Archive for May, 2008
Coming Home, little buddy!
This is our BB, the first day we met him, at 9 weeks old. He looks so very small to me, with that short little boxer nose! 9 weeks later, he’s still got that soft energy, and a streak of mischief!
Well our BB is coming home tomorrow!! The swelling has gone down and there isn’t anymore drainage from the suture lines. He’s walking without the help of a towel, and being his typical sweet and playful self.
Mom is an anxious as she is excited, worrying that she will have trouble providing his aftercare. She’s a retired RN !! Mom, you’ll do fine!
I think she’s anxious about having to provide his care without me for the most part: she knew when we got him that his care is up to her. We talked about it then, and that hasn’t changed. She’s been becoming very clingy, very “do for me” old lady this past year, and I’m not letting her get away with it. She is more than up to taking care of BB, she just doesn’t know it.
If I sound mean, I’m not. My Mom is a totally competent and capable person, but after 40 years of living with my late father, she’s forgotten that. I don’t want her to be so emotionally dependent on me–it isn’t healthy for her. BB is her ticket to independence! BB’s brother Kenai is my service dog in training, my ticket to independence. This is a special pair of brothers!
BB is Mom’s personal therapy dog, in a very unofficial and unusual way! And he’s coming home finally. All of 5 days he’s been gone, and he has been so absolutely missed. He has a new twin mattress for a bed, since up and down on the couch isn’t safe. He’ll have to do his playing on the bed, so there is room for Mom down there, and chews for when she isn’t playing with him.
Brother has picked out a couple new toys and chews for BB: Kenai went a’leaping and goofy when he got his mouth on them, so BB should love them too. He also has a raised feeder like his bro now, so he doesn’t have to stoop over to eat and drink. And we’re getting a plastic mattress cover along with new soft sheets since he’s been peeing like a fire hose. That much hasn’t changed!! I warned the vet about it!
Hopefully my next post here will have a new pic of BB, since he is now 18 weeks, and I haven’t seen him in 5 days. Great Danes grow so fast, I’m sure he’s taller and lankier than when last we mushed his lips! Coming home, little buddy, you’re coming home again…
What Does Okay Look Like?
BB at 15 weeks old, being a good boy while I weeded.
Since I don’t have any pics from the hospital, I thought I’d use an old pic of our BB boy. He is 18 weeks old now, and is doing terrific after his surgery.
The ortho techs call twice a day, and yesterday the Beebster was up and walking! He is eating well, and going outside to the bathroom without any troubles.
Being BB the people whisperer, people in the hallways have to stop and pet him, and he conned the tech into letting him be outside to play a little before going back inside! How could she resist such a sweetie? He got to play in the sunshine.
He has the external fixator on the leg for support, and is swinging it like he wants to use the leg. The device keeps it bent so he doesn’t put weight on it just yet, but he will soon. He can come home once the swelling starts going down. Hurry up buddy, we want ya home!
I just knew that I knew that I knew BB was going to be okay. In all my prayer times, there was this sense of reassurance. Alot of people were praying for him, and hoping. But not even I was prepared for those bones and tendons to just straighten themselves out during surgery. I fully expected BB to still have to go through the month of daily turning of his bones and a second surgery.
Oh, I’m not fooling myself into thinking BB’s leg and pelvis is just all perfect now. But I am honestly wondering if the road our little four pack has to walk will be a painful and long as first thought. Will he surprise us again, not needed surgery after surgery to get him to adulthood with hindquarters he can use? Will he one day be strong enough to horse around with his brother?
When we first took BB to the vets at U. of Mo I had this picture in my head of BB running on all four legs through our field, strong and healthy. After the xrays and CT scans, and what the vet had said, that picture sort of faded away. Mom thought God had lied–he wasn’t going to be okay. I didn’t doubt that he would be okay, I just figured my idea of okay was different than God’s idea of okay.
But that image of a happy, healthy BB is starting to materialize again, as a real possibility. Is God going to continue to use such excellent vets, and BB’s resiliant spirit to make that hope a reality? I want very much for our sweet Beebster to have a life full of running and playing in his sunshine! To do all the things a puppy loves to do, and do it without pain. My hopes are coming back up…
Mom is going to find a small twin sized mattress for BB to rest on when he gets home, and we’ve figured out where he can go to the bathroom without having to deal with stairs. We’re as ready as we can be for his return! I’m sure there’s lots of things we haven’t thought about, but we’ll deal with them when they come.
BB will need pt, and the vets will show us what to do. He’s never walked normally, having wobbled around those hernias at 3 weeks old, and then the bone deformities. I wonder if we will have to teach him to use his back legs seperately, instead of moving them together to hop.
We have the pool guys’ shorts on fire to get the pool stripped, painted, and stairs poured. So BB needs a life jacket, because he’s going to swim alot. That should be interesting, getting a Dane who doesn’t like to get wet in the pool every day!
I can see it now–whineys, wigglies, kisses, big Scooby-Doo “rut-roh” eyes. But he’s still going in the drink, and will have blanket wrapped cuddles afterwards. Poor tootles, he’s not going to like his rehab!
But he’ll love being home again, I’m sure. Our little four-pack of me, Mom, Kenai and BB will be back together again! And keeping Kenai under hand, off his bro will be as much work as making BB swim! I can’t wait to get him home, so we can mush his lips and smooch the pooch. There’ll be lots of pictures, and lots of fussing over him.
Doing the Happy Dance
BB’s last early morning expedition in the field before he left for surgery, 17 wks old
Not even the surgeons imagined BB’s surgery could go like this: after some cuts in the connective tissue and the tibia, everything essentially shifted back where it was supposed to be all at once!
No twice daily turning of his tibia via external devices, no gradual loosening of the tendons and muscles…I should have known BB wasn’t going to do the expected!
He has plates and screws in holding the bones where they need to be, and HE’S COMING HOME THIS WEEK, instead of next month!! He still has had a major surgery, which is no small matter. And there could be another surgery or two in his future, but great balls of BB fire, who’d a thunk it? Not even I was prepared, and I seemed to be the only one not imagining doom and gloom.
And the people whispering puppy has struck again–somehow luring the staff to come sit with him so he can lay his half schnockered head on their lap. He’s not even entirely awake from the anesthesia and he’s got them wrapped around his puppy tail! If he had needed to stay a month, it would have required a pupnapping to get him back!!
That’s our BB boy…
He will be ready to come home about Thursday, and will have to return for a post-op visit in two weeks. Then begins the physical therapy. So there is indeed a long road ahead for the sweet toddles. Something tells me he’ll shorten that up too if he gets half a chance.
But every good thing deserves a happy dance! And for sure, big brother Kenai will have all kinds of quivering and goofy hopping going on when he sets eyes (or is it nose) on his little bro.
Soon as I get some pics, they’ll be up here, and the hospital will call twice a day until we go get him. So more news will come. Right now, I’m gonna do something thoroughly silly just for the giddy fun of it. BB’s too drunk to do it himself, so I’ll do it for him…
BB’s Day of Fun and Sun
The happy Beeb coming to say hello, 17 weeks old.
He has such a joyful energy about him, and a huge charisma that it is easy to forget how much trouble the little toddler is in. When he goes to sleep, and his personality is resting too, you can see the toll his problems are taking on him.
