Well, the big news around here is that Shannon got her cast off! I brought her in to the vet's on Monday for what I thought was just going to be a quick look to see how things were going. The vet looked at it and said it was coming off. Fantastic! It took quite a bit of cutting and tugging, but the thing was removed and I was sent home with what seemed like a very tiny dog with an itty-bitty leg. The vet warned me that it would probably take a day or two before she started to use it. I've never had a cast, but he said that the limb feels odd for a while after you get one off. I was just happy to not have that huge thing hanging off of her. The first night she was confused. She had gotten used to using the cast to support her weight and now there was nothing there. So she spent most of the time lying on her cushion. By the next day she was touching the foot to the ground, but the leg was very weak. The vet didn't give any special instructions, but I tried to force her to use it a little. By the evening she was getting around, mostly using the foot to balance herself rather than hold her weight. I spoke to the vet on Wednesday morning. I was a little down about how little she was using it, but he didn't seem too concerned. He said to give it another 36 hours and we'd see how it goes. I called him back on Friday morning and told him that it didn't really seem any better. I'd say she was limping about as badly as before we bandaged the leg. He wasn't too happy and said that it usually worked better, especially with the small dogs. We discussed the possibility of surgery. He's not too inclined to do it and I don't really want to put her through it either. He said that it wouldn't make much difference if we did the surgery now or later. So I decided we'd wait and see how things go. When I got home it was like she had heard the decision and decided she didn't want surgery, either. She is using the leg about 90 percent of the time. She is still limping, but I think the limp is not as bad as it was before. I'm really hoping there will be further improvement. We went for our first walk in about a month this morning. I think she was thrilled to get off of the front lawn. We didn't go too far since she is probably out of shape. I did carry her the last bit, but I think she was happy to get out. Here's keeping our fingers crossed for her.
Well, this week has sucked, big time. It should have been great, starting with a long weekend as it did. But, except for Saturday, which was OK, it has really been a stinker. I'll start off by saying I went for an easy 4 mile run on Saturday morning. Pretty slow for me at an 11:15 pace, but I hadn't been for a run in almost two weeks and I let a generally slower runner in the club just carry me along. I wasn't disappointed - it felt good, with no pain or difficulty. I didn't have any particular plans for the weekend. I was probably just going to hang out, maybe do some cleaning since I was so busy last weekend and hadn't been picking up after myself. The really bad stuff started when Shannon, who has been a bit reluctant to jump up onto things, actually started to have a definite limp in one of her hind legs. I looked and poked and didn't see a definite injury. She just didn't want to put her full weight on that leg. It seemed to get better as the day went on, but was worse when she just got up from a lie down. I thought perhaps it was a touch of arthritis. I spent most of the weekend going back and forth about seeing the vet. We were just there two weeks ago for a sonagram on her heart. It was bad news. Her heart is worse than it was six months ago. But she isn't really showing any symptoms, so the vet is not recommending anything yet. I just wasn't ready to get another serious diagnosis and was hoping it would just resolve itself. Sunday I woke up feeling like death warmed over. My head was pounding and I had a sore throat. Just great. The same thing happened over my last three day weekend. I think I'm doomed to spend my holiday breaks with some kind of nasty bug. I spent most of the day lying on the couch and catching up with some of the television shows I've recorded on the DVR. So after a full day of feeling awful, I took Shannon out for her evening walk. She was feeling peppy even though she was still limping. But when I wasn't paying attention, she saw one of the local feral cats that she likes to chase. She took off like she totally forgot her leg hurt. When she stopped, her left hind leg was hanging. After a minute, she started to use it again, but it was definitely worse. I called the vet Monday morning and they had me come right over. After an exam, I was told she had probably torn or damaged her cranial cruciate ligament, which is a similar injury to the ACL injury that football players are always getting. The vet explained that they would do an x-ray to confirm, but that was what he thought was wrong. There were two roads for treatment. The more conservative one would entail wrapping her leg in a bandage splint for 4 - 6 weeks to immobilize the leg. At the end of that time, hopefully, the ligament would have repaired itself. This method would be easier on her but probably would not result in 100% use of the leg. The other choice is surgery. From what I've read, this has a better chance for full recovery of the leg, but would take months and is, obviously, much harder on the dog. The vet felt that the bandage was a better option and if it didn't work, we could always consider surgery later. So Shannon spent the night at the hospital, since they had to sedate her to do the bandage and the vet wanted to keep her under observation to see how she reacted to the cast. She came home yesterday morning and I've been a nervous wreck since. I've had to watch her to make sure that she doesn't hurt herself while she gets used to maneuvering the cast through the apartment. I also have to watch her to keep her from jumping onto or off of things. So I've now taken an additional two days off of work, but haven't really been enjoying my 'vacation'. I'm still sick and now I'm exhausted. She's not happy and has a tendency to stand and sway in the middle of the room while whining. She wants up on the couch and on her chair, but then I worry that she will hurt herself trying to get off. I really hope this works, because if it doesn't I don't think I can take the additional recovery time that will come with the surgery.
This past weekend was a nice one. With no particular plans, except for a 9 mile long run, I was looking forward to it. Saturday I left the house a half an hour early to try and get about 3 miles in before I met up with the Alley Pond Striders. The runners who come to the park and run at my pace usually only do about 5 to 6 miles on Saturday morning. If I want to go longer, I usually end up doing the bulk of the run by myself. I've now started running to the park and getting in any mileage over the 6 before the meetup. The weather was pretty good. Cool if a little humid. I got in about 3.25 miles before I hit the park. For a change, the runners had set off only about 5 minutes late. This means they were already well into the park before I got there expecting them to have started the usual 15 minutes after the planned start time. I managed to catch up to the back of the pack about 1/2 a mile later. I slowed down to stay with Suzanne who usually runs over 11 minutes/mile. She sped up a bit and we ran at about a 10:45 pace. I can usually keep that up easily. However, last weekend I had experienced some pain in my left knee about 8 miles into a 9 mile run. It was bad enough that I had a tough time walking for a day or so after. I skipped a run and did a 5 mile slow run on Wednesday instead of the planned speedwork. The knee seemed fine, but it started to bother me again on Saturday. It seems to be my ITB and I'm a little worried. This is my first running related injury. I've had the odd ache or pain, but nothing persistent. I skipped running on Sunday and today and have been trying to stretch out the band. I hope this doesn't mess up my half marathon in two weeks. Sunday I went clothes shopping. This is an unusual event in my life. I hate shopping for clothes. I've never fit into 'standard' women's sizes. And, of course, when I was heavier it was even worse. But I've been getting a little better since I've lost the weight. And I really needed some summer tops that I could wear to work. So off to the mall I go. I didn't find any tops, but I still managed to spend some money. I liked the new line of clothes that being carried by Steve & Barrys that are put out by Sarah Jessica Parker. When I heard about them, I scoffed - I mean she's got that twiggy figure and is always at the big fashion shows, I figured that her clothing would only fit those size zero girls. Some of it does look like that, but I got some nice pants and also grabbed a hoody. So I was feeling quite happy when I left that store. So good, in fact, that when I went into JC Penneys and saw that they had bathing suits on sale, I decided to try some on. I haven't owned a bathing suit in over 25 years - traumatic body issues in puberty. I had no idea what size I was now, but I brought a couple into the dressing room. They didn't look half bad - I wasn't crying after bathing suit hell. The topper was that the sale price was further slashed for the weekend and I got an $80 suit for about $25. Sweet!
Name: DebbieJRT Home: Bellerose, New York, United States About Me: crotchety cross stitcher, trying to channel my inner athlete See my complete profile
