October 6, 2009

My name is Ivy, and I'm 9 years old.  A few weeks ago, my foster mom noticed I was limping pretty badly, so she took me to the vet to see if my Lyme Disease had come back.  The doctor said it seemed to be something worse than that, so he wanted me to see a specialist.

 

I went to see Dr. Goldstein, a special surgeon, who examined me and said that the bad news was that I had a completely torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), which is the thing that usually holds the knee bones in place.  He said it's a "sports injury", like some football and basketball players get, so I'm not really sure how I got it, since the only sport I participate in is "marathon napping".  But the really bad news, he said, was that I was going to need an operation to fix it.  He said he was going to take a piece of the muscle in my thigh and make a new ACL out of it, and then sew it in place in my knee.  It sounded really painful!  While I waited to be taken back to the operating room, I was so scared I couldn't stop shaking.  After he was finished operating on me, Dr. Goldstein told my mom that the surgery went very well, but that he had also found a torn meniscus (cartilage) in there, which he fixed.  And he said my knee was in pretty bad shape, with a lot of arthritis, and he thinks that was probably the cause of my knee problems.

 

When I woke up, I had a big white thing around my leg that went all the way from my toes to my hip.  Dr. Goldstein called it a "cast", and said I have to wear it for 3 weeks.

 

I'm trying to learn to stand up and walk with the cast on, but it's really hard and I don't like it.  So far, I only have the strength to drag it along as I go.  We're supposed to keep it clean and dry, so my mom has to put a little plastic bootie on my foot every time I need to go outside to go potty.

 

And since I have strict limitations on my activity for 12 weeks, like no running, no jumping up on the furniture or bed, and not even going up or down stairs, my Mom and Dad seem to be carrying me around a lot of the time.  (Don't tell them, but I kind of like that part.... and all the extra kisses and belly rubs, too.)  But I think the worst part of all of this is that Dr. Goldstein says that for at least 6 months, until my knee is completely healed, I'm not allowed to sleep in my Mom and Dad's bed with them, or to take my naps on the "people" couch.  So my Mom got me my own little "doggie" couch, that's just for me.  I guess it will work ok, for now...

My knee hurts, but my Mom gives me pills for the pain (wrapped in a little piece of cheese!), and that helps a lot.  I'm sleeping through the night now, and I'm eating well (but that never really was a problem).  And for the first time since my surgery, I even wagged my tail this morning.

We are dependant on the donations of the public to finance the care of the dogs we
have rescued.  If you can contribute to Ivy's care, we would be most grateful!