Saturday, October 24, 2009

Doing Well

Despite some visitos (The Tuckers, Schwartz's and McCunes) we have managed to settle into somewhat of a routine. Overall, things are going very well, considering the circumstances!

We are only 4 days post surgery, and she walks better and better every day. This is wonderful, but also very dangerous as she continues to feel better as too much activity too soon can be very harmful. She continues to accept the crate and does very well with not coming out until we release her and have a leash on her. For walking purposes, we have gone back to the gentle leader, which she absolutely HATES. With a passion...did I mention she HATES her gentle leader? It certainly makes mom feel better about controlling her movement, that is for sure!!!

She is still VERY stressed about the ecollar - she pants and drools and generally pouts in it. I bought an inflatable one yesterday that does not seem as obnoxious, but she was still panting up a storm last night. As she does not seem to be going after the incision, I leave it off at night - but I am right next to her if she starts. Hopefully I won't have to cross the "ecollar at night" bridge.

She also has a bit of fluid build up in her ankle, similiar to what humans would have after such a surgery. We are treating that with warm compresses, something else to add to our routine. We have to wait an hour in between ice and cold, so that will be somewhat of a challenge.

But overall, we are doing it. I am sitting on the floor with her in between my legs - I bought one of those armchair pillows for the next 6 weeks, just to support my back as I spend more time on the floor with her. I have gotten her to lay down so that I have easy access to her leg, and she can stay that way for ice. My left leg is actually supporting her leg, so it has something to rest on and the ice pack (green beans) can be directly on the incision. I try to avoid touching her incision during range of motion exercises - even though the guy in the video looks like he would be holding right where the incision was...ugh, not me. Plus, I think it would hurt. So I avoid it. It looks pretty good, all things considering - little fluid oozing, but to be expected. After re-watching the video this morning, I saw that part - now how did I miss this part after watching the video no less than 10 times in the last 4 days????

Anyway..all in all, going well. Mom is going to the FB game (OMG, they better win) and gramma and grampa are coming over so she will NOT have to wear ecollar....thank god. I don't know what I would do without my parents...

We will keep you posted! Thanks again for the good thoughts!

1 comment:

Infrequent Flyers said...

So glad things are going well. Chelsie is a trooper, and so is mom! I'm sure it helps to have some visitors, breaks things up and provides some entertainment. Just think how difficult all this would be if Chelsie weren't as compliant and trusting of you. You mentioned a while back that you wanted your dog to be really good, and boy, is she ever!!