| 8/1/01 |
| Magnum went swimming again today. It's his first time back in the lake since his "setback" last week. He was soooo happy to be back in the water, it was almost impossible to get him *out* of the water. :-) I had him wade a bit, walk a little distance in the sand and do some swimming. All these things are supposed to be good for rebuilding the muscle that he's lost in the leg. So far he looks good. He doesn't appear to be limping much, at least, not more than normal for him. Tha last time I talked to the surgeon's office, the tech thought we should wait a couple of days (Monday) then if he was doing good, we could let him off lead a little bit and go back to swimming. So today he got to swim again for about 20 minutes, we brought him home and I washed his chin with some Nolvasan, hoping it will help the chin acne. It has to sit for at least 5 minutes so Kurt walked him around the yard to let the shampoo work. Then we hosed him down good, rinsed off the shampoo, dried him off and let him go inside. We always take some Kleenex or something to dry out and clean his ears after swimming too. Kurt went out later today to get the mail and took Magnum with him. He took him across the street to the mail box and then let go of the leash once we has back in the yard. Guess it's time to give him a little more freedom. I'm thrilled to be able to watch him swim and play but the possiblity of him hurting himself again does tug at the back of my mind. I try to push it away and not go there, but it's hard sometimes. We've been through a lot together, Magnum and our family, and I don't want him to hurt himself again. Someone on the orthodogs list said she feels a special bond with her dog after going through ACL surgery with him and I agree. It does bring you closer. Many on the list also dread, in a way, going back to full activity. There is that little nagging fear in the back of our minds that the other leg will go, or the repaired leg will get reinjured. I suppose that will always be there to some degree. My desire is to get him back to as normal a life as he is capable of and leave the rest in God's very capable hands. Easier said than done, I know but that is my goal. So, today was a good day. It was great to see him splashing around in the water again. He is at his happiest when he is in the water playing with the kids. It's very hot today with a heat advisory warning out so we aren't doing much outside right now and I've read that dogs can overheat even in the water, but it's overcast which helps a little with keeping the temp. down. Right now it's 91 with a heat index of 100. It has been very hot and humid for the last 2 weeks, at least. We've also had very little rain for over a month now and I'm sure that is why the lake and river are green. Perfect algae growing weather. I'm hoping it lets up soon and we get some relief. We need to put another section of roof on so we do need some dry weather but a little cooler would be great. Nobody wants to go outside when it's this hot, not even Magnum. He's always anxious to get back in the house. We have 2 window air conditioners going all the time to try to keep it cool in here. So far we've been able to keep it between 76 and 80, which isn't too bad. The kids and I all have asthma so the air conditoiners are great for us and I am very thankful for them. My next goal for Magnum is for him to be able to take one long circuit with us when we start walking again. We go down the road a bit, down to the lake and along the shore for a while, then back up to the road, back to our house. We do it twice and it takes us about an hour. I'll be happy if Magnum can go once around with us. As long as the water isn't too cold, he can swim and run in the water while we walk along the shore. People start pulling their piers in around Labor Day so then he wouldn't have to go around them. Thank you, Lord, that Magnum's leg is o.k. after that scare last week and for your continued watch care over us. Thank you for air conditioners and friends and big Black Labs. :-) |