MAC vs PC

In December 2007, I decided I needed a new computer, and because of my artistic pursuits, Jet convinced me to get a MAC. I had trained in graphic design on a MAC computer, so I wasn't unfamiliar with the way it operated. I was so excited when I got my laptop and Jet and I became like the MAC vs PC ads on the tv! I was totally pro MAC and he was pro PC.

I never thought for a minute that the MAC ads and the sales people were portraying anything but the truth. "They never freeze or crash" they said. "They never get viruses". "They are made for last for 8 years" they said. About 2 months ago, my MAC started to run slowly so I downloaded Onyx which is a software that cleans up your hard drive, but before I did that, I bought an external hard drive to back up my files. Onyx needed me to do something with the start up disk, so it was my intention to go into the Genius Bar and get their help.

Last Thursday, when I had just finished my first writing assignment for my new teacher, and the day that Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson passed away, my MacBook hard drive died too. It was so fried in fact, that it wouldn't even boot up from the initial white screen. I thought these things only happened when Mercury was in retrograde?

I called the Apple Store to make an appointment and the earliest wasn't until the next day at 1pm. I took it in and the guy was pretty much like "there's nothing we can do except replace your hard drive". Hmph. They did so within a day, and I made another appointment with the Genius Bar to reinstall my back up from Time Machine. An hour later, it still wasn't loading, so I checked my MacBook in again for them to do it and find out what was wrong with my Time Machine back up. It's been 2 days, and I haven't heard back, but they said that I should hear back within 3 days.

This post was not just intended as a rant, but also a warning to other MAC users! They are not bullet proof - don't believe all the propaganda that they feed you. They do crash, they do freeze and mine had a faulty hard drive at only a year and a half old. Back up your stuff! I am going to invest in a Time Capsule which backs up our entire network (including both PCs and MACs and also my iPhone) every hour so that if anything ever happens again, I have everything up to the last hour. It wouldn't have helped my assignment, but it would have saved me a lot of work.

Daisy in Action!

Jet's cousin Vanessa came to stay with us last week, and she took some videos of Daisy in the rehab tank! Daisy looks much happier than she did when we first started taking her. The first video is her running on the tready, the second is of her swimming!

Horses and such

In a bold attempt to fill up my days with activities that I enjoy, I now have so much to do that I am constantly busy! Not long after I arrived in Vegas, I googled "horse rescue" and found a place in Sandy Valley, not far from here. But when I put the address into Google Maps, it said that it would take me 1.5 hours to get out there and that was just too long a drive for me at the time. I didn't know whether my car (and I) would hold up to the desert drive.

Then earlier this year, there was a pet show called Pet-A-Palooza which I went along to, out by the UNLV stadium, and low and behold, Shiloh Horse Rescue had a booth! So I asked them first-hand how long it would take for me to get there and they all said "about 45 mins". Google Maps obviously assumes that everyone sticks to the speed limit!

So in May, I did my first trip out to Shiloh and when I got there, Elisa (the riding instructor) asked me if I wanted a lesson! Did I? I was so confused, excited and overwhelmed, that I said yes! And so began my step back into the equestrian fold.

I had a serious horse accident about 8 years ago and have only ridden once on a trail ride in Wales about 4 years ago. So although I was not nervous or fearful, there was definitely some trepidation there. Elisa leant me a pair of boots and a helmet and I rode Orlando in the arena for an hour or so. It was great. I didn't realize how much I had missed riding until that moment! But I also think that if I had started again when I wasn't ready, I wouldn't have had such a positive experience. 

My first lesson on Orlando

Since that first week, I've ridden Dude, Priceless and Cedar, and with each lesson, I get a little better and a little more confident. I have been riding Western, and I discovered after my last lesson, that for all the years that I rode in a Western saddle, I was using it like a dressage saddle! My seat was dressage but my saddle was western, so I am in the process of "retraining" to ride Western as it should be ridden. I would like to get to a point where I can do both Western and Dressage. Baby steps...

Last week I had my first horse related injury! I was tying Cedar up at the wash bay with a quick release knot, when she pulled back and my knuckle got pinched by the rope as I was tightening it. I iced it immediately, but it was sore, bruised and swollen for about 5 days. I'd rather have a many small injuries than one big one, that's for sure!

My second ride: out on the trail with Dude (I am in the middle on the chestnut horse)

Jill Curtis, who owns Shiloh, and her mom Sally both work out there every day. They are such kind people - they try to rehabilitate every horse they have; even the seemingly un-fixable. If magic wands existed, these ladies should have one. They rely on donations and kindness, and I don't know how they do it. They have hundreds of horses on the property, just living out their lives in comfort and only a handful of adoptable horses, that they train and sell on to good homes. The horses come from all over the country but mostly from feed lot auctions, where buyers are there to purchase horses for slaughterhouses and the horse meat export market. Jill bids against the people she knows are buying them for this purpose and gives these animals the chance to live out their lives as happy horses.

For more information about Shiloh Horse Rescue and Sanctuary, check out their website.

Antibiotics

The antibiotics worked! And it was almost instant - it only took 3 doses (1 day) to notice an obvious improvement in her weight bearing. So it looks like we have a low grade infection. The plan now is to see if it recurs, and if so, we will need to keep plate removal as an option.

The normal post-op appointment and xray is normally done at the 8 week mark. But because we x-rayed at 7 weeks, we are going to do the post-op appointment x-ray at 12 weeks to make sure the bone has healed fully. This is so that if plate removal is necessary, the bone is more than strong enough to hold together without the reinforcement. As the bone fuses back together in the healing phase, it creates a calcification which actually makes the break site stronger than normal. Daisy is going to have an uber leg!

Daisy running on the underwater tready! We had to coax her a little with treats...

During her rehab appointment this week, we had her going for 20 minutes non-stop, but we alternated between walking and running. This was the first time she had run in the tank, and we were hoping to make her tired as she has been gaining stamina over the course of her rehab appointments and has been hyperactive when she gets home. We kept her feet on the ground this time and increased her "action" time by 4 minutes which doesn't sound like much, but because there were no rest breaks, it really made her work.

Swimming Daisy! You can tell by the look on her face that she really didn't like it.

We tried her with swimming at her last appointment and she just doesn't have the right build to be a good swimmer! She has a dense, heavy body, and spindly legs and without our help holding her up in her little life jacket, she was threatening to sink.

Doing the post swimming therapeutic exercises. They created an obstacle course with big cushions and an ottoman to make her leg work harder and to practice balance and weight shifting just with her back legs.

The girls have been going out with Arin our dog walker, and have been playing tricks on her! It's so hot now that they play the "grass hopping" game to try and keep off the pavement and save their little paws from burning. I suggested that they just hang out at home and not go out in the summer, but Arin said that they wait by the front door and get so excited about going out that she will continue to take them until they tell her they don't want to go! But in addition to grass hopping, they have been finding wet lawns along the way to lay down on and have both objected to getting up. I don't know who is laughing more - Daisy, Charlotte or Arin! I get the funniest written messages about their escapades when I get home. They make me laugh out loud!

Week 6

We just had Daisy's 6-week rehab appointment and as luck would have it, her surgeon walked past as we were trying to coax her with food to keep walking on the treadmill. He came in when he realized it was us, and asked about Daisy's progress. We had the same rehab therapist as we did the first week, and we all agreed, that she should be progressing better than she is. At week 6, although the bone isn't completely healed yet, there shouldn't be the limping that she is presenting with. The puzzling part is that her range of motion is great; it's her weight bearing that is lagging.

In the tank having a breather between tready sessions.

So her surgeon did a bit of manipulation and prodding and poking around the wound and the plate and agreed that she seems a little sore at the distal end of the plate. This could be from a low grade infection (some dogs get this) which can be fixed with antibiotics. So we got a prescription of antibiotics and they took some x-rays to make sure everything was in order, and we need to report back at the end of this week. If she stops hurting and starts using her leg, we will know it's an infection. If the antibiotics make no difference, it may just be that she needs more time to heal. Either way, plate removal is looking more and more like an option.

But even though she is still limping around, she is back to herself again! Trying to instigate trouble and steal food off the counter.

We let them wrestle if there is no running or chasing involved...

can't steal all their fun!

Meanwhile, Charlotte had a haircut as we thought it was time to free her from her woolly coat! She had a #7 blade haircut and looks absolutely adorable. She didn't like it to begin with and was acting all introverted and sad. And to make matters worse, Daisy had no idea who she was when we got back into the car and it took her a while of butt sniffing to realize it was her sister!

Pinky's new haircut!

Rehab Session #2

Jet, Charlotte and I took Daisy to her second rehab session this past Monday. I felt bad for Charlotte having to stay at home all the time, so we took her too. I tried to take the weenie to a dog expo on Saturday on a little excursion, but although Daisy was crated with a kong as a distraction, she screamed like she was being murdered! Charlotte and I sat outside for 10 minutes to see if the noise would stop, but it didn't and when I let Charlotte go, she just ran to the door as if to say "let me in to my sister"! So I did. They were reunited. And they were quiet. And I went to the pet expo alone!

So during Daisy's second appointment, we discovered a few things. Although her range of motion had improved by 5 degrees, she was still not weight bearing as she should be at the 4 week mark. This is a concern to us both, so we are going to be extra vigilant over this next week and take her in to see the vet next week after her next rehab consultation.

We had a different rehabilitation consultant this week and she suggested that maybe Daisy is not weight bearing because she has an underlying infection caused by the plate. She said that the plate could be removed if necessary, by a very simple, fast, painless and relatively non-invasive procedure. She also pointed out, that Daisy actually had 2 surgeries: the TPLO and the patella surgery at the same time. So we should maybe give her a bit of extra leeway with regard to the speed of her recovery. As parents though, we are concerned.

As I write, the girls are curled up asleep together which is bliss for me. When they are both awake, all they want to do is play! I feel like an ogre when I have to enforce the rules and make them stop. I'm sure they call me Shrek when I am out of earshot. Jet, on the other hand, is the Alpha with the calm, assertive energy, so not only do they chill out, he only has to say one word and they do what he says!!

Physical Therapy & Emails to the Vet!

Since the last post on the Princesses, Daisy has had her stitches out and has made it through her first physical therapy session. She is doing great. Her parents are a little strung out though...

Our veterinary surgeon is so fabulous that he lets us email him with questions as we need to, so I make full use of this service and email him our concerns, prescription requests, surgical questions and anything else we are worried about!

So when Daisy finished her first prescription for her pain medication, we didn't refill it immediately because we just assumed that they had given us enough to keep her comfortable until the pain had subsided. But as the days passed, we both noticed that she was uncomfortable, but as we had her physical therapy treatment within the next few days we waited to see if we were right in our assessment, or whether we were just being hypochondriac, paranoid parents!

Her rehab consultant was great and gave us more pain meds and sedatives as after her therapy, she said that she may be sore and definitely tired. She took measurements to check the muscle tone and range of motion in both her back legs, she explained thoroughly to us what she was doing and why rehabilitation after surgery was so important. We went into the consultation only half sold on the idea, and thinking that we could do it ourselves, but after her appointment, we realized how important it was and how much more they can do for her than we could do.

We really didn't know what to expect, so when she dressed Daisy in a doggy life jacket I knew we were in for a treat. Well, treat for us, not so treat-like for Daisy! She put her in a perspex tank that she filled with warm water to just past her belly, then turned on the underwater treadmill! It was amazing to watch, but Daisy went into "OMG I'm having a bath" mode and froze until she realized that she had to move her legs so she didn't hit her butt on the back of the tank. The life jacket has a handle which came in very handy when repositioning her on the treadmill as we reached in from above!

Once Daisy got used to it, she seemed to tolerate it and ended up doing two 5 minute sessions in the tank which completely exhausted her. But the great thing about exercising her leg in water, is that it provides more concentrated exercise, less pain and faster results. It also allows Daisy to build up her muscles and leg function so that when she gets the 8-week-all-clear she can return to normal activity without any stiffness or complication from inactivity. Fabulous!

The day after? Daisy did not use her leg at all and Jet was really worried that she wasn't recovering as she should be. But after an email to the vet, he explained that they are just like us - they get sore after a good workout too and if we were still worried at her next appointment to let him know when we arrived and he would take a look at our princess. How nice is that? I think that we have unrealistic expectations of how tough Daisy is and when you combine that with how serious this surgery actually was, we shouldn't be worried yet that she is still limping. It's only been 4 weeks today.

I forgot to take photos of her in the tank, but we have another appointment this Monday, so I will take one then. Sorry about that. You'll all have to make do with these goofy photos of the girls instead.