TPLO Day 130 - 1st Rehab Appointment

Today Jedi and I drove just under two hours for our first rehab visit with Cassie at VCA RIVER in Chattanooga. I can't say there were any big epiphanies or anything, but it is nice to have someone to work with through this. I wish we had this service a bit closer to home because I would certainly sign on for weekly visits, but I did commit to going every other week for a package of five visits. We will go back on Monday the 30th, which will also allow us to talk to Dr. Wearing while he is there to discuss our next steps with medication.

Jedi found a tennis ball shortly after we arrived, so it instantly became his favorite place on earth. He was less thrilled when he had to lay down to have his knee lasered, probably just because the ball wasn't involved. He also got to do 10 minutes in the underwater treadmill. He wasn't sure of it at first, but it didn't take long before he was happily walking along with the tennis ball in his mouth. It was interesting to see that except for a time or two, he really didn't have the twist in his leg while walking in the water.

Cassie is hopeful that we can have him back for the October trial in Franklin, which would give us one trial before Cynosport. Fingers crossed. We were sent home with a bunch of exercises, which I will post here. Truly, a lot of this is going to return us to the very early, most basic rehab stuff that is recommended after TPLO. It is entirely possible that I did not spend enough time on the "simple stuff" like weight shifting the first time around. Tonight we did weight shifting with the hind end on the disc, with both front and hind end on unstable surfaces (brought in the bone for the rear), and the leg lifts. I was surprised at how much Jedi still resists the diagonal two-legged stand. That's pretty telling, I guess. Oh, we also tried the "dancing," which he absolutely hated, so I'm guessing that was hard for him as well.

Here are screenshots of everything we were sent home to work on the next two weeks. She didn't prescribe anything done in any sort of order, claiming they all more or less are going to work on the same thing. We are supposed to spend 15-20 minutes a couple times a day.