Maddie’s ONE YEAR AMPUVERSARY!!! YAY!

It’s been one year since Maddie had her front leg amputation surgery.  I think back to the days after she was diagnosed but before the surgery and I remember how truly SCARED I was.  I remember thinking – I can’t do that to her.  I can’t remove her leg!  She’s HUGE, how will she ever get around on three legs?  Then I found Tripawds.  After reading all the stories and seeing all the good outcomes, I decided that Maddie deserved that chance too.  So surgery was on.  It was scary and there were some bumps on the road to recovery but this community got us through it!  We found answers here when we couldn’t find them elsewhere and now, one year later, I couldn’t be happier that we went ahead with the amputation.  Maddie has had months of quality, pain free time with her family.  She has spent the past year enjoying all her favorite things and we’ve all got to enjoy her!   She’s back to her old ornery self.

Last week she had a physical and all the news was good.   I am looking forward to many more years with Maddie!!  We still have yoga mats all over the floor so she can stay on her “path” and because she has some slight arthritis, she is still getting Deramaxx – but she’s almost 9!  I think most 9 year old Great Danes have a touch of arthritis.  We did not do chemo for Madeline – even though going into the surgery, it was our intention to do it.   We ended up following a holistic program that we did for our boxer, Hooch, when he had lymphoma.  It helped him and gave him a lot of extra time.  I believe it has done the same for Maddie.

I feel for all the people who are in the place we were one year ago.  If I could impart a few words of wisdom it would be “just do it.”  Dogs don’t have the same anxiety about losing a leg that we do.  Maddie never even seemed to notice.  She still doesn’t!  She can scratch the door to go out (that still boggles my mind), she can get in and out of cars, hop up on the bed and go after that squirrel if he dares to run along her fence.  We don’t do steps with her – but that is my anxiety, not hers.  I worry that 160 lbs going down with one front leg may be too much for her joints.  Otherwise, she does everything she always did!  We are so fortunate to have found Tripawds because that gave us the courage to go ahead with the surgery which gave us more quality time with our Maniac Mads!!!