Just passed three months...

Actually, three months to the day on Monday (2/15), Cassi was fitted for a cart...a doggie "wheelchair" so to speak.  But let me back up a little to our last physical therapy appointment...

We had a follow-up appointment with Juli, the canine physical therapist at Animal Care Center in Rohnert Park on Thursday the 11th.  Juli was checking out Cassi, determining what progress she had made in the two weeks since our last visit and, I guess, she thought Cassi was making excellent strides (so to speak).  After about 5 minutes of checking Cassi out, Juli says "so these are my thoughts for her...and I always wait a while before I make this recommendation, but I am going to recommend, and don't be alarmed when I say this, but I'm going to recommend you consider getting a cart for her..."

She continued..."not as a permanent solution but as a rehab tool for her...".  OK, I must admit, at first this took me by surprise...because Cassi was (is) virtually walking...she beats her brother running down the path outside in our backyard...she is fast!  The exercises seem to be doing her a lot of good and I do see improvement daily...so why go to further expense?  Took me only a moment, but then I though about it further...see, as strong as her legs are getting, she does still have a curvature to her spine, or scoliosis.  The muscles on the surgery side (left) have atrophied so she favors the right side, mostly when she's tired.   On the visit with Juli prior to this, Juli ended the session by saying that "Cassi might be ready for the underwater treadmill next time...".  She mentioned that we could do a regimen of 8-10 weeks of the UTM, which would only be once a week, or we could achieve similar results with a cart as a DAILY physical therapy tool.   To me this was a no brainer, especially adding up the cost of the 8-10 weeks of sessions and comparing it to the $375.00 cost of the cart...

To the left you see the style cart we have ordered.  Juli recommended a company called EDDIE'S WHEELS because she believes they make the best, custom fit carts.  You can find lots of other companies, but their carts are adjustible and don't appear to be as stable as Eddie's.  I asked fellow blogger, Nicole, at http://www.alec-story.blogspot.com/ if she would second this recommendation, even though she had had problems with Eddie's customer service (which you would know if you have read her heart-wrenching story of love and devotion to her best friend, Alec...(if not, click the link above and read it!)) and Nicole agreed...Eddie's is best.  Fortunately, Cassi's needs a "standard" cart...because these things can get expensive!  You should checkout the Eddie's Wheels site by clicking the link above and see all the great stuff the do for our best friends!  They even have a Facebook page that shows current "patients" posting their "firsts", which I am sure I will be doing with Cassi's.  We have to wait 3 weeks (from 2/16) before the cart arrives.   Then I have to wait for an appointment for "fitting" with Juli and the very nice, LOCAL rep from Eddie's, Amanda Jacobs...testing my patience AGAIN, waiting to get Cassi moving!  In the meantime, it's sticking with the daily exercise routine that's made her stronger to this point and will be key until the cart arrives...and after.

Cassi chillin' in the backyard...

Orion doing the same...after it finally stopped raining!

Counting our blessings...and eating humble pie...

Ok, ok...so I must eat humble pie...

In the last entry,  I lamented on my "impatience" with the progress Cassi is making and was kindly reminded to go back to the day we received the diagnosis for Cassi's IVDD.  I have to remind myself that we were told that we might not see ANY movement out of her rear end for 6 MONTHS after the surgery.  6 MONTHS!   Right out of surgery, Dr. Cheri had mentioned she was not too encouraged since the surgery had not restored, at least, a trace of "deep pain response".  There was nothing.

And now, let me tell you about the server of the "humble pie"...Nicole...

Juli, the physical therapist at Animal Care Center in Rohnert Park, mentioned on our first visit that I might find information and insipration in the blog of a young woman that has a dog with this same spinal injury.  The blog is at http://www.alec-story.blogspot.com/ and is the story, much like mine, from the start of the incident with her perecious Alec.  Remember I said that intervertebral disc disease was most common in short-legged, long-bodies breeds...well, it is possible in larger dogs also.  Nicole's boy, Alec, is a 67 pound German Shepard.  If you read this latest entry in Nicole's blog, it will pretty much catch you up on her story, which is an incredible journey of love, patience and devotion to this wonderful animal that has touched my heart immensely.  And in that latest entry, yes...I am the impatient one she writes about...hence the "humble pie"...

Nicole is one of those that didn't see ANY movement for the first 6 months following, not one, but TWO surgeries!  I am not going to re-tell her story here, you really need to read it for yourself.  Suffice it to say, we are extremely lucky that Cassi is making the progress that she is so rapidly.  There is no set time for recovery from this and each dog progresses at their own pace, some not at all. I envy Nicole for her strength to deal with this, not only spiritually but also literally.  It seems ironic to me that she is dealing with this injury in her 67 pound dog at small her size and I get a 17 pound patient...but love has no boundries...

I am counting our blessings that she is recovering so rapidly.  I believe my impatience might stem from her making such a rapid recovery...I just want to do everything I can for this little girl and sometimes feel I am not doing enough. She is getting stronger...and so am I. 

Thank you, Nicole...

PS- Our third PT appointment is tomorrow (02/11/10)...stay tuned for an update and more pictures and video!

Patience, Matt...Patience...

Patience is not one of my stronger virtues...not at all...I want Cassi to walk NOW!  Poof!  Magically or divinely, I don't care.  I just want things back to normal...NOW!  Sadly, this is not going to happen real soon.  It takes a lot of PATIENCE and hard work to get her back to her pre-injury condition.  She will get there...just not "tomorrow".


We had our second physical therapy appointment at Animal Care Center in Rohnert Park with Juli Dell'Era and, while Juli saw some improvement, we are not moving as rapidly as I would like to believe.  Cassi and I do her exercises 1 to 3 times a day (as much as she can handle) and I, too, noticed improvement in the 2 weeks passed since her last PT appointment.  Juli says the last thing to come back is the proprioception I mentioned in the last entry.  She has conscious proprioception, meaning she is aware of her rear end only when I stimulate the knuckled foot by pinching the pads causing her to return the foot to normal position.  Apparently, the last thing to return is the unconscious proprioception, where she turns her foot back immediately (or shortly after knuckling) on her own...with no stimulation.  This makes total sense.

Although we are seeing Cassi "walking" a bit better each day, she still is favoring the front end.  Her front "arms" are so strong, she holds on like a little monkey when I carry her.  She does, still, have a tendancy to "inch-worm" or arch her back when she shifts to the front and Juli says we need to develop her abdominal muscles.  In addition to the arching, she also curves to the right, favoring those muscles due to the rupture affecting her left side.  Juli has added a few more exercises to help with this.

Since removal of the diapers, Cassi has slipped backwards a bit on the potty training.  She was holding everything in until I took the diaper off in the morning, but now we have had a couple "accidents" in the middle of the night.  Dr. Cheri at PESCM thought the diapers might be contributing to the bladder infections she keeps experiencing.  At least the last two tests (at $152 a pop!) have come back negative, so I think we are past that.  I only revert to the diaper if she doesn't "potty" before bed time.   Then I check it when I get up during the night (many times...for some reason...). 

All in all, progress has slowed a bit.  Yes, we are still seeing something different every day, like her scratching her face with her hind legs or chasing her own tail...things she hasn't done for awhile and we usually take for granted...but she is still walking like a "drunkin' sailor" when she gets lazy.  When she's "alerted", she walks straight and places her feet properly, but when she doesn't pay attention, she "leans" and "knuckles".

I just keep working with her daily...patiently...

Thanks for checking in!