Underwater Treadmill and Muscle Memory

AP here:
Seems that every Friday night about 5 hours after his underwater treadmill therapy Tonka wants to try and go for a walk. As this is becoming a pattern we are upping his treadmill workouts to twice a week to see what transpires. He sees Chris and Diana on Tuesdays for manual and laser therapy and then Diana works with him in the treadmill usually only on Fridays. The addition of Wednesdays will work as long as he does not getting too fatigued.

This week was our first double session week and he did great. We went on Wednesday afternoon and Chris came by to watch him in the treadmill and analyze his gait in the water. She was pleased with how he was doing and pointed out that each leg is a separate issue and is moving differently. Once I got him home, blew him dry and combed him out he slept most of the afternoon. He didn't try to walk that night but did get himself into a sitting position twice but just could not get his feet right under him. He also slept through the night which he hadn't done in months and  sometime in the night he had rolled himself to his other side .

Thursday he rolled himself over several times during the day and attempted to get up for breakfast and for dinner but again just could not get the feet right to push. Friday though was a different story....
I have set the cameras up to record during the day because he has been wandering out of range of the camera that is setup where his cage used to be. One minute he is there sleeping and the next I cant find him till I switch to a different camera. He could be just scooting along but he could be also getting up and attempting to walk...

This was Friday around 1:30pm and yes he is trying to walk....

After the big attempt to get up and go to the other room I arrived home to take him to his treadmill appointment.

Canine Fitness Center

UGH Water

Keeping his head up

Rest Time

It seems that walking on the treadmill is helping him to:
A. Get Stronger
B. Invoking some muscle memory of what his legs should be doing


Three weeks ago it was thought that he would
never walk again but we are on a mission to
prove that statement completely wrong.

He is getting much stronger and wants to try and pull away from me and walk every time I stand him up. Today his feet were moving as they carried him to get rinsed off after the treadmill and he tried to walk away when he was being toweled off.
Diana and I keep saying we expect him to just get up one day and start trucking on his own - he defiantly has the will to do it.

New Routine and Lunch with the Tonka Man

AP here:
Once again Tonka and I have settled into a new routine that now includes hanging out at lunchtime during the week.
Our day starts at either 3 or 5 depending on how well he sleeps during the night. The first thing is to express his bladder which can be done either on his side or standing.  Due to his inability to go to the bathroom on his own he needs to be manually expressed and also flipped over every 4 hours to prevent urinary infections and pressure sores.Scouts house has some great instructional videos on the subject and if you ever have to do this (hope you don't). You should also get your Veterinarian  to show you (hands on) because it is not as easy as it looks. It has taken me a month to finally get the hang of it and I really have to thank Carmel Berger from Greater Annapolis for helping us get it down.I also have to thank Tonka for being such a good boy because the minute he hears the pee pad crinkling he lays down and relaxes for me. Once that is taken care of  I sit with him and have my first cup of coffee and tickle his toes to make him move his legs. Then it is time to go for a walk so I help him get up and get him in his wheels. We typically stay close to home during the week since he is still building up strength in the wheels and I don't want to push him too much. We stop at the 2 closet bus stops so he can say hi to his kids and get some hugs and head pats. Once home it is breakfast time and then time to go back out and go to the bathroom. I will spare you the unpleasantness of making your dog poop but needless to say it is best to keep him on a routine so that's what we do. We then wheel back into where his cage used to be (had to take it down as it was too hard to get in and out of anymore) and again he is such a good boy I just say "get in your house" and he goes right to the corner. I then take him out of the wheels and get him situated for his morning nap.

I then get ready for work, express him once more and out the door I go. I have several cameras throughout the house so I can watch him during the day at work to see how he is doing. Lately since he has been more mobile and he sometimes turns himself over and scoots around a bit (all very good signs).

In about 4 hours he usually wakes up from his nap and starts listening to see if anyone is home. If he doesn't hear anyone he starts talking and getting antsy. So I leave work and drive home everyday at lunch to get him up and over to the water bowl, and then express him and flip him to his other side. Since I am there we have lunch together and then he settles down for his afternoon nap. Other than the nasty commute it makes for a nice break in my day.

In the evening I express him first thing when I get home and then get him in his wheels to take him out to the truck to go to the park.
Out to the truck - out of the wheels
Help him up the ramp - lay him in the truck
pack up the ramp and wheels
off to the park
get to the park- backup to a low point
take out the wheels and setup the ramp
climb in the truck and help him stand up
get back out of the truck and help him get down the ramp
express him
put him in the wheels
pack up the ramp
park the truck
walk around the park with his friends and when we get done we do it all in reverse.

Once home and back out of the truck and in the wheels we have dinner and then out to go potty for the evening.Then its into the TV room and packed in ice packs for the evening till bed time. At around 9 he starts talking and if I don't move fast enough to help him up to get to the other room for a drink he will attempt to get up on his own.

I help him to the water bowl and express him one last time for the night and get him comfortable on his memory foam bed. If it is a good night he sleeps for at least 3 hours before I hear him on the baby monitor whining for me to come flip him to his other side. Our journey keeps changing direction and we just go with the flow.

Shopping at the Depot

AP took me with her today to run all her errands and I got to go shopping at the Home Depot. 

I have already lost some little rubber feet pieces off of my wheels so we went to go ask the guy in hardware if they had anything to replace them with. I was a little nervous once we got in the store since there were so many sounds and smells. A really nice employee came up to me and got down on my height and was scratching behind my ears and told me he wanted to take me home with him.
AP muttered that if he knew how much work I was he would change his mind about that - she thinks she is soooo funny.
We explained what we were looking for and he took us to the aisle where we could maybe find it. I wasn't nervous anymore and followed right along and he was very impressed that I knew my right from my left.
We didn't find exactly what we were looking for so AP is going to email Eddies Wheels and get some new pieces. Everyone was really nice and helpful and I got a ton of hugs and kisses. We got stopped in the aisles a few times and created some little traffic jams with people giving me some love and attention. A few people were not happy and gave AP a dirty look for blocking the aisle but she told me they were just jealous they don't have cool wheels like me.
By the time we got up by the checkout we had quite a crowd and one of the ladies kept kissing me and told me I can come back anytime.

I had so much fun I would like to go back tomorrow!

It's too early for Christmas

We could use some Pumpkins

These smell nice

So do these

Should we get some

Lets get the big one

Pleeezzz

Days go By (Some Good, Some Bad)

AP here:
So this month is actually the one year mark for the start of Tonka's journey down this strange road of neurological weirdness. We have gone from a limp on the left leg, to no use then to full use only to have the right leg fail and not recover. The month of September was the worst of the year with both legs deciding not to work at the same time. With no mobility at all the only option was a harness to carry him around in. We have gone from dribbling when standing to now full on incontinence. Tonka no longer has control of either bladder or bowel functions and has to be expressed every 4 to 6 hours to prevent urinary tract infections or kidney problems.

The year has been full of ups and downs and constant rearrangement of schedules and routines.  Different Doctors and various medications all of which have left us with no answers and in the case of some medications have made him worse while on them. The things that consistently help him are therapy, both manual and aquatic and his connection to people.

It is easy to lose sight of the goal when the daily tasks of his care become somewhat overwhelming. I will admit that we have had some bad days. Tonka and I are very fortunate to have a great group of people that surround and support us. We have had some progress in the past 2 weeks, its all baby steps but we will take baby steps and be happy.

Tonight we had a session on the underwater treadmill at the Canine Fitness Center in Crownsville and although our afternoon started off rocky with Tonka tipping himself over in his wheels it ended in success. *** no harm came to the Tonk everyone checked him out to make sure he was OK.

I'm thirsty (minor miracle)

I was hanging in the TV room with CM and decided I was thirsty so I started telling CM about it so she could get AP to move me to the water bowl in the other room. Well no one was moving fast enough and I was really thirsty so I just got myself up and started walking into the other room. AP came around the corner and started yelling something about holy stuff over and over again. My feet were not exactly cooperating correctly but I made it to the bowl and then AP grabbed me and helped me get into a proper stand to drink. I'm not sure what all the fuss was about but after I was laying on my blanket again AP was measuring how far I walked. She said I walked 13ft and the way she was acting you would have thought I had learned to stand on my head.

The Look (Don't judge Till You Have Lived a Day With Us)

AP here:
Tonka is officially classified as disabled. He has medically held that title since he was born. Funny thing is very few people would have called him that up until now. His blindness isn't something you can tell immediately. When someone meets him first and then I tell them he is blind most ask a few questions and then forget all about it . That has all changed now that he can no longer walk on his own. A blind dog is one thing but a dog in a set of wheels is now something visible and tangible - a disabled dog!
To me Tonka is just Tonka and to "most" everyone that knows him he is also just Tonka. It's that small percentage that don't know him really well or that just meet him for the first time that have started to give us "the look".

The look - a mixture of pity and pain quickly followed by disapproval and a hint of accusation.

I am not a fan of the look and will either end up biting my tongue completely off or unleashing  a tirade of a years worth of anger and frustration on one of these people. Neither one is a good thing but the only solution is to avoid people and although I am good at being a hermit my Tonka is not. Nothing brings the boy more joy then to be among other living things especially people. That is the irony - Tonka loves everyone, he does not judge, he does not assume, he has never growled, snapped or even turned his head in anger or his nose up in disapproval of someone. So if my boy does not judge you why should you judge him or me for that matter.

The conversation no matter how brief always seems to contain the words "quality of life" or "that's a shame". Yes it is a shame its a cruel and horrible injustice but life is not fair and things happen and you can either deal with the hand your dealt or give up. Tonka is not a quitter and neither am I although some peoples attitudes make me want to quit the human race. As far as quality of life goes Tonka is 100% fine except his brain and his back legs do not communicate well. He enjoys all the things his doggy counterparts do and the wheels allow him to get back out on his own power to hang with his peeps. So before you start judging his "quality of life" maybe you should come stay with us for a few days and see if he is not in a happier place than you are.

Rolling right along (Tonka hanging at the park in his Eddies Wheels)

AP here:
It has been a long time since Tonka has been at the park with his friends so today I packed him up in the truck with his new Eddies Wheels and away we went. He had a good afternoon and ran into quite a few of his friends (both fur and 2 legged) including one of his kids that he used to walk with in the park on his way to school in the mornings.

Walking with Ms. May

Hanging with Keith

Follow Me Guys

Everyone Sniffing

I haven't "seen" you in sooo Long

He is still getting used to maneuvering in his new cart which has to be a little harder to learn for a blind dog. He also does not understand the concept that he is strong enough to "pull" over obstacles but we are working on that and learning some new commands along the way. All in all though he had a great time being out and about with his friends.

Breakfast with Gina

My friend Gina came by this morning to have breakfast with me. AP said she was stopping by for coffee but I know better - she was here to spoil me.

First she gave me lots of love and attention - plenty of kisses

Then she hand fed me my breakfast - which I think everyone should do - everyday!

Then she gave me whipped cream from her coffee - very yummy

I like it

yummy

I know AP  wont give me whipped cream so I hope Gina comes back again real soon.