Sara's Meniscus Surgery Update

Thank you so much to everybody who wrote to us about Sara. For those catching up, she had surgery on her meniscus two weeks ago. The lampshade aka cone-of-shame came off this morning, so that was a cause for a little tail wagging. 

We’ve been walking her fifteen minutes daily. We let her set the pace, and it’s slow but every time we travel farther. For both her surgeries, we took her to Blue Pearl Vet in Cool Springs because we like Dr. Au. He told us she would recover quicker from the surgery on her meniscus than the one on her ACL. So far, he’s been right. 

A funny little side note: We like Dr. Au because he’s a geek about his profession. He’s the kind of geek who thinks everybody else will be as excited as he is about it. When he repaired her meniscus, he took out the metal plate and screws he had used on her knee during the ACL surgery. He cleaned them, dropped them in a baggie, and sent them home with her pills and instructions. I really didn’t need to see the hardware, but I respect Dr. Au’s enthusiasm. He’s exactly the kind of person I want operating on my dog. 

Sara’s been an exceptional patient. She remembers the drill, no roughhousing or running, no couch or stairs either. Luckily, our pack treats her with respect. In the beginning, they tried inspecting her wound but Sara wasn’t interested in satisfying their curiosity. She’d growl. They’d back off, give her plenty of room to maneuver with that clunky lampshade. I’m pretty sure that in dog language, Sara cursed that cone more than a few times. To be honest, she probably dropped a few f-bombs. Wearing that thing must be the worst part for them. 

Several people recommended that we use the pillow guard instead of the plastic cone. We tried it. Didn’t work. She could still lick her stitches. Maybe we were doing it wrong but I don’t think so. It’s a pretty basic concept, basically a travel pillow with a Velcro strap. I think the pillow works great for restricting access to some body parts but not others. Or maybe we have an exceptionally flexible dog. 

In another week, Sara should be leash free in the backyard. I’ll keep you posted.