Oh Knee, Oh My

I’m known for blowing things out of proportion.  I’m known for overreacting to news, and then slowly calming down and being rational. I’m known for jumping to crazy conclusions when things are fine. I’d like to think of it as my way of coping.  “If I hear a loud noise and think that it’s a sign of the apocalypse,  I’m pleasantly surprised when I discover that it’s only a dumpster being emptied—even to the point where the wave of garbage odor smells like a second chance at life.” So you could see why it came as a HUGE surprise when I found out my one-year-old Golden Retriever needed surgery. 

“SURGERY?! No. No no no. No. He’s too young. Will he need an IV? Will he have to be shaved? Oh my gosh, that will humiliate him, you know how vein he is. I need to take a month off work to make sure he will be okay. Maybe I should quit my job.... What if he doesn’t make it out of it? My dog is supposed to be burying me, I’m not supposed to be burying it. Do they have dog crutches...? Can I order them on Amazon? I have a Prime account.”

I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me back up a few months….

Brinkley has always been a calm dog. Frankly, He’s lazy. Don’t get me wrong, he likes to play, and will do whatever it takes to fetch his tennis ball back. But Brinkley isn’t a hyper dog. He likes to cuddle. He likes to chew a bone. He doesn’t run circles around the apartment trying to get me to take him outside. In fact, he's SO lazy that he'd rather continue to lay down even while eating dinner. True story. Below are a ridiculous amount of pictures of Brinkley being lazy.

So when Brinkley yelped and collapsed while running in my parent's yard one Sunday evening, I didn’t think much of it. He held a back leg up but I sat with him while he laid down and when he got back up, all seemed well again. I blamed it on too much swimming in my parents pool.

Over the course of the next month, the mid-run collapses started happening more and more frequently and quickly began taking less physical movement before they happened. First, they only happened after long runs. Not too long after, the flare ups began occurring after shenanigan behavior with his brother, Ein. And eventually, his knees began buckling simply by walking to find the perfect green patch to go potty on. I could not handle the look in his eyes as he tried to soldier through the pain any longer. I had to do something.

I scheduled an evening vet appointment for him and off we went. The vet checked Brinkley out spending a lot of time adjusting his back legs to see how they moved. The more time she spent the more fussy Brinkley got. I stared at the vet not wanting to miss any expression that could hint that something was wrong.

And you better believe I did not miss that expression that something was wrong.

The vet looked at the assistant and said, “do you feel that?”

Feel what? FEEL WHAT?!?!?!?!

She was silent a few more minutes as she explored the area thoroughly.  When she was through, she looked at me with a concerned expression. You could tell she was struggling on how to say exactly what she noticed.

She decided on the following:

“First off, let me say that I have been a veterinarian for most of my life and it’s been at least 20 to 25 years since I’ve seen a golden retriever have what your golden retriever has”.

Awesome, great start.

“Brinkley’s knees are popping in and out of place.  It’s called Luxating Patellas. It’s pretty common in little dogs. In fact, a lot of little dogs have it and nothing is done to treat it. But Brinkley is a big boy and Luxating Patellas are rare in big dogs. Not only are they rare, but they are painful. The last time a golden I knew had this, he had surgery”.

[Queue freak out above]

“Again, I haven’t seen a golden retriever have this in decades. The methods for fixing it could have drastically changed”.

They haven't.

They attempted to take x-rays that night, but in order to get the shots they needed, they had to make Brinkley’s legs move like a Cirque-du-Solei freak. That didn’t happen.

The next step was to schedule a day for Brinkley to have anesthesia and then, of course, X-rays. The first available day? My birthday…

Without hesitation, I took it.