Happiness is...

Thanks to my neighbors, Carol and her husband, mostly her husband, for assembling the swing.  Carol has her arm around him only he didn't want to be in the picture.  I'd say he missed out on the good part!

Min and I were in the backyard yesterday afternoon breaking it in.  Well, not Min, just me!

Our hero!

Manic June

These, along with the sling, are two very important tools used to get us successfully through June.  Personally, I prefer a calendar with many, many more blank squares and fortunately half of these squares were medication reminders for the Mighty Min rather than anything involving leaving the house.

I was a tad overwhelmed with the timing of the taking of all the medications and started out writing them down so I could check them off.  Ah, the fairly smart phone stepped up to the plate.  Currently it chimes meds reminders at 6am, 2pm, 6pm, and 10pm.  Very helpful.

Today is the last day of pain meds and it will be curious to see tomorrow if Min acts any differently.  She is feeling so much better and is moving around more.  Not exactly what she should be doing and I prevent as much of that as I can.  She does insist on taking care of business on her own though and does not want me standing next to her while she squats.  Ok.

She does spend the majority of her time though like this:
 

The Crocheted Nests

Janie did the crocheting and used cotton yarn that I gave her.  This is a baby Blue Jay who was found on the ground after a storm.  We don't know if he made it or not but he at least had a cozy spot to recuperate.

No, Not Parts for a Jacuzzi

Actually it's the dog crate.  When Janie was over yesterday I had her keep her eyes on Min while I struggled to get this enormous thing out of the garage.  It was tucked back in the farthest corner because I really didn't think I would use it ever again.

I hosed it down and dragged it to the deck to dry off.  The challenge for today was get it into the house and assembled so I could see if Min would go into it.  If she can't be supervised than she should be crated.  According to her surrender paperwork though she has never been in a crate so it's unlikely that this is the answer but must try anyway.

Turns out the real challenge is to find the bag with the bolts and washers that attach top to bottom.  One would think they might be duct taped to one of the big crate pieces.  Nope.  I'm pretty sure they are in the house in a Small Parts Box somewhere.  As I was checking all small boxes, I did find $35.  Can't say why it was in a box though.

Not such a good day for Min.  She winced out loud when we went outside in the afternoon and she winced out loud when we went back in.  We were outside for three hours and while it was 96, we were in the shade and there was a lovely light breeze.  Still, she was panting a lot.  She ate a good dinner had her 6pm meds and then was back to panting again.  I decided it must be pain.  Got the frozen corn out again and iced her hip and elbow too. Then she seemed to get a little nervous so we went out in case it was a potty break.  I went into the garage to double check on the crate parts.  I came back out and she wasn't were I left her.  She was at the back of the garage and finally, we have POOPS!  And lots of them.  And just like that the panting was also over.  It was a relief for both of us because I was wondering what had happened that she might be in so much pain and I had also been wondering if she was constipated.
 

 I thought of changing my banner to this because eyes on Min is my full-time job for the next four weeks: I'm not smiling because I was going for a serious look but not a menacing squinty eyed I'm-watching-you look.

The Remove 6-23-14 Challenge

This is a pain medication patch at least 4x6 inches and stuck on Miss Min's bum.  There were a lot of instructions about removing and disposing of this patch.  Remove while wearing gloves is not actually helpful about how to remove it from the dog.

One corner was already peeling up so I tried to pull back one of the other corners.  Quite a reaction from Min. She snapped her head back so fast it should have been blurred.  I tried one more time and decided that was the wrong approach and was upsetting her more than necessary.  Janie was saying soothing things and I just ripped the whole patch off and it was over.  The actual medicine part was not adhesive so it turned out a quick rip was the best way.

Challenges

If anyone would have asked me on Saturday night about 4 weeks of recovery for Min, I would have said, I can't do it, I just can't.  It started with her first step out of the car which was really kind of a dive with me trying to balance her.  Then the gate into the backyard had to be opened and the scariest of all was this:

It's actually one short step up and two real steps.  The rocks in the lower left slope up with not too much of a step.  Either way, Min put on the brakes.  No. Way.  She didn't even want to move her front legs.  I had to lift her by her collar, for pete's sake, to move her front feet and lift up on the sling so her back feet weren't on the ground at all.  Plus she did not want to go straight on and so we moved up the steps in a parallel manner.  Fortunately, I had thought ahead and the storm door was propped open as wide as it could be, although she has never been totally comfortable with that door, so all I had to do was unlock the regular door.  Once that was open she tried to race in.  Are you kidding me is what I wanted to say but I'm pretty sure it would have come out as a sob.

We repeated the whole ordeal later in the evening because I wanted her to potty before we went to bed.  Particularly scary was the diving out the back door like she was trying to get past the stairs as fast as she could.  I really thought she might take me down with her.

I moved her bed from the kitchen to my room, while keeping her next to my side, and we were settled in for the night.  Min was sleeping, I was worrying. Of course, I did fall asleep because I was totally exhausted and then... I woke with a start, saw that it was 1am-ish and wondered what woke me up when I heard Min's tags jingle.  NOT IN HER BED!  STANDING AT THE BACK DOOR!

Moving around without an escort is on the Do Not Allow list.

So we repeated it all once again but this time in the dark.  I think she must have felt like she needed to potty but actually never did.  I'm guessing all the drugs kind of mess with a lot of stuff.  

Yesterday, Sunday, was much better.  I remembered a short training leash that we still have and that helped immensely.

You can see the leash draped over the arm of the chair and it's just 18-inches long.  The sling measures 26-inches long and 8-inches at it's widest.  The straps are adjustable and I left them just as they came out of the package.  So how we have made it work is I slip the sling under Min right up to her back legs, I slip my right arm through both straps and slide it up my arm so as not to end up with a broken wrist, then grab the leash with my right hand.  I have plenty of strength to lift her back end because it is easier to use my legs than just my arms and I can even swing it a bit if I need to position her.  My hand on the leash keeps her head up and going forward.  It works amazingly well and my left hand is free to open the door or whatever.  It also keeps her from diving out the door on the way to the backyard.

So yesterday morning we made it outside fairly calmly.  Min laid down on the grass and I told her to stay.  I went inside to get her food and my coffee.  I heard those tags again.  I looked out and she was at the back of the yard taking care of business.  The taking care of business was reassuring but:

Moving around without an escort is on the Do Not Allow list!!!

Good Girl, Now Put Your Head Down and Just Take a Little Nap Please

It's been a week.

 

When I adopted Min, I knew she came with some health issues.  The most major was hip dysplasia which is an abnormality of the head of the femur and the hip socket.  She could spend her life on pain pills or she could have surgery.  I voted for surgery and so we went and consulted with Dr. Stephan at the Utah Veterinary Center, (specialists) thirty five miles north of us.  He said she was a good candidate because she is young, lean, and has good body confirmation.  First we had to make sure her UTI was cleared up.  That was taken care of with our regular vet.

Surgery was scheduled for Tuesday, 06/17.  On Monday Dr. Stephan called me and said he thought it wasn't explained correctly to me because Tuesday was actually the drop off day and the prep work was started. Surgery would be done on Wednesday with pick-up on Thursday.  Ok then, I scaled back my anxiety a day.

Tuesday I dropped off Min and 80% of the estimate.  Dr. Stephan called me Wednesday morning and told me she had been bathed and shaved the night before and was all ready.  He would call with an update later in the day.  I called at 5 wondering why I hadn't hear anything and Min was in surgery.  There had been an emergency (Akita vs. miniature poodle) that pushed the schedule back. Dr. Stephan called at 6:45 saying everything went well and she was recovering nicely.  Hooray!

He called again on Thursday morning and said she was doing very well, he was pleased, everything looked good and I could pick her about 3.  Whew.  Janie came with me for emotional support as well as to be another set of ears for the instructions and to keep her calm on the ride home.

Jessie, one of the techs came in and explained the care routine, meds, etc. and then said basically I should think of it as 4 weeks of bed rest.  Oh. Not exactly what I had imagined/planned.  While he went to get Min ready to leave, Dr. Stephan came in and explained the surgery, showed me the after x-rays and also said he would like her head on a pillow for 4 weeks.

Jessie brought Min in and Dr. Stephan looked at her and saw her leg was externally rotated out which it hadn't been earlier.  He hoped it was just because she was worried about the tile floor so we took her out to the grass.  He was even more concerned and brought her in for a quick x-ray.

Bad news.  The rod in her femur had twisted.  Dr. Stephan was so very frustrated.  Another surgery was scheduled for Friday and we went home Min-less..

Dr. Stephan called me at 9 Friday morning to say Min had a good night and that they were getting ready to prep her for the surgery.  He called me again at 5 to report that "it had been a day."  Of course Min is not his only patient but her surgery was not without some difficulties.  They had a terribly hard time getting the rod out of her femur. When it had twisted it settled into place tightly.  The rods are tapered so he likened it to falling into a well with your arms at your side.  You're wedged in.  The struggle to get the rod out caused a fracture in her femur.  He fixed that with a bone plate and is satisfied.  It's there forever.  I thought maybe that meant a cast on her leg but no.  Her incision, however, is now twice as long as it was.

So in the end it all went well but it was a longer surgery, 4 hours, and because of that I have an extra week's worth of antibiotic.  Dr. Stephan said once again that the ideal recovery is to have her head on a pillow for four weeks.

There was a mix-up with phone messages so I only spoke to him Saturday morning and will wait to see the latest after surgery pictures when we go in for our 4 week post-op visit.  I was lucky that Janie was able to go with me again to picked up Min as the exit was closed on the freeway and even though Dr. Stephan gave me the work around detour, it was nice to have her in the navigator's seat.

So right now this is how things are:

Icing with bags of frozen corn.

QOTD

Found on someone's blog somewhere...

I'm a Convert!

A green smoothie!  Janie made me one when I dropped off her veg last week.  She has a NutriBullet and I didn't know if my stick blender would do the job.  Oh yes it does!

My GS had one cup of packed Tatsoi leaves, a cup of frozen mangos and a quarter of a frozen banana plus about 1 1/2 cups of unsweetened almond milk.  Fabulous.

Who knew righteous tasted so good!?!