Suuuuuuuun Shinning, Radiate Your Mind...

The title of this post was taken from the opening lyric to the Hacienda song, "Sun." One of my favorites of theirs, especially live. 



We are having beautiful weather here in Austin, TX. My dogs love to sun themselves out on the back deck. Cooper, who recently had his second spinal surgery, is not allowed to attempt to walk on his own yet so I have to carry him around everywhere I go. When we are not home, he is crated. Every day, if the sun is out, I take him on the back deck for his sunshine treatment.





In Other News:
My doctor is now talking about having me undergo radio frequency nerve ablation. What is that, you might ask? I'll tell you.
Here is a bit of info taken from this site:

Like facet joint injections, RFN is done with x-ray guidance. IV medicines and local anesthetics are used to decrease pain of treatment. Specially-designed insulated needles are placed near or on the facet joint nerves. The RFN needle has a special tip that is not insulated and heats up. The area is numbed and the needle is attached to the RFN machine. The heat produced at the tip destroys the nerve's ability to transmit pain. It takes 8--90 seconds to heat and damage the nerve.  Each nerve is heated at more than one site to increase the chances of getting a complete lesion.  


They want me to go through another round of facet joint injections as a diagnostic procedure required by insurance. This procedure was very painful the last time I had it done. So painful that I spent 4 days in bed cursing the world and promising that I would never have it done again. Now, they want me to do it again followed by another, more painful procedure. The biggest problem I have with this procedure is that the nerves they destroy grow back and can cause just as much pain as they caused before. So the relief, if any, is temporary. I don't think I am going to go through with this. If I do, it wont be for a while. I need time to forget how much the facet joint injections hurt.

I hope to get into a yoga class soon. Hope that will help.....I'd rather stretch and breath and bend and move than have my nerves burned off. Yikes!

Canine Christmas Clothing

I'm making more dog sweaters.
A green one with red trim for Cooper and a red one with green trim for Charlie.

Here is Cooper as he participates in the fitting-



He is a good model.


He is still recovering from his second back surgery. He has a vet appointment on Monday and, hopefully, he starts physical therapy the same day. We have to get those back legs stronger. His muscles have atrophied from non-use and he now looks like one of those uneven muscular dudes with a strong upper body and stick legs (my friend Larry pointed that out to me the other day. Very true.)

Dog Sweater

Charlie no longer fits into the dog sweater I purchased for him a few years ago. I discovered this fact around the same time I was going through my sweaters to get rid of the ones I no longer cared for.

Ding! I had an idea! What if I made a sweater for Charlie out of one of my old sweaters? I am always looking for something creative to do that will keep my hands busy.

Busy hands can't shovel popcorn into ones face. 

I studied his old dog sweater and figured it could not be that hard to assemble. It's not like I was knitting the entire sweater. I was just cutting up an old one and piecing it together into a much smaller size and dog friendly shape.

 Behold:




The pocket on th back is my favorite part.

Cracky Backs

I had multiple facet joint injections on October 20th. The purpose of these injections was to alleviate my neck and back pain. Instead of helping, the shots made things worse for 5 days. I'm talking EXTREME pain. It sucked and I never want to do it again (though the doc is trying to talk me into doing it for various reasons). Here is what my back looked like a few hours after the procedure:

Red, puffy, and painful.

Luckily, I had my sweet Cooper to keep me company as I stayed in bed for 3 days in a row:


On the 23rd, Cooper started exhibiting signs that one of his discs slipped....again. We took him to the vet and they told us to crate him. We began him on steroids and pain pills and prayed he would pull through. On the 27th, Cooper could not stand up to urinate. We took him to the vet and discovered the disc had ruptured. So, Cooper had his second back surgery. He is already doing better, but his road to recovery is long. We love our dogs very much. So much, we will not be able to do our floors, go on vacation, or purchase a vehicle for quite some time.

It's ok.  None of those things will stay in bed with me until I feel good enough to get out.
 I love that canine.