Double ACL's

Holy, moly, Chirstmas time was crazy. Boo, my oldest, was having some issues walking. Actually, she was having issues back in October, but one day she wouldn't feel well and the next she was running around like a puppy. So Dr. Bobo wasn't quite so sure it was an ACL tear. She seemed to get better, but then around Christmas, I knew something was definitely off. Although, the majority of days she never acted like it, the days that she was hurting were really bad.

So he sent me to a surgical center, and sure enough her ACL was torn. Now, Boo and I don't have good experiences together at the vet. My nerves don't help her nerves, and we end up both being nervous wrecks. They were trying to calm her down with pills, and after 'enough medication to sedate an elephant', Boo still wouldn't let her guard down.

Finally, after two hours of medicine, and more medicine, she was finally relaxing enough that they could start to really examine her and move into surgery.

So I got the phone call shortly after leaving, that we weren't dealing with one torn ACL, but we were dealing with two. So we couldn't do surgery on both right away, but we did go ahead and had the right one repaired.

I went to pick her up the next day, and she was soooooo upset. When I brought her home, it wasn't the physical demands that were killing me, it was the emotional ones. As Boo went through this process, it was exactly a year from when Baxter started to slowly decline. Boo had to wear a cone, she was on pain killers, so she walked like she was drunk. And she was limping on one leg. It was everything that Baxter had gone through in his final weeks. I tried to hold it together, but when she had an accident in her crate, I lost it. (Baxter had completely lost all control of his bowels in the end). I sobbed for several days as I took care of her, Baxter's last few weeks and death all staring me straight on.

I got through it, though. It's been a long seven weeks (only one more to go) before she can start moving around again. Of course, this doesn't include the surgery on the other leg. She's not showing any signs of pain or discomfort in that leg, and we're going to talk with her surgeon about possible options. I would like to hold off until Michael is home to help me. Boo loves her pet sitters, but Michael and I are the only two allowed to put a leash on her. Considering she is leash bound for eight weeks, it puts a bit of a damper on any travel plans. If Michael was home, it would help out tremendously, physically and emotionally.

So between cancer, ACL's, and distemper over the past year, I'm so ready for a vet break!