Gimpy McHop-a-long comes home

Dart has been home for a week now and is looking much better. He came home last Tuesday, the day after his surgery with a very swollen leg that was shaved from hip to toes and a three inch incision stapled shut over his knee. The doctor said that Dart had a complete tear of the ACL, PCL and medial collateral ligaments and damage to the medial meniscus which I believe is a pad of tissue between the bones in the knee. (I hope those terms are right, I had to listen to the voice message again and again to try and get them!) Anyway, the doctor said that pretty much anything that could go wrong in his knee did go wrong.Poor Jeni was really freaked out by Dart that first night. She didn't want him anywhere near her and if she had to go past him she would cover her eyes and run. The funny thing was, it wasn't the incision or the swelling/bruising that bothered her. It was all the hair shaved off! Kids are funny sometimes!

We were instructed to keep him from licking the wound and to avoid excessive stair use for the next 8 weeks! Ha, like that is going to happen in our house. If you are not familiar with the layout of my house it is 5 stairs from the garage to the family room, 4 stairs from the family room to the kitchen and living room. Then it's 10 stairs to most of the bedrooms and the closest bathroom and finally 4 more stairs to my bedroom (where he sleeps at night) and the other bathroom. Poor dog! The first night we had him home I finally put him on a leash and put it around a chair to keep him from trying to hop up the stairs on three legs. Anyway, he is doing much better now and starting the use that leg a little bit. Unfortunatly he doesn't seem to have learned anything because he has already tried to sneak out the front door at least twice in the last week!