More surgery

We took Shipley away on the 21st so he could be at the Florenceville animal hospital bright and early on the 22nd.  Time for surgery on his right leg.  The day I had been waiting for and dreading since the last surgery in June.

First we walked him down the hall in the waiting room so Shannon, the vet, could see how he walked.  After a needle that made him nice and sleepy, (I really should have taken pictures of Joseph laying on the floor cuddling him while he fell asleep) Shannon came in and checked out his leg.  Her news was encouraging yet not.  She felt there was not a lot of damage, but lots of arthritis.  I didn't like the sound of him being full of arthritis at such a young age.  But we would deal with it.

Once things were moving along, we left and spent the day out doing "stuff".  We first drove to my grandparents grave.  It is leaning a bit forward and needs to be straightened and there was an old floral arrangement that was mostly just wire and foam.  I wanted to take a couple of pictures of the stone so I took the holder off the stone and Joseph wiped it down a bit.  I felt a bit sad, walking away.  I don't normally visit graves but I will go back again next time we are up that way.  My sadness stemmed from the fact that I may be the only/last one in our immediate family to visit their grave.  Robert doesn't go anywhere.  He has no need of heading to Woodstock/Hartland so he won't go there.  Lenora and Glendon do travel but they have no need of going that direction, either.  Maybe someday Lenora will want to go and will make a point of going.  She always has been the one who knew who was related to whom and how they were related.  I doubt if my parents will go that way again.  Dad with his heart problems along with issues with his legs..he just can't drive that far right now and I don't know if he ever will again.  Mom with her memory problems, now nervous about driving.  I doubt she would set out to go visit the grave.  I am not one to visit graves because I know they are not there...oh sure, their bodies are, but Gram and Gramp don't care if we visit their grave or not.  It isn't important to them nor to me.  I have my memories and I know I will see them again some day.  Where they are buried isn't a big deal.  Yet...I have been there twice...so there is something that draws me there.

We left and did a bit of shopping.  Not much because we knew the bill from the vet was going to be high.

We ate at a Chinese restaurant that I really enjoyed.  Many "Chinese" restaurants I have been to haven't been good places...there is very little Chinese food and one place I went to was just scuzzy.  If it had been clean and friendly, I might have enjoyed the food but I couldn't enjoy food from there because it wasn't really clean and the people who were running it weren't really friendly...and it was COLD in there.  The place we went to this time was different.  Plenty of Chinese food.   (I know, most of the food they call Chinese isn't)...This place has a great selection and a buffet that wasn't over the top expensive.  Nor was all the food covered in sauce so sweet that you almost went into sugar shock.  We both enjoyed the food.

We got the call that the surgery was done while we were finishing up eating so we headed back to see our pup.  Granted, when we got there, he had NO idea we were there since he was still snoring away but we sure were glad to see him.  Shannon told us the damage was WAY worse than what she had originally though the tendons and Meniscus were both totally "shattered" (her words).  BUT, there was little arthritis!  THAT is a good thing.  She could fix the tendons and meniscus.  She wouldn't have been able to fix the arthritis.  She managed to get 4 strands of line in this leg and the kneecap didn't need any work since it had tightened up and had seated back into the proper position.  Another plus.  :)

The next day, on the 23rd we picked a sore, groggy dog up and loaded him into the vehicle.  He was already touching his toes on the ground and seems to be doing very well.  He cried a lot on the boat, so Joseph laid down on the blanket beside him and cuddled him (as much as you can cuddle a 115lb dog.)  That settled him right down and he slept the rest of the trip.  (I did take pictures of that one)  He slept good all night and this morning has been up and outside twice, putting a bit of weight on his leg each time.

So that adventure is almost over, except for the healing.  I wonder what comes next.