting the seconds.. I really hope I’m allowed at that point to give her back her freedom around the house, please oh please… a long walk would also do us both a world of good..

I think I’ve just had the most insane 3 hours of my life.

I was checking on the cat about every 20 minutes and at every sound I’d hear coming from upstairs. Her breathing was getting more shallow, she was clearly weakening, not able to support herself steadily, but comfortable once lying down. In the afternoon on one of the last checks I found that she had some blood coming out of her mouth, it seemed like it was time. She was close, but at the same time she was holding on to life and I wasn’t convinced that though she was pretty out of it, she wasn’t now also in some pain or discomfort. I called the vet to see if Dr. Yoo was in, she was the same vet who put Sam down back in January. She was and she would wait for me to come in with Sable. That’s when it got nuts.

I had sort of a small window to get comfortable with this decision even though I knew I really had no choice, watching Sable suffer was not right at all. It was 3pm, and the housecleaners were due any minute. I thought of waiting for them but decided instead to give my neighbor the key and the money for the girls and I would take the cat, the dog (she can’t stay when the cleaners are there, way too territorial) and myself to the vet. I’m now in pretty deep hysterics, the crying where you go “hup!.. hup!… hup!” My neighbor was so kind and helpful and was right there offering me whatever I needed emotionally to get through. She was lovely.

From the moment I picked Sable up from her spot in the living room to when I got her to the vet she barely moved except to breathe. I knew I was doing the right thing. In the car, of course, it’s the Bay Area so I hit traffic, finally get to the vet, they take me straight to my own room, cat in my arms. As I took her into the room she started this sad quiet and mournful moaning, and almost seemed to have the hiccups in her breathing, two normal breaths, one hiccup.. two normal, hiccup. Dr. Yoo comes in, gently looks her over and thinks that she’s so out of it that we don’t even need to give her a sedative before the heart stopping drug, but I want her to have the sedative anyway, I don’t want Sable to have any clue or any feeling of the heart drug. In the split second before she gets the sedative, she twitches up and seemed to stop breathing. I think she’s almost gone, so very close, no rising and falling that I can feel at all, but I can almost still feel her blood coursing, though her heartbeat is not there that I can sense. The sedative is good, it stops the moaning and the hiccuping and she’s clearly at peace. Dr. Yoo came back in and I told her I thought she was gone. Dr. Yoo listened for her heart and said, it’s very very faint, she’s gone. I asked her to give the heart stopping meds anyway. I didn’t want to risk Sable somehow waking up from the sedative at the vet, she was such a fighter, though improbable, it almost seemed possible.

Now she was really gone, free from pain. Release. It was the right thing.

But her spirit wasn’t done yet. I’ve decided she was determined to make me remember this day for eternity.  As I left I had a lovely chat with the nursing staff, they were all so kind and sympathetic, and they barely knew Sable or Sam, but they know Freia and we are all like family to them. On my way home at my freeway exit I realize that I’m out of gas, and now my Low Voltage warning light is on. I change lanes to go to the gas station at the next corner, and now the ABS warning light is on. My car slips into “limp home” mode. I somehow get enough revs out of the engine to creep into the gas station, I pump in ten gallons hoping that somehow that will breathe enough life into the engine to take me the six blocks home. Nope. I don’t even make it out of the gas station. It won’t go forward, BUT, my car will go backwards.

Crazy.

I maneouvre the car into a side spot sort of out of the way, go grovelling to the attendant to ask if it’s ok to leave it for as short a time as possible and I’ll get a tow truck there ASAP and how sorry I am and how I just bought gas from them. He looks at me like I’m a little nuts (keep in mind, i’ve now been crying about the cat off and on for 36 hours so I’m sure my face looks well puffy and red-eyed – what a mess). I get the dog, get to the first traffic light at the corner and Freia snaps at some strange woman behind me who much to my horror is beginning to bend down to pet her. I look a the woman and coldly say “she’s not friendly and she has a broken leg”. Seriously. Don’t pet strange dogs, or at least ask the owner first.. geez. What with everything going on, Freia had figured out that this was Sable’s last road trip, the car breaking down she was just as much on edge as I was, and she wasn’t about to let anyone near me at that point.

We walk home, cleaners are still there, put dog in bathroom behind baby gate, ask cleaners to throw out litter boxes, litter, floor mats around litter box and to clean that whole area well, call the car repair for the number of the tow, explain to the car repair what wrong, tell them I’ll try to get the car to them before they close in an hour (ever tried to get a tow truck in under an hour during rush hour??). Tow company puts their guy on OT to pick up my car (love them). Scramble to straighten up the office for the cleaners, get dog, walk back to gas station, meet tow truck, walk dog home again. Cleaners still there, get on phone with car repair, dog in bathroom starts barking her head off cos now the cleaners are in the office with us – vacuuming – two neighbors come over so now there’s six people in the room, two vacuums, barking dog and me on the phone, and I’m a wreck from the cat.

Can you say “madness”?

A sense of sanity slowly returned as the vacuuming was done and the dog realised that barking wasn’t making anyone go away. My lovely neighbor brought me a beautiful bunch of flowers, the other neighbor stuck around a bit longer to give me some kind words and pet the dog on the head.

And now, calmness. I can hear the silence. The only sound is the tapping of the keyboard as I write and the dog snoozing next to me.

Sable is at peace and so are we.

Well Week 4 has come and gone in a flash. A whole of of not much to report really.

I don’t really see any vast amount of improvement – she’s already quite a bit further ahead of other dogs at this stage,  but she does have  more energy, her ears are more forward and alert as she walks (reduced discomfort in her leg) and she’s raring to go, of course. I have also noticed her knee has increased in size somewhat, since she’s not limping I’m thinking it’s bone growth. This was somewhat confirmed after seeing another dog that is about 6 months post op (who happened to have had the surgery at the same doctor) and her knee was slightly larger on the operated side.

This dog owner was less restrictive with his dog and had her trailing him to work at one month and off leash at the park at 12 weeks – he sounded somewhat regretful of that decision but was swayed by those puppy eyes. I had to laugh as that is rule #1 – who’s the boss here anyway? Freia’s tried the puppy eyes trick on me but it won’t work, it just won’t.. (I say that now..). The surgery leg is somewhat visible on this other dog, her knee seems less flexible, but her other leg also now has a torn ligament which he will be taking her in for surgery once more early next year. Needless to say, this dog continues to be one of the fastest runners at the park.

Though I wasn’t able to take Freia with me to the park, it did me a world of good to walk with my dog-owner friends, and was also useful as a reminder to see how much rough-housing happens there and how Freia is definately not ready for that nor will she be in a month from now either,whether she gets the all clear or not, it will be a tough day that first time she’s off leash again.

I continue to do her rehab exercises, this week coming up she goes from 5 minutes with the ankle weight to 10 minutes, and our walks go from 10 minutes to 15 minutes. Will do her a world of good. We are doing a lot of walking games, figure eights, esses and it’s actually good on a couple of levels as it reinforces some of her previous rally-O training too. Keeps it interesting for me. I’m also no longer avoiding her doggy friends on the street and that is keeping her well adjusted, she likes to be social with pups and people and in the end I’m not fascinating to her 24/7, close, but not quite.. Variety is the spice of life.

Sable is Sam’s sister. She has so far made it a full year beyond Sam, though she was diagnosed a couple of years ago with a multitude of medical issues, mainly stemming from plain old old-age. The vet told me she might have some sort of cancer, definately has kidney failure and is not healthy enough to undergo serious tests that would require knocking her out. This was about two years ago and one year before Sam died. On the other hand, he was apparently the picture of health with the constitution of a kitten.

Well, when they did those tests, I already knew that Sam was not as healthy as he seemed, he’d begun to loose weight, but I figured it was mainly a thyroid condition. My vet kindly redid the blood tests and it was indeed Sable that was the sickly one, even though she was the one that would scamper about and behave like a kitten, while Sam was, for lack of a better description, more reserved and regal.

Sable at 18

Well, no more. Sadly, I think her time is up. She hasn’t been able to keep but one bite of food down over the last 3 days and now can’t even keep in water. Her apetite was good until today, but now I think she’s pretty much done. Her symptoms are clearly end stage kidney failure. Though she’s definately senile, she’s not out of it like Sam was so it’s very hard for me to make the final decision about putting her down right now. But it’s really only a matter of days I think.

I thought it would be easier the 2nd time around, and in some ways it is. I can compare her weakness in her back legs to Sam’s and see that she really is also at the end. This isn’t something that’s going to get better. All I can do right now is make sure she is comfortable. She’s had almost 19 very good years, has terrorized the local tomcat at my old house, beaten up and then snubbed her brother (all while he continued to clean her), put Freia in her place within hours of her arrival as a nine week old pup in our house, she’s ruled the roost and ruled my heart for many years. Both tough and vulnerable, she’s been a good cat.

When I first got her, within days she disappeared out the fire escape for almost a week, sealing her place in my heart forever. I was sick with worry, going out every night to find her. One night I called her name and even though she barely knew me, she finally responded, came to me and purred, knowing that all was forgiven. I later learned from a neighbor that she’d been living in the shared backyard the whole time, I’m assuming gathering the lay of the land. She never needed to go out the fire escape again, she decided that home was the best place. Sam on the other hand would go out and hunt (or think he was hunting) daily. He caught a pigeon once and my roommate never let me forget it. All we found was a wing in the fireplace and it probably took me 1/2 an hour to vacuum up all the feathers. Sam was never so proud as he was that morning.

I’m not really a cat person, but these were good cats. It’s amazing to think I had them over 1/3 of my life –  Sable passing will be quite the end of an era.

11/09/08
Well, this morning I was convinced that it was time. But then after speaking with a friend who was going to come with me to the vet I decided that since she’s really not showing any pain that I would wait. She’s drinking water, but is not responding to all her favorite treats, though the tuna juice did somewhat act like smelling salts for her and she perked up a bit. I’ve been checking on her about every hour and just now held her on my chest for 20 minutes (as long as she could stand) and she even started purring. I’m glad I waited. I don’t think she wants to die at the vet’s. Sam was out of it when I took him in, I think he was somewhat aware that I was holding him, but really didn’t care about anything, not even meowing on the way to the vet. Sable is still aware of what’s going on around her, so it’s not her time yet. Maybe in one hour, maybe in one day, but not just yet.

Elfin Booties

Now that my head is not quite so wrapped around Freia’s leg issues I’m able to actually get some knitting done. I’ve also come to realise that I appear to be one of those that would have “works well under pressure” on my resume, except it should be modified to say “designs well under pressure”. I’ve been producing new things at a bit of a breakneck speed lately and these are some of my best ideas yet.. I think..

Here they are in reverse order. The lastest completed design is for the Elfin Booties. Cute, eh? I released these last wednesday thinking “meh, we’ll see what happens, it’s a travel day before a giant holiday”. whoa.. I was wrong. This was the MOST successful pattern release ever of mine! I’m shocked, humbled and grateful! They are awfully fun to make, I’ve made a bunch already just in testing the pattern. One thing I learned from this.. almost the hard way, but thankfully not quite… Louet Riverstone yarn felts A LOT faster than Cascade 220. The above are in Cascade 220. Later, I made a pair for myself in the Riverstone and just caught them in time. They fit me perfectly, but 2 minutes longer in the washing machine and they would have been too small.

Bloomies!

Another project that is finished – the knitting part – I still have to write up the pattern – are the Flore Bloomers. I had these with me at Stitches East and just pulled them out of my suitcase for photography for the 2009 Catalog that I’m also working on right now. Pattern will be coming soon, I have one other thing ahead of these but they should be ready soon-ish.. In case you didn’t already figure it out, these are meant to coordinate with my Flore Petal Hat – I have a little sweater in mind too, so stay tuned..

The final project that is making some real headway again is the Ophelia Shrug. This was something I started a while back but then lost my mojo. Well I’m deeply and very much in like with this project again and I can’t wait to get it done so I can wear it! I’m using Noro Silk Garden that I got from Laurie at Greenwich Yarn in the city. I love these colors and I think they work very nicely with the stitch patterns and the design. I have one more sleeve to go and it’s taking all my will power to not work on it this afternoon but to wait until my knitting group tonight. Here’s a taste:

Ophelia close up

Ophelia - big picture

I was concerned about the sizing, it was looking a little big so I was starting to dread undoing it, but I got a little smart and instead of just beginning to unwind, I partially pulled out one needle to try it on, and phew! It was just right. This meant I had to reinsert the needle in a million (well, 250) stitches, but better than reknitting 30 rows of 200+ stitches. I also took some time yesterday and filmed a short tutorial on how to do the stitch pattern particular to this design. Once that is edited I will put it up. So.. pattern is written, I just have to finish up the knitting, double check my numbers and it’s good to go. Yay!

Wednesday 11/26
Freia had her staples out today. Her visit to the dr’s office was a speedy one, I don’t know how they get those things out but they do it in a flash. Freia’s a little frightened of them there, she must have some memory of the operation, but she also knows that they dole out treats, so she’s a bit conflicted! They said she was progressing well. As long as I can (try) to keep her four paws on the floor – ie, no jumping (ha!) that she should be fine. She’s officially up to 2-3 10 minute walks a day now, which we’ve really been doing since the beginning of the 2nd week, and they said it was OK if I did 15. As long as she continues forward then we’re doing fine. She is pretty much pain free. Her held is still held down a bit when she walks, so I can tell there is some discomfort, but the slower we go the more even her stride. She’s taken a few little trots (not approved by me) and has not three-legged it at all.

It’s a bit deceiving as when she’s walking she looks fine, and at home I keep her restricted to the Xpen or the futon, so I don’t really see much toe touching, but I think, … I think… she’s actually toe touching a bit less than she was before the operation. Now, she does still have a pronounced limp as she moves about within the pen, clearly she’s not healed and there is some discomfort. However, she will sleep with her knee fully bent next to her, or under her, so she seems to have full range of mobility. Her foot is not at any sort of funny angle, but is at the same angle as her other foot, so there’s no apparent misalignment there. She stands on the TPLO leg to pee, she uses it to scratch her ears, so clearly she’s feeling pretty good!

Deer antler for the dog

Someone suggested Deer Antlers as chews for the dog, and before you get your knickers in a twist, the antlers are harvested annually without causing any pain to the deer. Freia loves these and I have to say, so do I. They are odor free, mess free, they don’t seem to crack or chip like a bone, but keep her entertained for quite a while, and seem to last forever!! I got them from here: http://www.bonusvelvetantler.com/home they are very reasonably priced especially as they will seemingly last a very long time. I got a couple of 4″ and 7″ and they seem just right for her.

Thursday 11/27 (Thanksgiving)
Debating whether or not to knock her out today when I leave to go to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. It’s soooo quiet at my house though that I think it should be safe. I’ll not be gone for long. We went on a 15 minute (maybe even 20?) walk today, not that far, maybe a total of 3 blocks around, we take it slow. Today’s her first day that she goes to alternate days for the anti-inflammatory, and I won’t be home later to make sure she doesn’t swell up, stupid of me to take her today, but it’s been a few hours now and she looks fine. Funny thing is she’s super tired after it, she’s not used to taking longer jaunts now after these last two weeks of little end-of-block walks.

Well, she slept most of the day so I decided to let her continue to sleep drug free. Of course as soon as I left the house I saw these ragamuffin kids running around my neighborhood. Left me with visions of them seeing the “Do NOT Knock” sign on my door and being troublemakers and knocking like crazy to piss off the dog. I need not have worried. I got home and she was fine, though crazy excited to see me, probably did more harm in those 30 seconds than any longer walk.. sigh..

Friday 11/28
Still very quiet outside cos of the holiday. Nice. Peaceful. Nothing for Freia to get amped about. We stayed mainly upstairs today with me sitting with her on the futon while I was working on a sweater. No post Turkey Day shopping for me, who really needs anything?? I mean Really?? Will post pics of her staple-free leg shortly. I have to say, her healing is rapid and rather unremarkable, which is of course a good thing, and makes for a pro-TPLO blog (which I am now, for sure), but it’s not very eventful, just lots of resting.. I did shoot a little video of what I do to keep her distracted for hours on end when she’s not sleeping. Once it’s edited I’ll put it up. Now that would be useful as that becomes the biggest challenge at this point.

Keeping her busy, antlers, UFO and Everlasting ball

Saturday 11/29
I’m finding my biggest challenge with her now is me. I keep forgetting that she’s not ready yet for longer walks, that she’s only just over 2 weeks into this. She’s doing so well. It’s deceiving. There is such a tempation for me to let her out of her “prison” but I really have to remember that I have a house of slippery wooden floors, now is not the time.

I got my blueberry corn waffle!

There’s all sorts of horror stories about dogs breaking their other leg bone during the healing phase, overdoing it and blowing out the other knee, developing patellar tendonitis (again maybe from overdoing it?). Plus she’s been extra whiny this morning, so I’m here on the futon again. It’s a hard futon, not exactly comfortable, but it stops the whining.. now she’s conked out next to me. I’m going to move and make myself some waffles for breakfast.. how long do you give me before the whining starts?

Tuesday 12/2
We had our appt today with the rehab specialist, she was very happy with how Freia walked and said she was quite a bit ahead of most dogs in her recovery. She first had me walk Freia a few steps so she could see how her gait was. Freia was clearly nervous at being there so was sort of slinking along the floor, which I explained to Sarah, the rehab gal, and she still could see that Freia was in great form. To quote her: “Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news. The good news is that she’s doing very very well, she is using her leg, she’s walking well. The bad news is that you (meaning me) have to remember that her leg is just held together with screws.” I have to say, none of this came as much of a surprise and over the last few days I do keep reminding myself that she’s not ready to wander around the house or play or trot or anything really. But it’s SO deceiving! She feels great, she wants to bolt up the stairs, run on the grass, tumble with other dogs, but not to be.

We then went over a couple of things to strengthen her leg muscle, she gave me a little ankle weight to tie around her leg. This feels funny to her so she high-steps her back leg, bending the knee more and working that big leg muscle. It looks terribly cute when she does it! It weighs hardly anything, but it does the trick. The other exercise that I’m to do is to cup her good foot and tickle it a bit to force her weight more onto the TPLO leg. This is a bit tricky as she quickly figured out that she could lean into that foot even though I was holding it up as I would support her. So you can only do it for a couple of seconds before they shift their weight onto you, instead of the “bad” leg.

Scar at 18 days

This is all very interesting to me as it seems a lot of orthos have the dogs on 8 weeks of complete restriction and  to begin walking only at the 8 week mark. I’ve been cautious with Freia but still keeping her doing the minimum amount of exercise as prescribed, but I was worried about things like bending her knee and so on, and here Sarah was telling me to seek out curbs, to do figure eights, esses and circles with her, this is real rehab! She did say that Freia was already ahead of needing to do PROM exercises which is great as I don’t think she would have been too tolerant of that, but the ankle weight doesn’t bother her and neither does the toe tickling.

It was really nice to get confirmation of what I was thinking about Freia’s good condition. I think keeping her active, but doing the surgery before the tear was complete was the right way to go, her strength and general good health have served her (and me) well. Tomorrow is officially the beginning of week 4. Week 3 has gone by very quickly, still another 5 weeks to go before xrays, and even then it’s still only continued leash walking for another 4 months, but time is beginning to speed up in this – as people said it would – it really does get easier.

Freia in her BiteNot Collar

Wednesday 11/19:
I’m definately seeing a happier dog the last two days. She’s been pretty zonked out during the day which is great, but today hit a new energy spurt. .. I hope it subsides!

I took her to the ortho this afternoon to have them remove her bandage. I could have probably done it but she’s so squirrely that she would have squirmed her way around me while I had the scissors in my hand. And to bring someone in to help would have made her too hyper. This way, by going back to the ortho they can also check the incision to make sure it all looks good, with the trained eye that I don’t have.

Since the bandage is off, those staples are going to be awfully tempting to her for the next week so I ordered a BiteNot collar. It may have been $35 poorly spent though cos she hates the darn thing. She doesn’t seem to mind the E-collar (cone) so maybe I’ll stick to that. I’m going to give it a few more tries before I give up on it competely.

The vet tech said her longer than 5 minute walks were fine, and if she does get too hyper to either cut back on the Previcox or give her some ACE. Pain, in theory, should act as a deterrent. I think that may be true for some dogs, I don’t know that Chessies ever read that rule book. They also said that because she’s in such great shape that she should continue to heal well and quickly. They also said ice her if needed, but again, a bit of pain should calm her down, and icing wasn’t necessary given that she has no swelling or bruising.

So far no seroma, and as long as I can keep her from licking her leg, that should continue to be the case. I asked, and received copies of her Xrays, check ‘em out

Xray 1

Xray 2

Pretty harsh, huh? 26 staples. 6 screws that go through her bone (and out the other side??? yikes). And if you look at the 2nd image you can see how far they rotated the bone to create the new angle. Amazingly that should all fill in with new bone growth in 8 weeks, can’t wait to see those Xrays!

Here are some pictures of the incision, I’ll put them in smallish for the squeamish. They aren’t really that bad. I’ll leave out the really stark one! She hasn’t messed with the staples too much yet, but I imagine it’s right about now that they start getting really itchy.

I think you can see the plate in this one

a bit red, but otherwise not bad

After our walk in a short while I think I will take her upstairs tonight. Last night was the 2nd night in a row that a giant spider crawled over me in my bed next to her and since I’m a major arachnophobe, I think that I’m done with sleeping on the ground floor. The vet told me (again) that it would be fine to walk her up there, but to just take it slow. In preparation for the “big move” I’ve set up a middle floor spot for her on my old futon.

Friday 11/21
No news is certainly good news. I’m continuing to see slow but steady improvement. She’s much more comfortable now being able to bend her knee without the bandage. I thought she might be a little less steady walking without it but that is not the case. She has almost no trace of any limp when walking, but when she’s moving around in her pen, she is still clearly favoring her leg. She will occasionally stand putting some weight on her right leg, but not full weight yet, as expected.

Our first night upstairs was kind of a pain. She’d had a new bone that day and maybe that was a mistake. She kept thinking she needed to go out and was not enamored with wearing the cone to sleep – she slept coneless in the pen with me since I would wake up easily if I heard her licking her leg. But with me in my bed and her on the floor, that would be something I could certainly sleep through. Trying to get the harness on her in the dark, half asleep was amusing to say the least.

Anyway, we were up and down the stairs far too many times for my liking, and we’d go out but nothing, so I eventually just put my foot down and told her “enough, go lie down”. She huffed and puffed a few times but eventually gave up and went to sleep. And I got to sleep in my bed! Heaven!

Last night was less eventful, she’s still not thrilled with the cone and neither am I. I can’t wait for her staples to come out on Wednesday and then we can both have a bit more freedom.

Making a safehouse on each level has taken a bit of planning. As I’m in a loft I don’t have doors to close or regular rooms per se.

Her day-to-day home

She mainly hangs out with me in my office. Since I’m down here about 14+ hours a day she can be with me and I can keep an eye on her. This was also where I was sleeping with her for the first week till the bandage came off.. and till the spiders started getting brave.  I have a grid on the left side and I’ve attached the walls of the Xpen to it to make it larger than the Xpen was by itself. She has room to play and loll about, but not enough to go very far.

Her other new hang out spot in the evening time is now in an unused corner of the living room. This is my old Queen size futon.

Option #2 - the old futon

I’m using the frame as the walls to keep her in. They kept falling over so now I have the “entry” rigged with a belt and the side of the frame near the wall is now attached to the handrail of the staircase to prevent it from tipping inwards. Not very elegant, but it works, and I can hang out with her or I can sit on my couch and she can still see me, though she would rather sit with me and she cries.. sigh.. She has used the futon as her upstairs bed for a while (not unfolded like this) so it is familiar to her, she just doesn’t get why she has to be fenced in. Oh well.

3rd Level - bedroom

Lastly, at night, she’s in her “usual” spot, only now I have it cordoned off with a large baby gate. Since my bed weighs half a ton, the baby gate, once shut, is going nowhere. Again, she’s been fussy here, but hopefully once the cone comes off she’ll be better.

There is no concensus about which part of the recovery from TPLO is the hardest. Some say it’s the first two weeks, others say it’s the last 2 weeks when you spend all your time trying to keep them from running, jumping, playing. So far, I’m hoping this is as hard as it gets. Last week I was just plain worried about her and how stable she was, how much I could walk her, risk of infection, swelling, seroma, her reaction to the painkillers, and so on. This week, she’s off the pain killers, but the bandage is off so I either have to keep the cone on her head (the BiteNot was a wasted $35 for her) or watch her so she doesn’t bite/lick her stitches. Plus, she’s feeling good, last night she decided she was going to bolt up the stairs in her usual way. Fortunately, and much to her surprise, I caught her harness mid-jump, but it was definately a warning to me – and this is only day 9! Today also she saw my neighbor and got in a jump on her too.. so, week 2 is challenging, but not so much worrying, though I did have a moment today that I was thinking her upper leg looked a bit swollen, but as I continue to study it, it seems normal when she stretches, so I don’t know.

Staples Day 9

Her stitches/staples look pretty good, though strangely enough they’ve mysteriously gotten a lot cleaner from when the bandage came off.. Little sneak. But nothing looks alarming, and she’s not obsessively going for them thankfully. Interestingly enough as I just re-read this post I can clearly see an improvement in her leg, there is much less swelling both in the leg itself and in the stitches. To reassure yourself, if you, dear reader, are in the predicament of going through a TPLO with your dog, grab your camera as this was definitely reassuring  for me just now to have real “proof” of improvement.

A bet gone wrong..

Her hair is beginning to grow back and she has a soft fuzz now covering her bald leg and the square patch on her butt that looks like some sort of strange shaving accident, or a bad bet.

Monday 11/24
A few milestones: Freia stood on her TPLO leg to pee! Yes, she’s an odd one, sometimes she pees like a boy, she was a bit wobbly, but she stood on the bad leg – woo hoo! She also sat squarely on her behind the other day instead of having her operated leg sticking out to the side. Some dogs have their leg out to the side before the operation as that way they don’t have to bend the knee as much, but Freia, with a partial tear, was still pretty much tucking her leg in. Post-op of course that all went out the window, but it seems as though she’s steadily returning back to normal. I decided to let her sleep without the e-collar on as she’s pretty much ignoring her staples, so we’ve both now had 3 decent nights of sleep. I have become super sensitive to her though and if I hear her licking in the middle of the night I’m able to stop her pretty quick. The staples still look great, better and better every day, in fact to look at them now outside of the staples themselves it now looks like a fine white scar line, not much sign of a cut anywhere. Another milestone typical of this surgery is the 2 week mark the dogs become riddled with separation anxiety. Well, this one’s always been a little ahead of the curve and sure enough, right about day 9 or 10 she’s whining and crying if I leave her alone for more than a minute. It’s enough to make you crazy. She did make another try at bounding up the stairs last night, but I stopped her in time again. 6 1/2 more weeks.. so close and yet so far..

She has finally shown interest in her everlasting treat ball, which she worked on for over 4 hours last night and allowed me to escape downstairs to wind some yarn for a new project. She started in on it again this morning but it was temporary, the FedEx truck was more interesting…

Staples come out on wednesday - can’t wait – then I will be able to leave her alone (which I’m doing already)  and not worry about her chewing her leg off while I’m out.

Tuesday 11/25
I woke up this morning with a whole new respect for parents of special needs children. This is what my life has become, granted it’s (hopefully) only for 8 weeks. I can’t imagine this being my life for the rest of my life.. I feel pretty pathetic complaining when it’s put in that perspective.
That being said, after Freia tried to jump on the bed this morning and then when we were accosted by some dimwit with his dog off leash I thought.. maybe it’s time for the Ace.

Ace is short for Acemoprazine or is it Acepromazine.. I dunno, anyway, it’s a sedative, not for me, for the dog.. though it’s tempting.. I hemmed and hawed as I made her breakfast and opened the bottle of pills, took one out, put it back, took it out again. Cut the tablet into 1/4’s and smooshed one quarter in with some food. With some trepidation and guilt I popped it in her mouth. Unsuspecting pup swallowed it down.  Well, it’s now almost 4 pm and I’ve gotten more work done today and more peace, more room to think and not worry than I’ve had in weeks. I almost feel human. I’ve even spoken to friends on the phone, had pleasant email exchanges with other friends, shipped out a few orders, updated my website, added a new design, created my newsletter, all with my little gal soundly and contentedly snoozing away next to me.

Yep, Ace really is my friend. I may even get to enjoy thanksgiving after all.