So, Intrepid is home and my gosh he is awesome! It's been nearly 2 months. He has his quirks such as he is "dog's dog" in many ways that he isn't crazy about cats. So coexisting has been a challenge, but is getting much better. Maggie, our indoor cat never comes out, but we have created a gate to where he can't get to the back of the house where she is, but she can come and go through the kitty door if she wants. OJ, the indoor/outdoor cat isn't as afraid of him and will stand his ground. When Intrepid first moved in, he barked and charged when he saw a cat. Now, when he is being controlled by my or one of my family members, behaves and can even be in the same room and behave himself. I wish I could take all the credit for this, but its also partially because OJ "got him" a few times and scratched his nose when he tried to pounce him. So he has a healthy fear of OJ to some extent. You know the movie "UP" where the dog every time he saw a squirrel has all his inhibitions taken away for a split second and would yell "SQUIRREL!" and take off? That is SO Intrepid!
We are still doing in-home training and have just begun working in public. He takes a bit firmer control needed than Nellie did, but that is ok. So far we have been to Home Depot, Garden Ridge, and Best Buy. Oh yeah, and my wound clinic (more on that in a bit). But he did ok at all, Best Buy he was a bit frazzled, but all in due time.
So I still am going weekly to the wound clinic. It is SOOOOO much smaller and better. About the size of a jellybean now and ALMOST filled in to the skin. But the last few weeks are stalling. So we shall see. At this point, I am just happy to be where I am with it.
Ironically, I had this HUGE deep to the bone wound that didn't give me a bit of pain. But now, something new has kicked in. About 2mos. ago I had to lay on my left side for quite a long time at the wound clinic because the doc was running behind. I started hurting (which is normal on my left side) after laying there a while and eventually rolled onto my back while we waited for him. I was probably on my side for an hour and a half. On a bed much harder than mine of course.
I was ok once I rolled on to my back, and even when I had to roll back over to my side when the doc came in. But when mom put me in my chair, I noticed some tingling and pain in (at that time) I thought was my leg. Well to sum it up the pain has intensified and noticeably it coming from my left hip. So much so, that a week and a half ago I had to file short term disability at work. I have been on pain killers pretty much DAILY since the last month. There is no rhyme or reason, sometimes sitting feels better; sometimes worse. Sometimes laying down feels better; sometimes worse. Sometimes the pain is so bad all I can do is lay down and still hurts through double doses of pain pills. The only thing that really seems to ease it is a heating pad. I kept thinking it was something that flared up and would go away. But, it never did, just got worse. I finally made a call to my wonderful pain management doctor, Dr. David Harris. I haven't seen him in about 5-6+ years for hip pain in my right hip that apparently was due to seating of my wheelchair. I couldn't get in for 3 weeks because they had to consider me a new patient.
I didn't think the day would ever come. But I finally went yesterday. This guy is amazing. Gave me about 5-6 corticosteroid injections in my hip. He thinks it is bursitis. He believes it can be cured. He also gave me injections in my right heel because I have random flare ups of shooting pain from it from being on my foot pieces I may have a bone spur.
He really is a genius because he continually is researching and learning new ways of treatment for pain to help cure it, not just put a band aid on it without surgery. He does injections called Prolotherapy which not many doctors know about or do. But it is like a dextrose injection that not only takes away the pain but regenerates bone, ligaments, tendons, etc. and can cure the pain. Sometimes only after a couple of treatments. I have to do the steroids first though. I pray they work, the last time I had them on my other hip the first round worked pretty good for a couple of months, but the next two rounds failed miserably. We were about to do prolotherapy then, but I got my new wheelchair and my pain miraculously went away.
So a twist to this doctors visit. My wound, he knew I had one obviously after us telling him and seeing my bandage from the injections. However, after I was back up in my chair, mom mentioned it had stalled and the last time I went to the doc, he was frustrated and wanted me to do a plastic surgery consultation. Dr. Harris (you could see the wheels turning) said "let me tell you about something..." To make a long story as short as possible. There is a therapy only used primarily in Europe (hasn't been approved over here unless on trial basis) called Ozone Therapy. Basically it is O3, the purest form of oxygen. You can inject under non-healing wounds and the results are typically amazing. It kills all the bad bacterias, it also promotes circulation of blood flow and provides oxygen rich tissue to form. My wound doc has been wanting to get me into a hyperbaric chamber so bad, but I can't qualify for it unless I had infection. I asked Dr. Harris if this was kind of like hyperbaric treatment but locally, and he said "oh its 10x better than hyperbaric chambers." He is only one of 12 docs in the US that does Ozone therapy. He starts dragging out gauze and needles and I am like "oh you mean you want to do it NOW?!" He said, "well yes of course if you want to." "I mean if we are talking your next step is possible surgery, what could it hurt to try!" I was so excited. So he injected about 2-3 times under my wound. I go back on Wednesday for followup and another round of injections of course depending on how it does. Then my wound clinic on Thursday. He said he will speak to my doc about it if it shows success
So maybe I am having all this hip pain to bring me back to Dr. Harris and he can help cure BOTH issues!
Today I am still hurting, but not too incredibly bad. Sometimes it can take a few days for the steroids to take affect.
