| 4/17/01 |
| Today has been better. Magnum slept a little later this morning. We are finally getting the hang of going up and down the ramp with the sling. Today he was better about waiting and going slow. He is getting more tolerant of the sling and waiting for me to take it off rather than just plopping down. He was using his leg a little bit today off and on. I'm not sure if the leg hurts a lot still or if he isn't using it much because the bandage is uncomfortable. It is still early too so I'm not worried about it. Everybody on the orthodogs list was right. They all told me that the first 48 hours are awful but it does start to settle down and you get into a routine after that. It is calming down around here and getting easier. Poor Magnum must be so bored. He still can't have his rawhides. He has some soft toys but he doesn't seem too interested in them right now. I really wanted to be able to give him his giant bone for this first 2 weeks and some of the rawhides I had stocked up on. There are still many more weeks, so he'll get them eventually. He isn't whining as much today which is good. Yesterday was hard because Kurt was gone so I was waiting on Erica (who was watching Magnum) and Magnum because I didn't want Magnum left alone. He does take every opportunity to go after that pain patch. I think I aged 10 years trying to take that dog to the vet. He totally freaks when we go to our local vet. He wouldn't go in the clinic, he was jumping around and getting all upset. We finally took him outside to wait. Then we get to go in and he won't go. The vet finally picked him up and put him on the table. We had to carry him back out and the whole time I'm wondering if we're doing any damage to his leg. It looked pretty good when they took the bandage off. Right now it is more swollen though and there is more red up high and in the back of the leg. Not near the incision. The incision itself looks good so far. I have seen worse in pictures of other dogs who have had this done so I'm trying not to get too worried yet. I was told to put warm packs on it now. He doesn't seem to like them as much and is more skittish about having the leg touched now that the bandage is off. I probably won't sleep real well tonight. He does seem to be acting o.k. so it doesn't appear that we hurt him tonight. His spirits are still good, he went out and went potty for his last time tonight and he's sleeping with his cone on now. Finally, a quiet and peaceful house. Sometimes I stay up a little too late just to listen to the quiet. :-) |