Surgery Success!

I just got a call from Dr. V, as he had just finished Sadie's surgery. She did great! She was supposed to go in at 8:30 am, but they had a heart operation that took precedence. I can understand that. Here's all the gory details:

• On first glance, he thought her ligament was about 60% damaged. He applied a slight pressure to it and it instantly snapped in half. Dr. V said any one big impact she had could have easily broken it all the way, so we definitely made the best decision to do surgery now.
  
• Her meniscus was not damaged at all, which is very good news
  
• He trimmed the torn ligament, inserted the TightRope apparatus and double tested the joint. He was confident that it is very stable and was extremely pleased with the result
  
• The whole thing took 1 1/2 hours, his best one yet
  
• She's the 18th one he has done
  
• Sadie will start some morphine and be there overnight and most of tomorrow
  

I'll get a call tomorrow morning to update me on her condition and let me know when to pick her up! I'll post a picture of her in the lovely purple cone collar we bought for her to wear. She's going to LOVE me...

Thanks for your concerns and prayers. I'm so relieved that it's done and now have to steel myself for her long recovery process.

The Latest and Greatest

sewing project! Any guesses as to what these rich fabrics will become?

A Decision Made

I talked with our vet Monday morning, regarding our decision to forgo surgery and see what happens keeping Sadie on restriction for 8 weeks. He was not in favor of this at all. He even said that he feels that making the decision to postpone surgery is the same as making a decision not to do it at all. His reason was that her arthritis would progress so far that many benefits of the TPLO would not affect her. I told him that I did not want to do TPLO because I feel it is just too invasive, and asked if he knew about the brand new Tightrope surgery. He said he was aware of it, but thought it was basically a "glorified banding technique" which has historically not worked for large dogs. But, if we were interested, he did know a doc who was performing the surgeries in a neighboring city. Yes I was interested! So the next night, Doug and I took Sadie to see "Dr. V" in Fishers.

Long story short, we liked him a lot, asked many questions, got estimates for everything related to the surgery and gave it a lot of thought and prayer. It is still expensive, but only half of what TPLO would be and sounds like it is a great alternative. Dr. V thought Sadie only had a partial tear, which is good.

I have her scheduled for this coming Thursday. She will be on extreme restriction for 4 weeks and then can start some light daily walks. After 8 weeks she can take some longer walks and after 12 weeks max, she should be 100%! This is a new surgery and so no long-term promises can be made, but with all my research and "gut" feel, this is the best option for her. She's only 4 years old and we hope to see her back to running and jumping and frisbee catching for many more years.

Thanks for all the support regarding this. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to talk to you about it. It feels good to have the decision made. Now we need to pray for a successful surgery and speedy recovery. I'll keep you posted!

My Foray into Breadmaking

For the last couple weeks, I've been baking my own bread. I've been interested in doing this for a while now, and finally gave it a go. I found a great whole wheat recipe, here, which has been very yummy. C will even eat the crust, since it is very soft and the same color as the bread. It's easy, fun, healthy and frugal!

I got some books from the library and plan to try some other recipes, as well. I'd like to try some homemade English muffins and making my own pita pockets, too!

Spoiling the Dog

My parents came to visit this weekend and mom helped me make a new dog pillow for Sadie. As you may or may not recall, the last one bit the dust after a yucky kennel accident. But seeing as she's having to have extra rest time these days, I thought a good quality bed would be nice for her.

I thought we could pull one off for cheaper than PetSmart and get a custom fit, to boot.

Here's the cost breakdown:
* 2 inch, high-density foam (24" x 39"): $15.20 (used 40% off coupon)
* Sherpa Faux Fur: $12.49
* 24" Zipper: $3.59
TOTAL: $31.28

Not a huge cost savings, compared to this one, but Doug likes that it's reversible since we made the whole pillow out of the fur.

We also got her a new collar to wear around the house, so she doesn't "jingle" so much. She is usually a naked-necked doggie, but since we're leashing her so much, she has her collar on all the time. She's getting so spoiled!

Poor Sadie

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all who have prayed for and asked about Sadie. It truly means a lot to me. Here's the latest:

After a week of her anti-inflammatory meds, Sadie really showed no change in her limping/use of leg. I have done a fair amount of research online and found it very interesting. Most of the sites sing the praises of the TPLO surgery, but then I found that they were all surgeon's websites. I found another with a different perspective, here.

Long story short, I feel that we should not rush into the surgery that the vet is recommending. Not only is it expensive, but it is VERY invasive (cutting away bone, and inserting plate and screws) and has some pretty scary risks associated with it like bone infection, bone fractures and cancer due to the metal.


We've not really restricted Sadie at all since the injury, and even tried to encourage her to exercise. However, we are now going to try 8 weeks of extreme restriction - no running, jumping, quick spinning, tugging, etc. and see if that will help. If it looks like she can build up some scar tissue to support the leg, then we may not need the surgery. If nothing has improved, we'll look into it.

Another thing is that there is a brand-spanking new surgery option called TightRope CCL which I would MUCH rather have for Sadie. But it just came out in July 2008 (last month) and waiting 8 weeks might help it to be a little more available.

Plus, we are needing to be away from her for a week at Thanksgiving and I can't think of any easy way for somebody else to give her the very specific and careful care she would need post-surgery.

I haven't talked to the vet yet, as he's on vacation. We'll let him know on Tuesday what our ideas are and see what he thinks.

Pray for Sadie

I know it's odd to ask for prayer for a pet, but Sadie is so special to us, so I am anyways. As most of you know, she has been limping badly for about 2 1/2 months. She injured her back leg after trying to catch a Frisbee and landing on her back hip.

I took her to our vet last night, as she's just not healing right and I've been concerned about her more and more. His diagnosis was a cranial cruciate injury or torn ligament in her knee.

Long story short, we are trying some anti-inflammatory medicine this week to see if that helps her to put weight on the leg and therefore strengthen the remaining (hopefully existing) intact ligaments to hold her load. If that is not effective, we're looking at surgery. The surgery that is #1 recommended to fix the problem is around $3000.

Doug is not eager to spend $3000 on an animal, and I know it is a lot of money. We'll research this out more and get second opinions and look for some cheaper options, but my vet is very honest and I think that he is telling us the truth.

I'm asking that you will pray for this medicine to help Sadie put weight on her leg and that it will show significant improvement by our next visit. That would mean God's intervention, as it is not likely that this treatment will work. However, she is only 4 years old and being on medication the rest of her life will still be expensive and has a lot of long-term side effects.

Thanks for reading this and caring for me and Sadie. I've been emotional about it. Lesson learned is that if we had taken her right away, we would have received instructions and medications that may have allowed a partial tear to heal right away rather than exercising "normally" and risking a full tear. Looks like her Frisbee catching days are over. She never was much good at it anyways... ;-)