Denise Lynn Extras

Katie's Movie debut

2011-10-17T15:30:00.000-07:00

After both ccl surgeries, (Right lateral suture 2/15/2011 - Left lateral suture 7/28/2011) our puppy girl is back to happily sniffing and walking -- um, and bunny hopping after the squirrel...sigh.

Monday, August 8th -- Just WOW

2011-08-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

I had NO idea how much weight the baby girl had gained until I put her shorts on last night. OMG. Last year, when she first went to OSU, she weighed in at 35.0KG - 77.16LBS. We were told to get her weight down, so she went on weight management food at half ration because she hasn't been real active. So, this last surgery she weighs in at 39.0KG - 85.97LBS. Yeah, so much for weight management food.

I knew she'd gained, just hadn't realized exactly what almost 9 pounds looked like until slipping her shorts on. OMG! Baby girl, just mooooooooooooo. (Hey, watch it, I can say that now since I did lose 68LBS during our walking session - can't wait for the next session to begin!)

Can't get 'em up her chest and they're tight around her butt. Needless to say, this didn't last long--about 4 hours was it. But that was long enough to keep her from gnawing on the left knee the rest of the night. Probably feared I'd put them back on her.

I think it all looks great today:

She seems a bit more comfortable than what she's been and she's using it (toe touching of course) a little bit more. Day by day.

And now to go research dog diets. Oh, it'll be fun, I'm sure.

Oh - new med list - done with the Cephalexin - antibiotic.
Maybe after the staples come out we can start working on cutting back the tramadol....time will tell.

D

Visual Prgress so far - post op day 5 thru 10

2011-08-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 8/2:

Wednesday 8/3:

Thursday 8/4:
--
Friday 8/5:

Saturday 8/6:

Sunday 8/7:

Sunday, August 7 - That was wishful thinking...

2011-08-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

Natch, as soon as I'm convinced things are running along smoothly and take a breath -- bs happens.

Woke up this morning in a panic -- I'd fallen asleep. Which means that nobody had their eyeballs on Katie. So, OF COURSE, she "cleaned" the incision. ARGGGGHHHHHHH. This is the last day of the antibiotics, I don't know if I should call her doc and ask for more, or play the wait and see. I HATE wait and see, just hate it. She'll have one nasty infection going by the time I know anything is wrong. Dear Lord this is partly what got us to this point in time to begin with - an infection. I could take a ball bat to myself. Just ARRRGGGHHH.

I swear, this dog is gonna give me a stroke before we get through this.

So, today the leg looks better -- of course it does -- it's all nice and "clean" -- just arrrrrrrrrggggggggggggghhhhhh.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know -- use the cone of shame stupid. Ahhh, but the last time we put a cone on her, she threw herself into the sofa and the fireplace and the archway before I could get a hold of her to take it off. I made her shorts out of old bike shorts, but I hadn't planned on falling asleep so didn't put them on her. ARGH. Simply, just frakking ARGH.

I need to breathe deeply, alot, because she knows I'm upset and giving me the "poor, sick" dog attitude:
She really isn't getting a heck of a lot of sympathy from my end. Yup, bad mom.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

D

Saturday, August 6th - No news is...

2011-08-07T08:28:00.001-07:00

...good news, of course.

The one piece of really good news is that we now have just about three and one-quarter legs. Instead of hopping on 3 legs, Katie Marie is toe-limping on the surgery leg. YAYYYY. It looks a little better today....as I expected:

With luck, everything will stay just as uneventful....

D

Friday, August 5 - I think we hit recovery road...

2011-08-05T11:17:00.000-07:00

This may be it - we might have finally hit the road towards recovery. Katie Marie slept through the night, well, she slept through what passes as night for us since we work the night shift and don't hit the bed until 5AM. She didn't have any problem going out today - she'd just rather DO IT HERSELF with the sling, than have one of the guys carry her over the steps. Which is fine, as long as I just have to offer support and not lift her big butt.

The redness around the incision has gone down a lot, except for that "meaty" part in the middle:

Outside, she will toe touch. Inside she still holds the leg up a little - at least she's not carrying it in "wing position" anymore:

And even with all the drugs, she's still alert:

I think I can stop holding my breath now. It'd be nice.

D

Thurs, August 4th - UPDATE

2011-08-04T02:45:00.000-07:00

YAYYYY!!!!! What was all red and ugly this AM is now just a very light pink. And WE HAVE A FULL KICK STAND, so she can do ALL of her business WITHOUT MOM thankyouverymuch. LOL. I love that the disgusted go away "SIGH" is back again. Yeah, Katie Marie is a tough old broad and I'm thinking we'll do just fine now.

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-- For the most part, the meds have worked well to help keep her calm and down. However, her leg looks like raw meat to me:
It reminds me of using a too heavy thread to mend a thin piece of material -- you get that "pull away" thing going on around the stitching. Shrug - that's just what it looks like to me.

New mantra - one more week, one more week - keep her calm, keep her down, get the staples out and life will be better.

She did actually toe touch with the left leg twice. That's an improvement considering yesterday she was holding that leg up high and close to her body. And she's using the left leg as a "kick stand" when she goes out to pee.

Here's hoping all is well. It's days/weeks like this that make me glad I don't drink. LOL.

D

Wed, August 3 - The Miracles of Modern Pharmaceuticals

2011-08-03T14:47:00.000-07:00

After an entire night and morning of up/down, pant, pace - and an SOS email to Katie's doc, she's back on her old drug routine. It got her through the last surgery in Feb. with flying colors, so I'm flabbergasted that I didn't realize right away what the difference was between then and now until Doc Kate asked who took her off the gabapentin -- uh, hmmmm, well...after her recovery in Feb. she didn't really need it. But um, ok, since she just had surgery again...DUH, yeah, at times the brain goes on lock down. By noon today, Katie was exhausted and stumbling, her leg was red and starting to swell up. Now that she's been "drugged" and had a real long nap, actually ate and went out, the redness is just about gone along with the swelling. There's a lot to be said for pharmaceutical pain management. I'd rather have her out of pain now, so she can heal and worry about easing her back off the drugs later, than risk injuring not only the new surgery, but maybe the last one, too.

Here's her current drug list for the next weekish:

And since she's back down for a nap, I'm off to catch one, too.

D

Tuesday, August 02 -- Ok, Here We Go....#2

2011-08-02T23:12:00.000-07:00

Apparently I was spoiled by the last surgery. Everything went so smoothly, no problems, no moments of panic, so I thought it'd be the same this time. DUH - different leg, different day, different everything.

So, when Tom got home, we managed to peel the sticky bandaid off. There's a reason I'm not in any type of medical field - it would be hard to do the job with my eyes closed - that whole wound thing makes for a queasy stomach.

To say Katie isn't happy would be an understatement. She's frantic. Won't sit/lay still. Up, down, up, down, one side, then the other non-stop. She won't eat, won't drink, hasn't been outside for over 10 hours now and is hiding under my desk with her face pressed into the back corner.

I don't know what's wrong - maybe the wrap had put enough pressure on her knee so that she hadn't been in too much pain and now that it's off she can hardly bear it - or maybe it's the staples bugging her. I have no way of knowing.

She hasn't fallen, hasn't tripped, heavens she hasn't had the opportunity to do anything that would have caused any injury. When I compare this knee to the last one at about the same day, everything looks OK to me, but that doesn't mean a whole lot. I do know that all this up/down stuff is making the area around the incision redder - the movement is pulling on the staples.

The other thing I know is that I'll be making a phone call first thing in the morning.

Oh, just ARGH.

D

Tuesday, August 02 -- Ok, Here We Go....

2011-08-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

Oh, yeeha, it's "bandage removal day", I'm so thrilled. Katie isn't in a good mood today to begin with - sort of quiet and sad - and oh so unnormal for her. Maybe getting all the extra baggage off will help.

And here we go - she's not even going to watch:

Not too bad, take it slow, snip snip snip and look at all this padding!

LOL -- "Mom, what is this?"
Thankfully, the bruising isn't too bad and I don't see any swelling. YAYYYYY and YAYYYY!!!!! Of course, now the trick is to get her to leave it alone and to figure out how to get that sticky bandaid off without getting chomped. I'll just wait until Tom gets home - he can do the "hold her" part. See how much the idea thrills her?

And for the last -- make that FINAL -- time

2011-08-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

Katie Marie, my puppy girl, my mission in life, my bud - had her 4th - yeah, that'd be fourth, ccl surgery last Thursday. I'm not too sure my orthopedic doc could get me to do one, let alone 4. Yes, I realize that I may go a little too far "for a dog" sometimes, Trust me, I've heard it more than once the last couple years, but we adopted her from a shelter when she was 6 weeks old - what is a 6 week old puppy doing in a shelter? She hated the cage even then - it scared her. She wanted to romp and play and I sure as heck couldn't tell those big brown eyes "no, go back in that cage". I promised to take care of her - always - and I will. She will get to romp and play again.

This time around it was her left knee. The right one was redone in February and so far, knock on every piece of wood in my office, has done very, very well. Doc Dyce, down at OSU, did another lateral suture repair. That's what he did for the right knee and since it worked so well (knocking on more wood) it just made sense to do the same repair. Seriously though, the man is my hero right now and he could have suggested a rare, seldom (uh, that'd be never) used zimboweeexplenectomy and I'd have said, "OK, sure". And I have to tell ya, that Doc Dyce's student helper, Andrew Boggs, is going to be a wonderful vet someday - so, remember that name - Andrew Boggs.

In June, this is how Katie Marie looked:

Yeah, she's doing her cow imitation - eating grass - but see how she's only toe touching on that left leg? This was right after a walk, obviously the leg was bothering her. But considering that about 14 months ago she couldn't stand or get up let alone walk, the toe touching was ok - not great, but better than before. Have I mentioned that I love her doctors? Doc Jen and Doc Kate are brilliant to say the least, they are at Goddess level around here, they had her back on her feet in less than a week and ran enough tests to figure out what was wrong. I'd adopt them both, but I'm sure their parents would object.

The week before surgery, Katie Marie was enjoying her second most favorite hobby (her first being watching TV - seriously. The dog is a couch potato who loves soap operas and cop shows) soaking in some rays in the backyard:

And this is how pitiful my poor baby girl looked when we got her home Friday afternoon - mind you, she's full of drugs. She slept through the night. I know because I sat up and watched her all night. Geesh, I know. She came home back on tons o' meds - 4 tramadol (pain med) a day, 2 zubrins (anti-inflammatory) a day, her joint supplements and 4 cephalexin (antibiotic) a day. Actually, that's less than the 9 tramadol and 1 gabapentin along with the others she took daily just to stay on her feet until this last February.

By Saturday, she was a little more "with it", not much, but a little - ok, she was awake. However, she had major trouble getting to her feet. She actually groaned and whined -- Katie Marie does not groan or whine, not even when we literally had to carry her outside and hold her up so she could pee and then carry her back inside to her bed - so, I upped the tramadol to two every 8 hours - making a total of 6 a day. I know for a fact that she can take 3 every eight (9 a day) because she did it for almost a year. Within about 45 minutes, she was able to get on her feet. Thankfully, I didn't have to panic call any doctor. LOL. Hmmm, I suppose I will have to be explaining my rationale to someone shortly....

On Sunday, she was alert. Not quite herself yet, still sort of pouting, but when she went out to go pee, she also left a nasty looking pile in the yard. Hey, having her go poop 3 days after surgery is a record breaker in our house. We had to threaten her with an enema the last time -- just the threat worked well. This time, we just went with the "please, Katie, please". Amazing....

Today, Monday, she's almost herself - almost. She's doing that "spoiled baby" thing -- I have to hand feed her, or she won't eat, lay next to her or she won't nap, not leave the room or she'll make bear noises. I've got her number, but after what she's been through, I'm not arguing - she has to eat, so I feed her. She has to rest, so I stretch out next to her. She hates being alone, so I stay within eyesight. It'll only be for a few days, then she'll be back to acting normal.

She's under my desk - it's her "cave". If I'm in my office - so is she. It actually makes a great place for her to recuperate, because the area is small, carpeted and easy to "fence" in. This way we don't have to terrorize her with a cage and I've got company while I work...or try to work...

And if she's not in her cave, she's in the living room on her bed - about 4 or 5 feet away from the cave - she doesn't leave her bed. No, seriously, she stays right there. Like I said, this is the 4th time around, she's got it down pretty good, too.

Tomorrow - Tuesday - I'll be cutting the bandage off. It should be fun, I'm sure. I'm half tempted to take her to the vet's to have it done because after reading the paperwork, I have the feeling someone used staples instead of stitches. I can't stand the staples. They make me want to hurl. UGH. If I get up the guts to do it, and Andrew swore it'd be easy, I'll just do it BEFORE breakfast.

Fingers crossed.

D
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Scratch that TPLO in January

2011-02-20T13:27:00.000-08:00

Ok, that was fun...not. In my last post my baby girl, Katie Marie, was scheduled for TPLO surgery to repair her right acl (uh, ccl in dog terms). Unfortunately, she still - after a year - had an infection in her knee joint so she was put on more Zeniquin for another month and sent home. lesigh.

Took her back down on Valentine's Day - how romantic is that? The infection hadn't cleared up, but it was decided to go ahead with surgery because then they could do some clean up work, get a good tissue sample and get the knee stabilized. Surgery was scheduled for Tuesday the 15th.

Dr. Dyce, the ortho surgeon at OSU, called after surgery to let us know that she came through the procedure fine....but he wasn't able to do the TPLO. The broken wire from the previous surgery a year ago had left a lot of damage in its wake, the ongoing infection had done its share of damage and after all this time the arthritis had only added to the mess. The doc didn't want to risk encouraging the infection by putting the metal plate and screws in her leg, so he cleaned everything up, got samples for cultures, put her kneecap back where it belonged and did what I'll refer to as a trad to stabilize her joint. The hope is that the infection can be identified so we can get her on the right meds to clear it up and that the nylon sutures used in the trad will hold in place long enough for scar tissue to form and keep everything stable. Time will tell.

We've been through this surgery 3 times now and I have to admit that this time has been a lot different...as in easier so far. She came home with a bandage that looked more like a soft cast than bandage:

The pretty pink bandage was removed Friday and I fully expected swelling, bruising and an ugly looking incision. I was shocked - pleasantly so - to see none of that. While yes there was/is some bruising, it's very little. I think there's more razor burn than bruising. As for the swelling - there was just a little bit on her toes that went down by this morning (Sunday). And the incision? Well, okay, while I'm so not having the surgeon do any sewing for me, it really looks good - meaning, I, the total wuss, can look at it without my stomach churning.

Now it's just a matter of keeping her confined. Which will get harder as time goes on. She did her first toe touching steps today, so I know the days of "forced" confinement are getting closer. And we'll be anxiously waiting for the results from the cultures to come back. Hopefully, this on going infection is something that can be cleared up without any problems.

But for now, all seems to be on the mend.

D

Pre TPLO Surgery 01/05/2011

2011-01-05T13:31:00.000-08:00

Yep, my author page is probably the wrong place to keep a diary on the puppy girl, but I'm going with the "have blog page, will travel" theory for the moment. Ok, in truth I don't foresee having the time to keep track of another blog page and am being sort of...lazy.

Katie Marie has 2 torn CCLs and 2 trad surgeries that need repaired due to countless reasons, infections being the topmost one.

Went to OSU (that'd be Ohio State -YAYYYYY) in May of 2010 to see Dr. Dyce about being able to fix/save/help the puppy girl. He wanted to get the infections cleared up before doing the first TPLO. That only took months to accomplish only to have another infection (UTI) set in putting us back a few more months.

But now we're infection free and ready to roll - I hope. I worry that it's been so long now (13 months and one week since her first trad surgery) that he won't be able to do anything. We'll see tomorrow.

While the whole idea of cutting into her bone, putting in plates and waiting for the bones to fuse together sort of grosses me out - I am so NOT of the medical bent - if that's what it'll take to get her back to being her normal self, then that's what we'll do.

And no, that whole, it's just a dog put her down and start over concept isn't holding any water in our house. She's not just a dog, she's my confidant, my writing partner and most of all my personal body guard - a job she does quite well even while handicapped. When I adopted her from the shelter, I took responsibility for her and I'm not about to let her down.

The one thing I didn't do after her first surgeries was to track her progress and that turned out to be a huge, nearly fatal mistake - one I won't make this time around. So to get the ball rolling it's day -1 and counting....

And here she is in her "cave" -- under my desk, where she'll be living for the next few weeks.

And More Foreign Covers...

2010-07-04T10:02:00.000-07:00

Oh my, my - these are nice, too:

Falcon's Love - UK release - January 2010

Falcon's Heart - UK release - February 2010

Fires of Passion - France release - June 2010
(Harlequin Historical Original title - Commanded to His Bed)

The Bewitched Night - France release - July 2010
(Silhouette Nocturne Original Title - Dragon's Lair)

And coming from Mills and Boon in October 2010
Halloween Temptations - an anthology with
Lisa Plumley, Denise Lynn and Christine Merrill

(Harlequin Historical Original Title - Hallowe'en Husbands)

Foreign Covers - just another view

2009-12-28T12:44:00.000-08:00

I love opening the door to the knock, knock, knock of the UPS guy -- it's always a treat to see what he's leaving this time around. Especially when he's handing over foreign copies of my books.

Regardless of the language, if it's not English I can't read them. Still, it's a thrill when I can scan the back cover blurb and figure out which book I'm holding. But I have to admit, I love, love, love those foreign covers.

Bedded By Her Lord - Brazil (0209)

Commanded To His Bed - Brazil (0109) (This originally appeared on the US version of Bedded By Her Lord - minus all the pink)

Commanded To His Bed - Sweden (1009) Even though it's a headless shot, I think it's a beaut!

Till next time -- be well!

Denise Lynn

Ummm...Spoiled just a little?

2009-08-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

Shout out to my sister!

2009-08-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

Lots of birthdays in the family over the next 5ish weeks.

My sister Cheryl leads the way...(if 2 pics show...don't ask me why -- the first one is the video...)

Smoochies,

THANK YOU!!!!!

2009-07-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

Really, truly, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I was sooooooo tickled when a reader emailed me to say "QUICK, check this out" and what did I find on the eharlequin site? How about this:

Granted, we're only talking about being "Sold Out" on the eharlequin site, and I'm sure the book is still available at BN, Borders, Amazon etc., but still -- HOW KEWL IS THAT?

To this dazed author -- it's VERY KEWL.

So, again -- THANK YOU!

Take care,

Denise Lynn

Vacation Time

2009-06-27T21:28:00.000-07:00

Hi there!

We had a chance to escape for a few days, so the dh and I headed for the mountains. It was great...not long enough, but great. Thought I'd share a few pics with you:

This was one of the views from our room in Gatlinburg.

Thankfully the hotel isn't the reason we run away to the mountains.

It's the duckies....

And of course, it's the mountains...

Yeah, I could so move here.

I put together a slide show and photo album of some of the pics -- there's so many it's going to take a while.

But, if you're interested, you can view what's there either in GRID VIEW (where you click through the pics) or in a SLIDESHOW (where the pics run automatically) version.

Happy browsing -- I'll be back shortly!

Take care,

Denise Lynn

Josh's car - 2009

2009-05-02T00:34:00.000-07:00

Opening day at the race track...and it rains, of course. But we got pics of the car. Pretty sharp.