Stuff about Bonnie

[lisa_goldstein]

I see now I was too optimistic about Bonnie’s recovery, possibly because of how upbeat the vets were.  In fact, losing a leg is a Big Deal, especially a front leg.  She needed to develop new muscles and then to relearn all kinds of things: how to stand up, how to walk, how to climb stairs, how to jump up on her couch.  She had pain from the operation, and apparently she also has phantom limb pain, where she will yip briefly and then carry on as if nothing happened.  (That’s what the vet says it is, anyway — I can’t see how they know, but I’ll take their word for it.)  The worst thing is when she just sits there and pants with anxiety, and I can't help but think that she’s noticing how different things are, and how hard everything has become.

Her recovery was so slow that I even wondered if we had made a mistake.  Of course the choice was between this and cancer, but I started to think that her quality of life might be so bad that maybe we should have done nothing.  And then, of course, she started to improve.  She runs around, though not as fast as before; she wags her tail; she’s even gone for short walks.  (“A tripod!” someone said on seeing her.)

She's still licking the site of the operation.  I told the vet I really wanted to take off that doughnut thing they gave us, and the vet said we could put a t-shirt on her.  This seems to work, and, even better, she looks very stylish.

Comments

[sergebroom]

I'm glad your girl is doing better.