3 days post-op

Hi! It's Mr. Whiskers reporting for the little gimp again. Umh, I mean "sweet" Lillie. I am really getting sick and tired of having to wait on her ALL of the time. When mom and dad and the hooman pups leave, they make me be in charge of taking care of Lillie. She can get quite demanding at times! I'm sure glad its the weekend and the hoomans will be around now to watch after the little cripple. She's such a B-A-B-Y!!
I thought some of you may be interested in seeing some pictures of her. They are kind of gross so if you have a queazy stomach you may not want to look.

Mom is threatening her with a lamp shade if she doesn't start leaving the incision alone. For some reason she thinks she needs to wash it constantly. WHY she would want to wash something that looks like that, I do not know.

A message from Amy:

Thanks to everyone for checking in on us. It really helps us with what we are going through. Lillie is feeling a bit better- not so much crying and whining. It is very difficult for her to go into a sit or down position. She is doing well with toe touching with her injured leg, but occasionally will walk on three legs. She has adapted to the situation well. We try to keep her confined as much as we can. She is usually in the bedroom and we use a baby gate to keep her in a small area. Right now it is easy to keep her confined because she isn't feeling well, but in a day or two that may change. She is very much an Airedale and has a mind of her own if you know what I mean. Some of you may remember that I told you that Dr. Cal indicated her issue was congenital. He ended up putting three pins in her knee cap to stabilize things. She had sever malaligent of the patella (knee) and tibia crest (the tibia is the shin bone). He said that it actually was at an angle and very mishapen. They straignhtened it out- he said after they pinned it they could tell right away that it was in alignment. He said we were fortunate that her ACL didn't rupture because it was very irritated. Her left side also has this issue. He said she has a grade I/IV patella luxation but because the alignment is much better he doesn't anticipate future problems on that side, and that we should just monitor it. The good news of the entire situation is that this didn't occur because of trauma. When this first happened we thought it was because Jordan fell on top of her. She and Jordan like to play football and the game, as it is in real life gets a little rough. We just need to watch her and keep her quiet for the next 6 weeks. She has managed to really be able to do alot of things with three legs. She can go up and down the steps with assistance on three legs. Sometimes we use a towel as a sling to help lift her Rt hind leg. She doesn't really like the towel but will let us support her with our hands and arms. She is very tolerant most of the time. When she isn't tolerant is because she is hurting. Its amazing to see her be able to function so well with three legs.

If Lillie is feeling better she will post tomorrow. The big game is tomorrow and she was hoping to be able to "party" a bit with the family. We said she could join in the festivities but if she got too out of control we'd have to send her to her room. Have a great weekend everyone and thanks again for being so supportive to us!!

Amy and Mr. Whiskers