At first, we thought surgery was the best option for Izzie because every time she felt better, she'd start hopping around and kicking and then the limping started again. We were so worried she'd tear the whole thing. She's so active and loves to be active outside and they told us she'd be like new so we thought it was the best option. But after about a week of diet, restriction, and supplements, she seemed to be getting better. My vet didn't suggest surgery as well. My vet is the one who diagnosed arthritis. My vet doesn't have an x-ray machine so I went elsewhere to get x-rays and they started the process with specialists to suggest surgery. It's been a long month and a lot of struggling with decisions. Here I am watching her get better and I'm supposed to send her into this surgery where they cut her bone and plate it and she's under heavy anesthesia? Really?! I can't put a healthy dog, my dog at almost 11 years old through something like that...no way!!! So the more I research, the more I find out that healing with diet, restriction, and supplements for a partial tear, even a full-blown tear, have happened but it just takes a ton of restriction and a very long time and...a lot of tough love but I'm like, "I CAN DO THIS!!!"
With this more natural healing in mind, I start stockpiling supplements and homeopathic remedies to help the healing process. While researching homeopathic avenues, I'm reading about holistic medicine as well. Now, this would have been my first option and I did look into it in the beginning but as far as I knew, we had no options for holistic veterinary medicine in our area. I did consider driving wherever for holistic help but there was nowhere at all close. While reading about holistic treatments, specifically Prolotherapy for partial tears, I come across a holistic vet in Traveler's Rest. I had no idea she existed! I was ecstatic because even though we wanted to treat her naturally and let her heal, we felt we needed a little help and guidance/direction. I called and made an appointment. Had I known she was there, I'd have been seeing her many years ago. Our appointment was yesterday.
Now, in all my research on Prolotherapy, there's no way I could have been prepared for yesterday. I had no idea what to expect. While acupuncture was an option, it was less likely that it would do the job since Izzie is a bigger girl and she was putting a ton of weight on her other leg, which may eventually cause issues in that leg as well. She obviously suggested Prolotherapy. She mentioned that Prolotherapy will also help arthritis that Izzie already has. A win/win, right? We were looking at 3-5 treatments at 3-5 weeks apart. We don't know the extent of that yet until we see how Izzie does with this first one. Then the vet will decide what the schedule will look like. I'm so glad I scheduled this on a Friday afternoon so I have the weekend to stay close to her and watch her. And I am grateful for a great job and the flexibility to do this as it takes an hour to get to the vet's office and we have to be there for a few hours and then an hour drive home. It makes for a long day, but like I said, I had no idea what to expect.
They had to administer a little anesthesia to keep her still for the procedure. I didn't want this but it has to be done. They administer the least amount possible but I was later told that Izzie is a "heavyweight" and they had to give her a little more to settle her down. The procedure only took about 20 minutes or so. That was it. It was quick. I was told I'd be there for a while but little did I know, it wasn't because of the procedure but because I had to get her woke up from the sedation. They move me to a smaller room and carry her in and there she is, all laid out, tongue out, eyes open and no movement. I've never seen her like this. It was frightening and saddening all at once. It was scary and it was hard. Now, I had to go to a new dentist the day before, and I hate going to the dentist, much less a new one. And I thought that was scary and hard. This was 10 times worse. A hundred times worse. This was my baby. They told me that we had to wait for her to start waking up and stimulation all over her body would help. So I start petting and rubbing her and talking to her. She moved her tongue and moved her ears and I knew she heard me. So I just kept it going. Eventually, she started this whining, this awful whining and I got scared. Why was she whining? Was she in pain? Was she just scared? What was happening? This was where I started to lose it. At different points in time, someone would walk in and check on us. I asked if this was normal and of course, they said yes so I just kept it going. I straightened up and kept my composure. I kept talking and stimulating and eventually, she started coming out of it about an hour later. It was tough. She finally woke up enough to get her in the car and get her home.
Now they had mentioned she may or may not have pain and gave us Tramadol if she did. It was most likely that she would have pain the first and second treatment but we were hoping for the best. Even though we gave her a pain pill last night, we didn't sleep because she didn't sleep. She did eat dinner and go out before bed but through the night, she paced and panted and whined so I couldn't sleep either. I considered making a place to sleep in the floor beside her so that I could be near and comfort her so maybe she'd settle down but I decided against it because I wanted to keep the routine as normal as possible, and I seriously needed some sleep. This morning she did eat breakfast and go out like normal and after the prescribed 12 hours, I gave another pain pill because she was obviously in a lot of pain. She was panting heavily and not putting any weight on the foot at all. After some time, I realized the pill wasn't really helping. Maybe she is a heavyweight and needed more. I called the vet to ask because she was visibly very uncomfortable and the vet had mentioned that we did not want that. After talking with the vet, she said that she had hoped Izzie would have responded a little better but she had also done a little more with the joint to help for future healing. She said give Izzie another pill and two would help but three would be too much, make her dopey. So I gave her an additional pill and she has been much more settled and relaxed now and seems to be resting more comfortably.
After a little more research, I read that the first procedure takes about 24-48 hours for the pain to subside so hopefully we are getting toward the end of the pain and she'll start being in the recovery stage. Some things I read also mentioned that because she is older and this was the first treatment that this all is pretty normal, but it has been hard to watch her be in so much pain. I feel like I've let her down, especially if this doesn't work. While it is much less expensive than surgery, we will consider surgery if we have to as a last resort. Hopefully, this is our salvation. I just have to keep reminding myself that this is a much better option than surgery. It's hard, very hard just watching her lay around and feel bad. But we now have a little hope in full recovery and much better quality of life, and as she starts healing and feeling better, the optimism will definitely come much easier. One day at a time right now and just remembering to breathe deeply. Wish us luck with our journey and for a speedy recovery for my sweet Izzie.
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