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A new life PDF Print E-mail
Written by Tiffany Lau   
Thursday, 04 March 2010 05:09

A week after the accident, we thought Milo was doing well. He was hopping around pretty quickly on three legs and not screaming as much as before when we were changing his dressings. But when we took him to the vet for a check-up, Milo's report card wasn't as pretty as we thought it'd be. He had a displaced and fractured shoulder, which explains why he hadn't been using his left front paw. This, of course, complicated matters and lead to a series of changes in my household.


The next day we went to Veterinary Surgical Associates which specializes in orthopedic surgeries. Talking with the surgeon and getting the estimate cost of the surgery was mind-blowing because the surgery was so expensive. After much consideration we decided to go along with the surgery, in spite of the four-digit cost. 
 
Because of Milo's accident and surgery, my whole family had to adjust their daily routine. 

 
Milo: He has to wear a cone, is not allowed to run or jump, but can walk minimally (only under strict supervision) and has to sleep in a crate for the next six weeks. In simple words, he cannot be a dog.


Family: My sister and I have to wake up earlier in the morning now to carry Milo out into the backyard to go potty, feed him his medicine, put a warm pack on him for 10 minutes with physical therapy, following him and feed (or coax) him to eat breakfast. This morning routine is the reason why I have been late to school recently. On the days my sister and I are not home, my mom has to do these things for Milo, and it does not help that she is also injured/recovering. She, too, has a regime of physical therapy of her own. 

 
This new routine is like having a baby in the household. We are either up to take care of Milo or to calm him down. We have to constantly keep an eye on him. If none of us are in the room with him, we need to put him in the crate. He can bolt from his bed in an instant once someone leaves the room and he's restricted from walking around too much. We have to make sure he doesn't scratch his stitches and help him scratch his ears because the cone is in between his foot and head and prevents him from doing so. 


The way we do things in the house has to change now. We've learned to work our way around his needs, but it's definitely given us a new perspective on life: as a family, we really do need to look after one another.

 

 

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License


A new life by Tiffany Lau is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available.

 

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Last Updated on Friday, 05 March 2010 00:41