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Buddy was discharged from the hospital on Friday and is now back home. He apparantly has some sensation in his leg, but that is not enough for him to get the strength to stand up.

I was pretty much a basket case rom Tuesday until Friday. When I called the vet on WEdnesday (not long after writing the previous entry), she told me (rather rudely) that she "did not have time to talk to a kid" and that she could "only talk to the person or persons listed on the medical records." I refused to take "no" for an answer and called the UC Davis veterinary hospital who has never seen Buddy and basically does not know he exists. I told the secretary that my dog had been diagnosed with FCE in the L-1, t-13 vertebrae and that I wished to speak with someone who could answer some questions. I didn't even know if this would be possible, as my dog was not a patient at the Davis hospital. The secretary said that she would put me through to the neurology unit, which she did.

I was surprised to get to speak with somone--I told the doctor what the diagnosis was and that I wanted some information regarding how to care for this dog and what I should expect. He was incredibly helpful and explained to me what was going on nerve-wise in Buddy. He told me that the nervous system signal that causes the leg muscles to extend involuntarily and give support was being interrupted by this blood clot. The signal would eventually reach the intended destination (hence the pain that Buddy would occasionally feel in his foot), but by that time, the signal would be so garbled and static-y that it would not be providing the necessary information. He told me about therapy and how to best rehab the dog. I thanked him for his help and asked whom I was speaking with--the guy on the other end was the supervising professor of the small animal neurology department. He recommended me a book (which was extremely helpful and a few websites.

Buddy canot pee on his own, so we have to extract the urine by a syringe. He also needs to be "force walked" and reintroduced to his leg. I tried to help him walk last night and I think I minjured my back in the process--it was like lifting an 80 pound back of potatoes. This morning, I built a "buddy-lift" system of pulleys and ropes so that he can rehab his leg w/o killing us. So far, he seems to be looking ok. Updates to come. Thank you to everyone for all their support.

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I didn't get much sleep last night, and when I did, I kept dreaming about the hairy little guy. (Little is relative--he's an 80 pound dog). We just got a call from the surgical office and they told us that things are looking better. He is now past the 24 hour stage and everything bad that could have happened to him would have happened within this period.

Basically, what Buddy had was a spinal stroke; a blood clot somehow formed at the base of his spine, causing the nerve tissue below the clot to die. Since the nerve signal could not go through to the end of the line, his back legs gave out on him and he was partly paralyzed. These types of clots can occur when there is frequent and sudden pressure put on the spine; this pressure can come from jumping and landing, running and coming to a sudden stop or even slamming into a hard surface very fast--he does all three of these things when ever he runs. In humans, the same type of spinal trauma can occur in basketball players, runners and anyone who engages in sudden up-down movement on a hard surface. Thank goodness Buddy is a dog--in humans, spinal strokes can frequently result in the person being rendered a quadriplegic for the rest of their life or even dying. Dogs are built on a "quadrant system," meaning their bodies are divided into left-righ-front-back regions, unlike humans who are only left and right.

The vet told us that Buddy can feel his toes now and he is able to move them. He was able to eat and drink normally this morning and seems aware of his surroundings. Whether he will be able to run the Boston Marathon again (No, he never did. )is questionable, but they think he will regain partial if not full use of his leg. The extent of recovery is only known after 7-10 days. Water therapy is recommended, but this guy hates to swim. He may not have much of a choice now.

I plan to put some AIredale Items into my gallery and put them up for sale to help defray the vet bill. They will be sold both through DA and through my personal site. I know it is really early for holiday cards, but "Hairy Christmas" will be available for purchase as a card set. I may replace the Santa hat with a party hat and make a birthday card with it.

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Many of you know my Airedale "Buddy" aka "The brainless dog with the IQ of a log." He is now in the hospital awaiting an MRI. This all happened just within the last few hours.

My Mom was outside playing ball with him and he was running as usual. Suddenly, I heard him yelping, no screaming, in pain. thinking he had been attacked by a raccoon, I rushed outside to see what was the matter. He was sitting on the ground, his front legs in the air and his hind legs straight out in front like a human doing a sit-reach test. We called the vet and rushed him in for treatment.

The vet called us back and told us it could be one of two things: (1) he could have a herniated (slipped) disc in his spine or (2)he could have ECS, a condition in which a herniated or otherwise damaged disc temporarily cuts off the blood supply and the nerve signals running to the legs. They ruled out hip displasia, stroke and broken back. His vital signs are normal and he is otherwise in perfect health. We took him to an orthopedic specialist who told us that after initial assessment, Buddy has full function of his front legs, but is temporarily paralized on one side of his back legs. In other words, he cannot feel his right back leg and doesn't seem to recognize that it is there. The left back leg is fully functional and seems to be responding to stimuli.

Right now, Buddy is in the orthopedic hospital, drugged out on morphine and anti-inflammatory drugs and awaiting an MRI, as the symptoms seem to suggest neurological damage. According to the vet, the MRI will also reveal if he has ECS or a herniated disc. Like sciatica problems in humans, ECS disappears with time and doesn't require surguey. A herniated disc would require surgey to remove the disc and widen the passages so that should inflammation recur, there would be less chance of a pinching to occur. The surgeon told us that only time will tell if he can recover fully or if he will be paralyzed on one side at the back only.

I still am having trouble believing this whole thing and I am still in shock. He was perfectly healthy and never showed any problems with his back or any other body parts. All his vitals were normal. If he gets out of this, (and I praying that he will) I think I'll drop the "brainless" moniker and definately cut the "3 legged Airedale joke" from the nightly joke sessions. I just feel so sorry for him. If it wre his front legs, then maybe h could enjoy a semmi-normal life, but the back legs...well, they don't make crutches for Airedales.

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OK, it seems that I update so infrequently, and some people have begun to wonder if I am still alive. Yes, I am still alive, but very busy.

I am still on track to take my qualifying exam in May or June and as part of that, I need to prepare a prospectus of my project and describe how it will fill a need. The second part consists of a summary of each chapter, the points I will address and speculative conclusions. Right now, that seems like waving a magic wand and making a paper appear out of thin air. I have an idea, but it is not developed enough to describe in detail what needs to be described in detail. I've never written anything like this before, so I am in uncharted waters, but as a writer, I kind of enjoy the adrenaline rush I get from writing and revising. Sometimes, it feels almost too easy. One girl who is a year ahead of me, is having a great deal of difficulty with getting her committee members to approve her prospectus (and even writing it for that matter) and another recent graduate told me that the prospectus was "utter hell." When I hear these comments and I compare them to my own experience, the little voice in my head whispers, "Wait a minute, why aren't you having these problems? Shouldn't you be?"

On a brighter note, I will be presenting two of my papers at a conference in TExas in April. Neither paper has been written yet, but they are both related to my eventual dissertation topic. Ironically, I am having a much easier time writing these two papers than I am writing the prospectus, which is probably because I have written lots of papers, but never a paper proposal. This also marks the first time that I submitted to a conference without having prepared a paper in advance (yet another academic rite of passage). (Egon, where are you when I need you? )

So to get back to my topic at hand, if it seems that I have been difficult to contact or like I am never on line anymore, it is just tha tI am up to my eyeballs in writing and am bucking an APril 4th deadline for all 3 papers.

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tagged me with this meme. Coincidentally, another deviant had used one of my pictures as part of this meme as well. This is a fun one.
Rules
1) Answer the questions below
2) Take each answer and type it into the dA search box
3) Take a deviation from the first page of results (may use ' popular' or 'newest' ) and post thumb (for subscribers) or link (non-subscribers)
4) You can't copy the persons answers who posted this before you
5) You have to go check out all the art, because it comes from some pretty cool people!

The age you will be on your next birthday.


A place you'd like to travel

Or anywhere in South America!

Your favorite place


Your favorite object

This was tough.

Favorite food


Your favorite animal

A close second would be

Your favorite color


The town/state etc. that you live in

Boy, was I surprised that this even came up!

Name of your past pet

His full name was "Baron von Thunder"and he always wore a red collar--an English dog named after a GERman ace. Go figure.

A dream come True

The last terms I typed in didn't return any results.

Nickname/screenname:


Your middle name

Again, I can't believe this came up.

Favorite Smell


Bad habit of yours

I tend to do it when I''m nervous

Your First Job

Worked at a toy store duirng the holidays!

Favorite Movie

As if this wasnt already obvious!

What are you doing right now


What's the WEather Like


Favorite Sport


Favorite Music/Band


Selected pieces available through my prints account.
I am participating in the International Art Exhibition.




I'm Velma in the deviantART Cartoon Obsessions Crew!

And Gary in the Nicktoons Crew


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