Update on Azuki's Diagnosis and Her Monster Truck

We went to a orthopedic specialist on Friday, and Azuki was actually diagnosed not with hip dysplasia as we originally thought, but with another hip condition, called Legg-Calve Perthes Disease. Now, this makes a lot more sense because hip dysplasia is known to be really rare in small dogs, but leg perthes disease is very common in small and toy breeds. Although, the two conditions result in very similar symptons and outcomes---lameless of the leg and arthritis of the hip. It's just that instead of her hip bones being out of socket, now it is thought that her thigh bone is dying of a slow death from a genetic condition which interrupts blood supply to the head of her thigh bone, where it touches the hip bone. It is not a better diagnosis by any means--maybe even a little bit worse since without surgical intervention, more and more parts of her bone will deterioate. In fact, from new x-rays that he took, the vet already saw a fracture in her thigh bone, which would explain a lot of the pain that she is experiencing.

In either case, the surgical treatment would be to surgically remove the ball and socket part of her hip joint, in anticipation that a false joint will be formed by muscles and cartiledge over time. With proper recuperation, her leg should be without pain and recovers most of its originalyfunctions---she should be able to run, jump, and play as she wishes--although it might take over 6 months for that to happen. She might always look a little funny because she will not have a hip joint on one side, and might have one leg shorter than another. I have come to accept her fate, and with Azuki's positive outlook on life, I highly doubt that would stop her from enjoying her life. Plus, wouldn't that just make her more special?? She will be a skinny, lanky, hipless crippled dog--but she will be OUR very own defected little pup, and we think she will be so much cuter for it.

We have scheduled her surgery for September 25th, just two weeks from now. I would want to do it even sooner, except the surgeon is very busy, and that is the earliest date that he will be able to accomodate her. She will be hospitalized for one week until her stitches are removed.
Since she will be hospitalized anyways, Matt and I decided to go ahead with our originally plans to visit Kyoto that week--we had thought about canceling them because of Azuki's condition, but since she will have to stay in the hospital anyways....heck, why not enjoy ourselves while our beloved pup languishes in a tiny metal cage in a foreign hospital, utterly alone, all bandaged up and suffering from post-surgery pain? Actually, it is the hospital's policy that she must stay for that long, and as bad as I feel about it, it's probably a good thing that I do not see her right afterwards. I have heard that the first week after surgery is truly heartbreaking, because your little pet is indeed in a lot of pain from HAVING HER HIP BONE SHAVED OFF BY REALLY SHARP SURGICAL SAWS. If I had to see that, it might really upset me. I might have to run out and buy even more ridiculous pet objects, like the pet stroller I bought above.

Okay, I feel the need to dedicate some space to defend my purchase. Before you make any judgements on the state of my sanity, I must first say that I was indeed in a rather fragile emotional state when I bought that piece of near-industrial equipment. I had just found out that my dog was born lame and that I should stop taking her out for walks and confine her to her cage for the rest of her life (the vet later clarified, when I cried in her office, that she only meant for one month, not forever, but the damage to my psyche was done). I had meant to buy a pet cart to take her around so she doesn't have to live her entire life within metal bars, so she can at least go out and see people and get petted even if she could never run like the wind again. And of course, only the best will do for my furbaby. Like I said, I was in a very fragile state of mind.

I saw a regular pet stroller (if such thing could be considered normal) in a pet accesory shop, but when I put Azuki in to test it, the cart inside actually TIPPED OVER, causing Azuki to crash into the ground, PROBABLY FURTHER DAMAGING HER BAD LEG. The pet shop person was like, "Oh, sorry, this could be a little unstable so you have to be careful." And I was like, "are you F*CKing kidding me your defected product almost killed my dog you B*TCH." Okay, I didn't say that. But only because I didn't know how to say it in Japanese.

Well, it turns out that the carts they had in the store all had "removable" (aka. DANGEROUS) bags inside, because the point is that you can remove it and then use it like a doggie carrier, so they are clip on bag plus wheels and does somewhat serve a dual purpose. Well, I have a doggie carrier/bag. In fact, I have three (two of them are now too small so we bought the third one so her nose and front paw wouldn't be pressed against the end of the bag, making web indents on her nose because she was too long to fit). So I told the shop keeper that I would like to have something more sturdy. What I meant to say was, I wanted a dog stroller that won't cripple my dog's other good leg.

The shop keeper proceeded to whip out a catalog (yes, a doggie accessory catalog), and showed me this beautiful doggie strollers made in the style and shape just like a baby stroller. Except much fancier. They are like the creme-de-la-creme of baby strollers. Instead of 4 wheels, it only has three. But, with three wheels, it can better navigate different terraines--between sidewalk and grass!. It is perched much higher than a regular dog carte, so the dog can look out without having to stand on its hindlegs (which of course, Azuki cannot do anymore). I hesitated at the price. Would a dog need such an expensive, over-the-top stroller? What would Matt think? But most importantly, what would MY MOTHER THINK (hi mom!)??? Why should I care about what my mom thinks when I am no longer spending her money, you ask? Well, how much do you want to bet that I am going to get a phone call tomorrow that starts out with, "Are you crazy?? blah blah blah spending money like that...blah blah blah" hehehe.

But, as I was very emotional, you see, I ordered the stroller anyway. From just a photo. After all, how ridiculous could it be??

Well, a week later, I went to pick it up. When they took it out of the box...my eyes BUSTED OPEN and I think my jaw dropped a few inches. This thing was HUMONGOUS. The wheels....they are like...bicycle wheels. The stroller itself....it was like the type of strollers that people take their baby JOGGING. Seriously, it was an exact replicate of the high-end jogging stroller that I saw at Baby Emporium in Hawaii, a baby boutique that sold leather baby sofa chairs. How do I know that? Because we bought one for our neice.

I was so embarassed to even take it home. Azuki looked like a human equivalent of a hobbit in that huge ass stroller. From the back, people really couldn't tell if I was pushing a baby or, like a 5 year old child, except when they got ahead of me, and realized that the creature inside was a dog. I felt the need to explain to every passerby that pointed and laughed, that my dog had a bad leg and she can't really walk. It was a mortifying walk home.

When Matt saw the stroller, his first words were, "I don't even want to know how much that costs." And I said, "No you don't, and I will never tell."

But since I got the monster, I am determined to use it. In fact, this weekend, we took Azuki to a neighborhood Masuri (summer festival), where vendors sold Japanese street food, children dressed in yukatas, and old men wore equivalents of see-throw white tighties. Since it was really crowded, with the danger of Azuki being trampled on, so we took her in a stroller. Afterwards, we went to the supermarket and I waited outside while matt bought two bags of rice--which we carted home!

Matt took a few pictures at the matsuri. You can see from one photo that Azuki's stroller is SO MUCH BIGGER than that of a human baby stroller rolling by next to us (that was the ingenious work of Matt, who got yelled at by me because he took FOREVER to wait for the other stroller to go by). In the other photo, Azuki is being mopped by a bunch of over-enthusiastic little kids, whom we later had to run away from because they gave her too much love than she can handle.

Craziness? Yes it was. I comfort myself by saying that when we have a baby (a human baby!), we can stick him/her in there too. Maybe we can stick both the dog and the baby in there--I bet they would both fit. Did I mention that I was really emotional when I made the purchase?