Friday, March 29, 2013

surgery take 2 - a success

Well we finally had the surgery that we wanted to have back in early February. Actually we were asking about it in September, not that anyone was listening.
We decided to use the Virginia Veterinary Specialists who have offices in Charlottesville, VA and Lynchburg, VA and whole-heartedly recommend them.

Anyway I digress, once they got in there they found the biceps tendon nearly fully torn, soft and mushy aka it had been torn and tearing for quite some time.
They also found a partial tear in another ligament medial glenohumeral ligament) that should resolve with the rest and leash restrained activity.
And the biggest part of the surgery involved his elbow. Something we were totally unprepared for, he had a fragmented coronoid process. Unlike the majority of these problems his was a traumatic injury not one due to excessive growth.
So here we are 3 days post op and its so hard watch him struggle again. This time we don't have this huge wound to look at to remind us that this was a heck of a lot of orthopedic work.
He was very doped on Wednesday, his breath was like sniffing high-intensity cough syrup.
Then Thursday he was so very, very sore. But glad to be home and trying to walk around like usual.This led to him being a very sore and sad boy. Which led to me being very, very sad doggie mom.

But as he always seems to do, he woke up this morning ready to take the day on. On his terms. He did his morning flop like-a-seal and roll around in joy thing. He went out with me to get the paper and tried as hard as he could to do his whole "I have the newspaper and its a very important job" prance. It gave me a huge smile and some relief to see him more himself.
But just as he did yesterday, he wore himself out. So by late afternoon he was pretty darn sore and still wouldn't rest.

He won't let me do the range of motion exercises after a few. We are supposed to be doing 20 at a time, 3x a day and so far we can't get past 10 in a day. :(
I don't worry too much about him walking to exhaustion but I am concerned about his reluctance to do the range of motion stuff. I am going to try warming the joint up before trying it and then using some frozen peas afterward and see if we can move forward with it. It is essential that we get these in and keep the full range of motion but boy oh boy I can only gather it hurts an awful lot.

On a less serious note he was shaved again. His previous shaved area had just started to have some peach fuzz. Poor guy although in typical Bugsy style he doesn't seem to notice.
And that's all I've got tonight. I look forward to the soreness and pain subsiding to the point of having to hold him back. He's already provided a few ridiculous moments, I look to enjoy many more!

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