Monday, April 6, 2020

Monday, April 6, 2020

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2006. We were at Mattie's 4th birthday party, which we held at Riverbend Nature Park in Great Falls, VA. That year the birthday party theme was dinosaurs. It was fun party, where a park ranger took the children on a nature walk in the woods and then had a pretend dinosaur dig in a very large sandbox. Plastic toy sized dinos were buried in the sand and the children had a great time digging and finding! After the walk and dig, we came inside for snacks, cake, a pinata, and finally a meet and greet with some of the nature center's animals. 



Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins. 

• number of people diagnosed with the virus: 362,759
• number of people who died from the virus: 10,689

We started our day at 6am. As Sunny had an 8am appointment at Virginia Surgical Centers in Vienna, VA. Sunny knew something was up this morning, since I was up early (which is unheard of), and we did not give him breakfast or water. We did this because we were told that Sunny could potentially have surgery after his doctor visit.

Trying to deal with a health issue while Coronavirus is going on is difficult. We are not allowed to enter the Vet's building, we can't meet the doctor in person, and everything is done remotely. Literally we got to the office, called on the phone to announce we were there, and then a tech came out to get Sunny.

Needless to say, Sunny needs a TPLO surgery. Which will be happening tomorrow.  The TPLO (Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy) surgery has become one of the most popular orthopedic surgeries performed on dogs who have torn their cranial cruciate ligament, also commonly referred to as a dog’s torn ACL.

Developed by Dr. Barclay Slocum, the TPLO surgery was originally considered a radical procedure for addressing canine ACL injuries. Now in existence for over 20 years, the surgery has proven itself time and time again, to be an extremely effective long-term solution for addressing this injury in dogs, providing quicker recover and superior long term results.

The philosophy behind the TPLO surgery is to completely change the dynamics of the dog’s knee so that the torn ligament becomes irrelevant to the stability of the knee itself.

When a dog tears its ACL, every time the dogs goes to stand or put weight on the leg, the femur slides/rubs on the back of the tibia. This rubbing causes pain and inflammation, which is very uncomfortable. This is why most dogs with a torn ACL will not even put any weight on the leg, or if they do, they will just toe touch the leg to the ground.

The true beauty of the TPLO surgery is that it completely alters the dynamics of the knee. Once the bone is cut and the tibial plateau is rotated, where the femur and the tibia communicate, no longer can the femur slide backwards. The knee is immediately stabilized. By doing so, this eliminates the need for the ACL ligament entirely and returns stability to the joint immediately.

Today we also went grocery shopping. Who knew grocery shopping would be the major outing of the day! We come prepared with gloves and scarves. What surprised me is how many shelves are still empty. Forget paper supplies, cleaning supplies, and there were NO lemons and grapefruits! What's happening with citrus? Any case the manager of the store explained to us that in his 30 years of working in the grocery store industry, he has never seen anything like this. They can't stock the shelves fast enough and stores are allotted so many units of items per week. Once that supply goes off the shelves, the store can't do anything about it until the next week. Fascinating no?


Later in the afternoon, we took a 4.5 mile walk to Roosevelt Island. Normally we'd drive to the Island, park, and then walk around the Island. But the National Park Service has closed the parking lot. So the only way to get to the island is on foot or bike. So we walked over Roosevelt Bridge and saw kayakers in the water. 

We even saw turtles. Seeing some of the usual sights we would expect to see in the spring, provides us with hope. Consistency in our lives is important. 

A photo on our walk. You can see the Roosevelt Bridge behind us. We walked over that Bridge to get to the Island. 

The beauty on the Island. 

Beautiful blue bells. 

We used to take Mattie to this beachy part of the Island. He used to love it. Behind Peter, you can see Georgetown University in the distance. A campus that became our second home in 2008 and 2009. 

Washington Harbor in the distance. 

Green is unfurling on the Island. 

We even saw garden snakes. Mattie would have absolutely LOVED it. 

As we were walking back home over the Roosevelt Bridge, I snapped an overview photo of the Island and its wonderful boardwalk. 

Crossing over the Bridge, some cars going by, but traffic is significantly down in the city. The Kennedy Center was in the backdrop. 

The dogwoods are blooming!