The Plate Is Coming Out

I'm back from my doctor's visit.  He took an x-ray of my leg/foot and everything looks good.  All the screws are still in place.  There is a extremely small gap between the top of the plate and my leg.  The bone is starting to grow over the plate in one place.  He said that wouldn't be a problem though during surgery.  He agreed with Mama that the plate and the screws could be bothering me since there isn't much there between them and my skin.  Mama is big on asking questions and finally she asked the one that made up her mind.  She asked him what he would do if it was his dog.  He said he would take the plate out.  She was pretty sure before that answer, but if he would have said he wouldn't do it, she would have had to really think hard about it.  She doesn't want me to have surgery, but she also wants to give me the best chance of living a pain-free life.  She and the vet are also concerned about the bone growing over the plate.

There is a concern that she never thought about and that is that there could be an infection living under the plate and when the plate is removed, it could run wild.  The vet will send off a bacterial culture right away and hopefully it comes back okay.  Yep, something else for Mama to worry about.

The surgery is set for March 13th.  I will spend one night in the hospital.  I will come home with staples and they will come out in 10-14 days.  Oh, I will also be shaved in several places again.  They are going to give me an epidural so a spot on my back with be shaved this time.  I'm going to look like a patchwork quilt again.

I am no longer on any restrictions!  However, that ends on March 13th when I get to start all over again.  It won't be as bad as last time though.   I don't think I'm going to do any real running until I'm all healed.  My leg hurts when I have taken off in the house and it's just not worth it.  I am able to get in and out of the Jeep on my own now, so that's really cool.  That, of course, will end when I have my surgery.

Remember how I looked when I came home from the hospital in September.  I looked pretty sad back then.  This surgery will not be as bad, but I'm still going to be shaved again.  Yikes!

In about a month, this should all be over with and I will be able to run and place like a regular greyhound.  Roo Roo!  

Joey
The Greyhound Who Is Going To Be Plateless Soon