Older and TriPawd

Tai came home on Saturday – hooray!  She is somewhat annoyed that I can’t walk as fast as she can, though I’m moving around with only one crutch now.  I think she gained a little weight on her vacation at my sister’s.  She is also somewhat cranky about her at home PT.  I am working on that by trying to make it at least sound like fun and encouraging her with a low-cal treat.  I noticed that her remaining back leg is showing weakness – as always, she is happy to walk but will occasionally drop onto her butt and look at me.

She wants to play chase the toy still, so we do that.  Since my doc said no stairs (the bedroom is upstairs) we are sleeping in the living room and she has a smaller, confined space to play.  I think this works out for her – she also has two beds in here.  She will chase the toy and take it to one of her beds and then expects me to come to her to throw it again.  This is how she was before the surgery, she just gets more tired now.

Speaking of – 60 days post surgery now!  Yay for Tai!

So the orthopedist thinks I tore the miniscus in my left knee.  Ugh.  It happened at work as I was going down the stairs and WOW did it ever hurt.  I had been having trouble with that knee for a while and it finally gave up on me.

Tai was with me – I was stuck on the second floor landing and she was in the third floor office.  What a night – I was in so much pain, my co-worker insisted on calling an ambulance (how embarrassing) because I could not make it down the stairs.  My sister and her husband were hugely helpful in getting me home and now Tai is at my sister’s house since I didn’t feel comfortable taking her out on my own tripod of crutches and one leg.

I have a new appreciation as to how well Tai has adapted.  Our Tripawds really do amaze us.  She’s such a little thing but – as you all told me – adapted really well.   Since I am managing OK now with minimal pain, Tai will come home this weekend – I can’t wait, the house is so quiet!  I will try to work out how do to PT with her – I really want to keep it up but getting down on the floor with her is out of the question.  I could try putting her on the couch.   We will get it done but not rush it.

We had our session yesterday!  We were at Wizard of Paws in CT.   Nice facility (I liked that it was smaller, it felt cozy) with lots of equipment and even water treadmills. After the initial paperwork I talked to Dr. Gross and told her Tai’s story.  She took her time with both of us so I had a lot of confidence.  Tai was not as confident and was ready to leave when she realized she would have to work 🙂   She did appreciate the positive reinforcement (and treats).

Tai worked her core and back leg on the balls and this purple thing.  She also did a few minutes on the treadmill.    We have a purple thing (OK, it’s called the Infinity, I just checked) at home and Dr. Gross wrote down a couple of exercises for us to do.  We did them tonight but I have to be more diligent about the time we spend.   I have some kind of issue with my own knee and it’s painful for me to be on the floor.   We are a sight on our morning walk with both of us limping, LOL.

Tai hard at work (there are a couple more pix on the Wizard of Paws Facebook page too).  She did great!!  We return in a few weeks for a check and another session.  The doc also recommended the book Without Regret – don’t know if anyone has read it, I plan on picking it up.

Not as successful with the stairs today. We spent the holiday at my sister’s so this morning we are back at home and it was her second try at the stairs. She ended up stumbling and sliding the last few steps.  She wasn’t hurt – it wasn’t a long way and I they’re carpeted – but she was shook up and I was afraid her confidence would be shaken. We went outside for our walk and thankfully she was her normal walking self. I have a cute video of her walking if I can figure out how to get it from my phone to the computer.

Since the surgery, I was prepared to always carry her down the stairs (pre-amp she went up and down on her own) but she HATES being carried and when she was successful the other day – well, she was indicating she was ready to go and though I was scared I wanted her to try. I don’t know about tomorrow morning.  I don’t want my learning process to cause her to be hurt or fearful.

On a cuter note, here is Tai with one of my sister’s dogs, this is Gracie.  Gracie is wondering why she is not sitting on my lap!

So very proud of her.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone.