Bling is Bling...Even if it's on the Inside.

Our dog Tyler has finally suffered his first major injury. It’s debatable exactly when this happened, but he has a complete tear of his Cranial Cruciate Ligament (doggie ACL). He’s had some intermittent problems with that leg since winter, but it was never very serious and nothing that a couple days of rest and NSAIDs completely fixed. So it’s possible that he ruptured it months ago and just did extremely well until recently, or he started a tear before and ruptured it last week at the park. Moo point, since either way he’s going under the knife.
He’ll be getting a procedure known as TTA. Tibial Tuberosity Advancement. It’s not a fun thing to look at the descriptions of, so I’m going to skip that. Suffice to say I’ll no longer be the only one in the house who’s had metal surgically implanted in their body.
His rehab will be much shorter than a person’s, but still not really fun for Hayley and me. From the vet’s brief intro and what I’ve read, it’ll be a couple weeks of minimal walking just to get outside and go to the bathroom. Maybe some short 5-minute walks outside if he seems to be okay. After that, each week he gets to move around more and more until about the 8 week mark when he can start getting back to normal activity levels. By 12 weeks he’s supposedly going to be back to 100%. And technically he should be better than he’s been in the prior months since his knee will be fixed instead of broken. Hopefully that means he can return to the dog park and run like a mad dog with all of his new doggie friends.
One important question we still have is whether or not he’ll really be back to normal afterwards. If you read the description of the surgery you’ll notice that they aren’t really restoring the joint’s full stability. They’re just changing the dynamics of the joint in order to hopefully not require the full stability. The vet and the majority of internet searches do confirm the fix, although I haven’t talked to anyone with 1st-hand experience (except the vet, but she’s got a vested interest in making me feel confident). I have a line on a lab that had this procedure done, so hopefully we’ll have some trusted words on what to expect in the coming years.
And why do they do this instead of just replacing the ligament? Seems that since you can’t get a dog to completely stop using their leg for the 6ish weeks it would require to let a replacement heal, they have to find other solutions. Using suture thread and other materials anchored to the bones to simulate the ligament works in smaller and/or less active dogs, but not for large dogs with high energy levels. Aka, our 70# wrecking ball. If he wasn’t so active he wouldn’t have done this in the first place.
So, now that I’ve calmly done the background on things, I’m going to shelve this for another day and finish up after the surgery. Why am I explaining that now instead of just doing it? If you’re asking that question you clearly don’t read many of these and really don’t know me.

And week 1 is coming to an end. He’s doing shockingly well, which I kinda expected. Yeah, that should make it not shocking, but here we are. The first couple days were pretty tough on all of us. He was all knocked out from the annestesia; we felt pretty bad watching our tough guy hobble around with his freshly shorn leg. But it was but a few days before he was starting to get his energy back and feel well enough to try to sneak onto the couches and play his old games. He’s still got very little energy, which works great for us. He’s got about 30 minutes where he wants to play with his Snoopy (kindly donated by the good people at MetLife) before he goes back to just laying around.
But he’s walking much, much better already and only chewed out 1 stitch. We’re not 100% sure he got 1 out, or when he would have done it, but it sure looks like 1 is missing. And since he sleeps without his cone of shame, he had plenty of opportunity.
He gets his 2 week check-up next week at which point I’ll try to get a copy of his x-rays showing his new inter-bling.
PEACE!

No Other Primate Takes Medicine, But That Doesn't Stop Anyone.

So it's my final day of The Summer of Jarod. And as such I'm spending my afternoon watching the first half of the 2nd season of How I Met Your Mother. Granted I did some crunches and push-ups, but that doesn't count for much. The only other exercise I'll likely get today was Tyler and my walk down to Wissahickon Creek this morning.
Anyways...recently a couple friends watched a movie touting the benefits of living a vegan lifestyle. The movie even presents a few freak cases of people that can live normal non-protein-deficient life given the correct mix of expensive and exotic supplements and powders. And I have no problem with that decision. If that's how they want to spend their time and money, that's their call. I like expensive craft beer; they like expensive rice protein powders. Tomato; tomato.
However, one point that got made stuck with me. The remark that humans are the only adult animal that not only drinks milk, but also the milk of another animal. And that furthermore it's wrong. So because we're the only animal on the planet that does something it's wrong. Naturally that leads into all the other things that humans are either the only ones to do or not do.
Medical Sciences. What other animal on the planet can manufacture drugs like antibiotics, NSAIDs, antivirals, etc. What animal can perform life-saving surgeries? I don't think I've ever seen an ape performing a triple bypass, so we should probably give those up.
Cultivation of Crops. As much damage to the environment as we're doing with excessive fertilizer and proprietary seeds, it's still the foundation for our society. Without our ability to cultivate crops to feed our populations, we'd be down millions of people.
Written Language. Even see a jungle cat writing in their diary? Possibly a grizzly bear opening up a newspaper to catch up on current events? And while I have seen birds poop on a crossword puzzle in seemingly methodical fashion, that certainly doesn't count.
Cooking and Food Preservation. I'll admit that all other animals seem to be doing okay without cooking. However, since they have no means of preserving food or changing the nutritional content of their food to a more digestible form, they have to just accept what they can get when they can get it. It's partly tied to medical science, which is what you need when you eat old raw meat. Our expansion across the continent was fueled by our cultivation of crops and means of preservation and cooking of perishable meats and cheeses.
Not Resorting to Cannibalism. I'd wager a guess that most animals on the planet will readily resort to cannibalism given the chance. Monkeys and bears are well documented to do it. The great cats? Yup. Bugs? Constantly. Humans? It's really something we frown upon. There are remote tribes rumored to do it, and evidence that former colonies of humans have done it, but it's not something we accept. Clearly, that's a poor decision on our part as humans.

Alright, I think I've made my point. And I'm really running out of steam and need to refocus on my stories. Doesn't count as the Summer of Jarod if I'm putting in a non-trivial amount of work. And I need to go find some snacks.
The real point is that just because no other animal on earth has figured out a way to collect a nutrient and calorie packed food source does not mean it's wrong. I joked about it on facebook before, but I really do believe that if a monkey could figure out a way to collect milk from another animal they'd do it. Rock-hard starchy unripe fruit vs a delicious glass of lemur milk? That's a rhetorical question.
Mmmmm...lemur milk.
PEACE!!

New Town, Same Me

So the move to Philadelphia is complete. It's been just over 2 weeks and we're already settling in nicely and learning the area. Helps that we're in a lively neighborhood with plenty of bars, restaurants, shops, etc within walking distance. And I already managed to find myself a job. 6-month contract gig at a medical company. Hopefully it goes well for both parties and we can make it permanent in '12.
Another upside is that this is an extremely dog-friendly area. There always seems to be people walking their dogs everywhere. Anyone with outdoor seating has no problem with dogs chillin' under the table while you eat/drink. In fact, most shops have bowls of water on the sidewalk and treats at the counters. It's great. Now we just need to get Tyler to realize he's a 70lb monster and can't act like a puppy when we're in public.
Now then, the bad side. Seems that every major city in the north-east and mid-atlantic has to have some terrible city planning thing going on. Boston had that maze of twisting 1-way streets combined with an apparent fear of signs. Our little neighborhood of Manayunk has an even better problem. For whatever reason, they decided that streets should maintain their names even if the street ends for 3 blocks before picking up again. Let me give you great example (Dexter St in 19128 if the link fails):
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=dexter+st+19128&hl=en&ll=40.026037,-75.215642&spn=0.005529,0.011362&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=46.543597,93.076172&z=17
Dexter street starts nearby at Green Lane, goes for 1 block to Lyceum, takes a heathly jog, continues to Monastery and takes another jog, then goes for 3 blocks before ending at Roxborough Ave. But wait, that's not the end. It resumes 5 blocks later at Shurs Lane. And that's not an isolated case. Most streets in this area seem to just stop and start randomly at some point. So combined with the frequent 1-way streets it makes navigating by car a bit of a challenge. And since it's built on a pretty steep hill, I get lots of clutch work.
And naturally there are annoying blue laws. Beer can only be purchased from authorized distributors and only by the case. Except that some bars can sell 6-packs at horribly inflated prices. Wine and liquor? Those have their own special stores. So not only do I have to abandon my habit of buying 6-packs of lots of things to try, if we're having a party we'll have to hit 3 different stores to get the required adult beverages.
Car titling and registering? That was outsourced to the private sector. So you go to the DMV to get your license, then head over to a private business in order to get your plates and PA title.
All in all it's been a great couple weeks. The bars here have an incredible array of microbrews from around the country and globe. (An especially great one is roughly 100 paces from my front door. And we're on a first-name basis with the manager already.) We met a great group of people that bring their dogs to the park every day for some off-leash play time. The array of trails along Wissahickon Creek is a short 5-minute drive from our place. That includes some serious mountain bike trails as well as some more tame cruising trails along with miles of walking trails.
So here's to hoping that my job goes well, that Hayley settles into her new hospital well, and that this is more than just a 3-year bump in the road for us.
Also, if anyone is in or from the Philly area feel free to pass on any tips on favorite places to visit, eat, drink, etc. There's only so much we can figure out on our own.
PEACE!!