I just talked with Indy's physical therapist today. Before Indy broke her leg, she was trying to help her regain strength in her bad leg through an underwater treadmill. In her opinion (she's obviously worked with tri-pawds before), she thinks the pain is the only problem Indy will have, and that will go away and can be controlled with meds. Otherwise, she was a tri-pawd in spirit for well over a year and will only have to adjust to a different weight -- but she noted that since she carried just about all her weight on her good back leg, the fact that she will have less weight in the back will help it.

I watched the video from Samwise on the What To Expect thread. I don't think Indy will recover nearly as quickly but she's already doing the bunny hop. If you watch her walk right now, her nails in her bad leg barely touch the ground.

She's had bad experiences with Fentynol before but she's actually been on both Rimadyl and Tramadol for the past year for her hip. They're minimum dosages except she first got out of surgery, but the good thing is I've developed my tricks for getting her to take them. With Fentynol, the first day she has it, she kind of freaks out. The vet said that's because the transdermal patch absorbs too much during the first 12 hours and it doesn't always agree with some dogs. The current plan is to have her stay overnight after the surgery, so hopefully we won't have to deal with that.

We've dealt with much of this with her broken leg, like grinding up veggies and broth to help her get her appetite back. We know how different pain meds and sedatives affect her, so hopefully this will give us a head start.

We are actually putting the surgery off one week. We both need time to arrange our schedules to give us maximum work flexibility. Thankfully, my work will allow me to telecommute for some time after the surgery (it helps to have a boss who does a lot of animal rescue work).

In the meantime, we'll continue to do exercises to get used to balancing on one back leg. She really doesn't seem to need it, but I figure it couldn't hurt.

By the way, I'll probably be posting pictures and updates here:

http://mc-novel.....ogspot.com

If you're curious, you can check out my other writing via links on that site. If you're a fellow writer or a sports fan, you'll probably enjoy the different sites I write for.

Well, tomorrow (Thursday) is the big day. Our vet knows how Indy HATES going to the office, so we will park the car and stay with her and they'll sedate her in the car before bringing her in. They said that she'll be the first surgery and that they want us there when they wake her (they estimate about two hours later), though they'll keep her overnight.

We're both nervous, despite what the blood work and surgery history say about her being in a good position for this. Her age still remains a concern, so we've been making this an extra special day for her: mashed potatoes for breakfast, apples for lunch, and a special gravy on her kibble for dinner (her brother was just a tad jealous). We might pack her up in the car and bring her downtown and park on the street with the windows open -- she won't walk around but she loves the sounds and smells of all the people.

Wish us luck! I'll post an update tomorrow afternoon.