Stitches out for R!

R finally had the stitches taken out of his elbow. That means that he doesn't need to wear a cone or a tee-shirt anymore. That's worthy of celebration!

He still has lots of rehab and healing to do. When he's standing around, he's not weighting his "surgical leg" very much yet. Fortunately, we have a way to quantify how much weight he's putting on each of his front legs... and it seems like a great way to monitor how his leg feels. According to the vet, R should be able to go running for short distances in four weeks if the healing goes as fast as expected.

Nurse Shyla is on duty, helping R to heal by snuggling with him.

They are such a sweet pair.

I know that Shyla won't be completely happy until R can run and play again. She's showing her sad face in the next photo.

I can't wait for that day!

Black and White Sunday: A Predator on the Move

Five miles away from my home on New Years Eve, a mountain lion sniffed the base of a bear marking tree...

This was the spot where the juvenile mountain lion spent a long time trying to get a tracking device off of his ear last summer. That juvenile left fur all over the rocks embedded in the ground at the base of the tree. This is a new cat, who marked the area extensively by rubbing his fur on the ground on New Years Eve.

He eventually departed. In the near future, I'll show you his visit to a small non-frozen spring where I have a trail camera shooting video.

Here, a third of a mile from my home, the long tail of a lion appeared a few nights ago. My heart always gives an extra hard thump when I see a lion tail on my camera viewfinder while sitting in the forest.

After passing my trail camera, he noticed it. He looks small in this photo, doesn't he?

His focus on my camera's dim red light racheted up...

Then, in a tenth of a second, he leaped from his spot 10' from my camera almost onto it.

He rubbed against the camera for a while (perhaps marking it?) before heading away.

Believe it or not, another cat came through the next night but I'll save those photos for another post.

I've been wishing for more mountain lion photos on my trail cameras. I think my wish came true, all of a sudden!

Happy Sunday!

A Gift

Today felt like a gift. It was a perfect winter day, hovering slightly above freezing with bluebird skies, a warm sun, and no wind. Because I expected to be in great pain and in a medically-induced haze this weekend, I appreciated the day even more.

Shyla and I saw the sun rise and played in its warm rays.

 

We both reveled in the day. The weather here has been intense recently, with almost daily high winds and awful snow conditions for hiking or biking. So the beauty of today seemed even more precious. I'm so glad that I had the chance to enjoy it!

Shyla and I explored in the forest a bit around sunrise. The glitter of the snow on the pine needles at sunrise makes the forest floor look like a field of sparkling jewels.

Our partnership is starting to feel so natural. Shyla seems to read my mind, knowing what I'm about to do and moving with me. I honestly never dreamed that I'd have a partnership with a dog like this again, after K died. I must say, however, that I think that my bond with K helped make me ready for Shyla.

I'm even learning to "read" Shyla's more subtle signals. Today, we were playing on the side of a small ridge, and Shyla very carefully sniffed some animal tracks in the snow. They were huge tracks with a long stride but the wind had destroyed all the details that might have helped me identify them. However, Shyla seemed scared when she sniffed them, with her ears pinned back against her head, like she's done in the past when we've found mountain lion tracks. So, I decided to check some trail cameras later because, based on Shyla's behavior, I was guessing that they were lion tracks.

It turned out that my girl was giving me the right signals. At least one lion and maybe two have gone through our neck of the woods in recent days and multiple cameras captured their images. I'll share those photos tomorrow.

But the point of the story is how connected Shyla and I are becoming - so that I can even read subtle signals from her. It feels like a miracle to me, especially after those early days together when she was so fearful that she rarely even looked directly into my eyes. Now she does it all the time...

I'm honored to have earned her trust.

The Brilliance of Nature

I feel grateful for the incredible world where the combination of clouds and a setting sun can make art so brilliant that I cannot find words to describe it.

One evening recently, Shyla and I stayed out through sunset, watching the entire sky light up in vivid colors. It gradually morphed from orange, to pink, to purple, and finally to dusky gray. We gave thanks for Nature's beauty.

We walked home through the shadowy meadow with nighttime nipping at our heels.

Happy Friday. And, thank you so much for all the well wishes.

Delay, delay, delay

This was supposed to be my "night-before-surgery" but it's not. I woke up this morning with a very irritated eye. Late this afternoon, my opthamologist said that I shouldn't have surgery tomorrow because the risk of my eye causing a post-surgical infection is too high. 

While my eye recovers, I can get more mentally ready for surgery than I am now. I felt rushed leading up to it because I had so many test results to consider. Now, I can slow down and accept what's going to happen. So, there's a silver lining.

The delay will also give me time to continue to help R recuperate. He's still doing stunningly well, doing his short and slow walks with almost no limp.

If my eye heals on schedule, my shoulder surgery will be a week from tomorrow. Unfortunately, that's a big "if". Due to an autoimmune disease, my immune system and eyes don't always respond to medications like the doctors expect. My doctor today quipped, "As we well know, your immune system operates by its own unique rules".

This is one time that I'd rather be "normal" than "unique" so I can be on the road to recovery very soon, just like R! He's a great example for me!

Wordless Wednesday: The shadows versus the sunlight

The eternal battle between the shadows and the light.

As the sun rose, it bathed everything in its warm light. Each sunrise and sunset feels like a metaphor for life.

The Darkness and the Light

It was a dark and gloomy day here. It reflected my mood this morning perfectly. Shyla and I headed out together, knowing we only have a couple more days of our normal routine.

It was snowing lightly, and Shyla was looking pretty with flakes all over her.

Then, as I was taking photos, the coyotes started howling in the meadow below us. Shyla's eyes swiveled toward their singing. So far, she's not too interested in our wild canines, except that she marks over top of their marking spots almost daily.

A little later, I checked a nearby trail camera where I'd captured a couple of coyote photos. This one was the best - I personally love having coyotes as part of our natural world.

After the coyotes finished their serenade this morning, we played a few retrieving games mainly to try to cheer me up. Seeing Shyla romp almost always makes me smile. It was amusing to capture a photo of Shyla retrieving with her eyes closed!

I know that my state of mind today is a normal part of the mental process of getting ready for surgery and accepting that my life will be very different for a while. I usually have much longer to mentally prepare. But, I'll get there - I always have in the past! I usually try to make a list of fun things that I want to do (and will be capable of doing) during my recovery but I didn't have the heart for it today. Maybe tomorrow!

On the good news front, R is walking without an obvious limp now that his bandage is off. Just after his surgery, I was pretty worried about whether he'd get back to running without further reconstructive elbow surgery because the damage that they found was so bad. I'm now feeling much more optimistic, after watching how well he can walk less than a week post-surgery.

Don't worry - this photo was from before his surgery. We will be keeping him quiet for a while but I think he'll be running like this again by spring!

I had a funny incident with him today. I took him for a very short walk on our driveway, just for "business". When I was ready to turn back toward the house, he dug in his heels and refused to walk toward home. It took lots of cajoling and treats to get him moving toward home. I think it was a sign that he feels ready to go for a long hike. Sorry, R, but you have to heal first!

A Leap of Faith

The wind and blinding blowing snow has dominated our lives over the past week. However, each morning, it seems like there's a brief calm around sunrise. Shyla and I take full advantage of it.

During the lull, she can stand tall and look confident.

And, I can feel the peace of the forest and enjoy the brief quiet and serenity. After the sunrise lull, the wind has been so strong that it's hard to stand up at times, precluding any serious thought about anything but the wind. At one point today, I'd gotten off my bike because the gusts were so strong, and the wind ripped my bike out of my hands and hurled it on the ground. Incredible.

During my ride today, I finally decided to stop all the invasive tests on my shoulder and neck - to stop all the poking and big needles - and to get my shoulder surgically fixed on Friday. My gut tells me that it's the best of my options because the downside potential is much lower than for spinal surgery. Then, as my shoulder heals and the pain from its damage goes away, I can evaluate how soon my neck needs to be fixed.

I realized, in making this decision, that I'm the only one who really knows what the pain is like. The "experts" can call for more and more tests but I can actually feel the pain and they can't. So, I decided that I needed to have trust in my own intuition, after having spent weeks weighing the opinions of a number of experts.

So, I'm taking a leap of faith on Friday. I always feel like surgery is a leap of faith because I let a team of people put me to sleep and do dangerous work on my body. I am take the leap of faith that they'll take good care of me, and that the surgeon will have a "good day".

Isn't it bizarre that, after my decision, I started wondering how I was going to get a photo for my 365 day photo challenge on my surgery day? I had to laugh at myself when I realized that was what I was thinking about. I guess it's a good distraction from the really important stuff.

In news of R, he went to the hospital to have his bandage changed today. His incision looked so good that they didn't put on another bandage. His elbow is slightly swollen and the stitches are now exposed to the air - but I think we're headed in the right direction. However, on the way home, he started salivating like an open faucet. I suspect nausea but I'm not sure. I have a call into the vet just in case...

However, overall, I think he's doing stunningly well. Smiles all around!

A Black Lab's Sunday

R's eyes are shining again, very soon after his surgery!

Dogs have an uncanny ability to see the good in life - like seeing the sun rather than the clouds today.

Happy Sunday!

A Fun Day!

It was a rough week with way too much serious stuff going on.

 So, I tried to do nothing but relaxing and fun stuff today.

Shyla and I played fetch with her favorite toy at sunrise, and our game totally absorbed both of us.

 Shyla's pure joy over the simple act of retrieving was infectious.

Each time she handed me the toy, she pleaded for another toss. When I met her 17 months ago, she had no drive for retrieving. Now, she's one of the most intense retrievers I've known.

After our joyful game, I tried to snowbike on our trails (and Shyla ran) but it's tough biking, even with my gnarly snowbike, due to bad snow conditions. The wind has been blowing relentlessly for days. Every day, the forecast seems to include "gusts of 50-75 mph", which causes snow drifts and windpacked snow. Needless to say, it makes for tough biking on the trails.

When we got back home after our ride, R was snoozing, like he's supposed to do. And, Shyla finally laid down with him. She seemed to know not to lean on his sore limb.

It warmed my heart to see the two of them snoozing together.

A Long Day

R wants to say thank you for all the well wishes. He's in the "rest, rest, and then rest some more" phase of recovery. He's pretty good at napping right now. Just wait a few weeks until he becomes an uncontrollable black tornado!

He wears the cone only when he's unsupervised because nothing else can keep him from nibbling on the toe part of his thick bandage. And, to be honest, he has the type of personality that is not bothered by a cone. By contrast, when Shyla has "needed" a cone, the vets have hesitated to have her wear one due to her sensitive personality. It's amazing to see the difference in personality between two distantly related Labs.

We had another long day of medical stuff. My head is spinning. Do I get my shoulder or my neck fixed first? I have shoulder surgery scheduled for next week but that might change. The latest recommendation is to have one or two more tests early next week before surgery. To be perfectly honest, I just want to make a decision and then get comfortable with it - so I'm mentally ready for the challenge of surgery. But, it seems that my case is so complicated that the decision will be in the 11th hour.

At least I had a brief time in the sunshine with Shyla this morning before we got in the car for our medical odyssey. She makes me smile and laugh no matter what!

The whole pack accompanied me on my heavy schedule of doctor appointments today (R had to come with us so that he could get his meds on schedule, and he snoozed the day away in the back of the car). I feel so lucky to have such a supportive pack behind me.

R is home!

This new day dawned with R still in the hospital but Shyla and I were out and about on the trails.

We knew that R couldn't come home until the afternoon so we played in the rising sunlight. I'm afraid that my anxiety wasn't cured by Mother Nature, though. Shyla seemed to mirror my pensive mood. She seemed worried the whole time that R wasn't at home.

Finally, in the early afternoon, we were given the "go-ahead" to pick up R. To show us what they did during surgery, the hospital gave us a vial full of the bone fragments that they extracted from R's elbow joint (I promise not to show photos of them!). Those bone pieces told a shocking story of how much degeneration had been underway in his elbow despite his elbow dysplasia surgery by a top-notch orthopedic surgeon five years ago.

When we finally saw R after getting a whole packet of instructions about how to take care of him, he wore a cone of shame and a big thick bandage going from his toes to his shoulder. I'll take a picture of him in the coming days. Shyla is afraid of his cone and the bandage but I hope she'll relax about them soon. He'd love to curl up with her on a dog bed, like they normally do.

After springing R from the hospital, the Runner brought R home, and I attended a flurry of medical appointments to try to get the "all clear" for my surgery next week. I made progress. But, whew, it is stressful having two family surgeries in rapid succession.

I think that the next few weeks are going to be tough for everyone in our pack, not just the patients. But, I'll try to keep being Shyla's rock because she needs more reassurance than your average dog.

I'll also try to keep up with my blog but that might prove impossible on some days. Thanks so much for your support.

Update on R

R came through his surgery well and is in Recovery. However, there was much more damage inside the elbow joint than they expected to find. One section of the joint had lost all of its cartilage so two bones were grinding directly on each other. Moreover, he had a very large bone fragment removed. It was so large that they had to break it into three pieces and then expand the excision to remove the pieces.

We'll see how he does as he recovers since this was a more extensive surgery than expected. There is still an option for a reconstructive surgery, called a "CUE" surgery, if his elbow remains too painful. However, the surgeon felt hopeful that today's procedure would help slow the degeneration within the joint and give R pain relief. The surgeon also said that R may be the most stoic dog ever because he must have had a lot of pain in that elbow but he rarely showed it.

Since Wednesdays are normally wordless, I included my favorite dog photo of 2013 above. Because I like it so much, I've considered getting some note cards made with this photo on them, and donating them to the auction being held to help offset Tweedles' vet bills. However, I have no idea if anyone but me likes this photo so much. I'd love some input about whether you think that's a good idea.

Thanks for all of your support.

The future is creeping up

I've been avoiding thinking about the future for a while now. However, the future is almost here so I'm must now deal with it. And it's making me sad and depressed, like Shyla looked on a recent sunrise snowbike ride. Just so you don't worry - I don't think that Shyla was truly sad on our ride. She was just a tiny bit unhappy about the wild mountain winds.

Thank goodness - Shyla is very good at snapping out of it, kicking up her heels, and rejoicing in the moment.

Unlike Shyla, I'm having trouble with focusing on "now" rather than what's about to happen. Tomorrow, R will have elbow surgery. Our sweet dog will have a fairly long recovery after a surgeon "cleans out" his elbow that has congenital dysplasia. It will be his second elbow surgery in his life.

Yup, Shyla, that's the one. Funny, she's sniffed my bad shoulder the same way.

I feel certain that the elbow hurts him much of the time but he still romps with joy. That's something that he and I have in common - we ignore the pain and get on with life. However, sometimes it's more prudent to deal with the pain than to ignore it.

Sometimes I wish that I could explain the surgery to R and his sister so they'd understand why he's suddenly going to be unable to romp and play.

Like R, I am facing surgery, and I'm feeling very sad about it. I'm scared, and I hate knowing that I'll be missing out on some of the fun stuff that I normally love to do for the rest of the winter. So, perhaps it's better not to know ahead of time to avoid the anticipatory fear, sadness, and anger before surgery.

My surgery is next week. But, before that, we have to get through R's surgery tomorrow, and we'll help him get started on the road to recovery. He'll be in surgery early tomorrow morning.