Ampuversary!

It has been a year! One year ago today we fearfully dropped Meg off at the vet for an amputation, and fortunately the year since has been mostly positive for Meg. I’m feeling very blessed that we got lucky on this one, and that Meg is healthy, happy and enjoying life on three.

I’ve seen too many tripawd’s lose their battles in the last year, and it makes me feel a twinge of guilt and a lot of gratefulness that we’ve had Meg for this year, and fingers crossed a few more years. When I see people lose their tripawd, the dog seems to go downhill fast, healthy and happy one day, and then the next day not eating and sick, and the next day taken to the vet and receive a grim diagnosis. It is a valuable reminder to take every day as a blessing and not to plan too far ahead. Even last week, Meg had a bad day. She woke up cold and shaking, and even once the house warmed up she was in a ball shaking, not moving much. She was slow and sick on her walks and clearly in a lot of pain all day. Even though she was eating, drinking, pooping, and doing all the vital things that suggest “it might not be that bad”, I was still worried we might not see the one year mark after all.

Meg came good though, and last weekend we did a little photoshoot to celebrate the ampuversary! The photos aren’t on my laptop so I can’t spam you, but here is our favourite photo from the day!

You did it Meggymoo! One year into remission, another year and you’ll be in the clear! I’m just happy for each and every day though. Keep going Meglet, you’re a star!

A year since discovering Tripawds!

A few days ago I opened my “you have memories on this day” notification on facebook, and I was shocked to see a post about Meg’s biopsy from one year ago. I was aware her ampuversary was next month, but it didn’t really occur to me it had been over a year since we took her into the vet to have the strange lump in her leg looked at, a year since she had her biopsy surgery, and one year since I googled all sorts of questions about tumours in dog legs. I saw numerous tripawds blogs and forum posts, I marvelled at the nice little community, but felt I’d never have to worry about it. The vet said if the lump was anything bad, they’d just take it out, simple. Amputation was a back of the mind thought.

Which brings me to the upcoming anniversary, the 26th of august, Meg’s diagnosis anniversary. One of the most stressful, upsetting days I can remember, and probably one of the days I’ve never been more thankful for this site. After hours of crying and stressing, the idea of amputation, opposed to aggressive surgery or palliative care, seemed do-able, all thanks to this site, the blogs about surviving dogs, the youtube channels, the support and kindness in the forums.

Meg has come along way since her diagnosis, and I’m happy to say she is happy and healthy one year on and I’m excitedly hoping nothing unexpected comes up before her ampuversary and we can have a nice celebration for her.

Thanks for everyones love and support over the last year – it means the world to all of our lil pack!

Cancer paranoia lingers

You know that paranoid feeling you get whenever your tripawd has anything wrong with it – the sinking “oh god the cancers back/spread/worse” feeling? Well, turns out that feeling extends to other dogs!

Last night Tim & I got home after work, came in to find waggly bums of excitement. Straight away I noticed Dotti, our non-tripawd dog, was limping on her back leg. Luckily, she was already booked into the vets for her annual vaccinations/check up. We did a quick check of her leg and off we went to the clinic.

On the way there we were discussing what she must have done – fell down the stairs, twisted awkwardly, fallen off something etc, followed by jokes about her not having a tumour like Meg did.

“No, well we could see the tumour in Meg’s leg, if it was going to be cancer it would be osteosarcoma” I said, without even thinking, because you know, light hearted joking talk about cancer becomes ok post cancer? But then it hit me. What if it is osteosarcoma, or some other cancer like that. It wouldn’t be. She just has a minor injury. Its fine. So what if it sounds like all the stories you read on tripawds? There are thousands of stories about dogs limping who don’t have cancer!

So I was subtly a mess all the way to the vets, who said it was probably just strain and gave her anti-inflams, but that paranoia is still lingering in the back of my mind. The sooner Dotti starts showing improvement the better!

Big walk on three!

Tripawicous Meg went on her biggest walk EVER today! 7km (4.35 miles) and saw some gorgeous terrain. Meg handled the entire thing like a trooper and didn’t even get tired until the end. I bet she’ll sleep for about 3 days though!

Meg was repping her wonderful ruffwear webmaster harness which helped greatly when she was on lead – even off lead I think she felt a bit more tough in her big harness

 

Keep loving life Meggygirl!

Six months a tripawd

Just a little update to celebrate that my little Meggymoo has been a tripawd for six whole months, and two days!

She is still healthy, happy and loving life! Few more grey hairs growing, but for now I am very happy to see my girl getting older rather than getting sicker. Who needs four legs?!

Congrats Meg, keep striving!