Monday, April 14, 2008

Side tracked, but somehow still about mindfulness!

So, I did not get a chance to work on my garden this weekend because I ended up going to Albany so that my dog (yellow Lab), Kya could have surgery. For some reason, I did not foresee her recovery being difficult, so I had planned my whole weekend to visit people while I was there. I got through all my visiting plans until Saturday morning when I went to pick her up. She ended up with ACL surgery which is much like the ACL surgery that people get. She somehow had a partial tear to her left knee and they could not tell me that for sure until they did the surgery. Hence my denial about her aftercare. Her whole leg is bandaged up and she can only hobble around. Laying down and sitting is difficult because she cannot put weight on it and the bandage is wrapped tight so that her leg is constantly extended. Long story, short, we could not stay in Albany because my boyfriend lives on the second floor of his house and I can not carry my 82 lb. dog up and down just to go pee. In addition, this whole thing has resulted in my anxiety level sky rocketing... great time to try out mindfulness right??? Yup, sure is. Man, is it difficult! You see, Kya is like my baby... she is my only child and it is painful to see my only child in pain without understanding why and being so clumsy that she accidentally hurts herself even more. Not to mention the expense of this whole thing! She is normally a VERY energetic, excited, happy, playful dog. She is only one year and ten months old, so she is still very puppy-like and if you have ever met a Lab, you know what I'm talking about. So here she is completely unable to be the dog that she was meant to be! The Vet told me that this was Major surgery and she cannot go off leash for 4 weeks and she has to have this bandage and sutures in for two weeks! She cannot run around nor jump up on furniture. Now, prior to this surgery, Kya jumped on everything... except me. She sat on the couch with me while watching tv or knitting. She slept in bed with me... and now she cannot do any of that either! To explain my anxiety further, last night we went to go to bed and she made a running start to leap up onto the bed. Now, mind you, I helped her up into the bed the night before and back down in the morning. I had every intention of helping her up in the bed, but for the moment, she forgot that she was disabled and went full force jumping up. But instead of landing on the bed, her bad leg slammed right in the side of the bed and she let out a terrible scream as she scrabbled to get on the bed. Now, I can't take off her bandage, and I have no way of telling if she has damaged anything. So I sat in bed with her terrified, for an hour worrying that she has hurt herself further! As I was sitting there, I thought about mindfulness and I tried to think about the present moment and how she was now laying in bed next to me quietly. Then I replayed her leap over in my head and completely attached myself to the worry!!! I went through this several times before finally going to bed. Did I mention that I might have some anxiety??? Yeah, I just really want her to be okay. I was relieved today however after working 9 hours and coming home and her bandages were still intact as well as the bed in her crate which normally she would have chewed to shreds before. Anyway, here is a picture of her with her wrapped up leg. The vet said the techs got bored and decorated her bandages! Yeah, that's a heart and stars in pink and purple!! Not really my style, but cute even still!

1 comment:

Bruce Gamble said...

Is there any less stress now, compared to the 14 th? I hope so! Mindfullness IS tough! But I'm very proud of all you're doing!
Love,
Dad