Max's Surgery

Last week, my parents took Max and Chloe with them when they went home to Pittsburgh.  Max had just been diagnosed with an ACL tear in his knee.  When they left, we had decided that surgery was going to be the best option for him.  There were several Veterinary Specialists that were were looking at to have the procedure done.  Two of them were in DC and one was up in Pittsburgh.  Without knowing exactly what the recovery would be like and how mobile Max would be, we decided that it was worth having the vet in Pittsburgh take a look and give their recommendation.

Max was able to get an appointment for last Thursday, and after discussions while scheduling it, the vet said to prepare for going through with the surgery that afternoon if we felt comfortable with the diagnosis.  I made sure to block time out of my schedule at work so that my parents could call me while they were getting the recommendation.  My vet in DC said that most likely a specialist would  recommend that Max have ligament replacement surgery, but the specialist in Pittsburgh made a very compelling case for TPLO surgery.  Despite not looking into this type of surgery beforehand, her comments while I was on the phone made me realize that this would be te best way to go for Max.

Unfortunately it would also be a lot more invasive and call for a longer and tougher recovery.  But if it would make him good as new, I was willing to go for it!  The procedure would involve a large insicion in his leg to allow for the cutting of his tibia bone.  This would allow his knee to function without a ligament holding it together, but would require a plate to be installed to hold the bone in place.  While Max was being put under anesthesia, we decided to have a lump on his stomach removed and his teeth cleaned, so it was quite a trip to the vet for him!!



This is an example, not Max's X-ray!

I got the call Thursday evening that the surgery went very well and he would be on his way to recovery soon!  The past 4 days he has been recuperating with my parents, but they are bring him back to DC this evening and I get to see my stellar patient!  I know it is not going to be easy, but I just have to keep the end goal in mind, Max being able to run and play with Chloe!  And don't worry, I'll keep everyone updated on his progress.

Here are a couple of pictures of him and his knee.  He has lots of staples in his leg!

Lying on his bed after surgery

Staples in his knee
Knee up close

What I have been doing!!

Now that I am back to blogging again in a somewhat consistent manner, I took a look at how long it has been since my last post.  It was a shocking 11 months between blog posts!!!  Before writing my post about cycling to work, I looked back at some of my last few posts and I guess I shouldn't be that shocked about it...  It has been over a full year since I posted on a somewhat regular basis. But this is really nothing new to you all! I spelled it out in one of those lasts posts. I blamed it on twitter, facebook, and other blogs. Well, that's the truth, I just wasn't all that interested in writing posts. But now I am starting to get that itch to begin posting again.  We'll see if I can keep the topics rolling!

So, without further ado, I feel the need to post an update here for people to read, because the last 8 months have had a lot of big events!!

Here are the highlights:

(Some of the activities have links to photos, etc.!!)

November 2009

• University of Delaware Homecoming
• Thanksgiving in Cashiers, NC with Kristi and my family

December 2009

• Early Christmas in FL with my family
• Christmas in NJ with Kristi's family
• New Year's Eve in FL with Kristi and my family

January 2010

• Steelers at Dolphins game - Landshark Stadium
• Penguins at Panthers game - Bank Atlantic Center
• Work training in Pensacola, FL

Febuary 2010

• Winter Olympics with Kristi in Whistler and Vancouver
• Asking Kristi to marry me, and she said Yes!!

March 2010

• Weekend trips to PGH and NJ to celebrate the engagement

April 2010

• Pittsburgh for Pirates game and last regular season Penguins home game at the Igloo

May 2010

• Trip to Cashiers, NC with Kristi and our parents to look at wedding venues
• Tour De Cashiers with Dad
• Work training in BFE Indiana, short trip to Indy Motor Speedway

June 2010

• Trip to Boston and Vermont for:
• Harpoon Brewery to Brewery ride, 150 miles on my road bike in 1 day

July 2010

• Pittsburgh for the 4th of July
• Chicago for a weekend

August 2010

• Trip to Cashiers for Wedding Planning

September 2010

• Engagement Party in Pittsburgh

My Max's Injury

Last Wednesday night, I got home from work and didn't have any concrete plans for the evening, except enjoying my trial period of NHL Center Ice and watching the Penguins game.  I was waffling about what to do with the dogs that evening.  The night before, I brought them with me to run with the Shirlington Running Club.  I was leaning towards just taking them on a little walk around the neighborhood, but since it is getting darker earlier every day, I decided that I would take the pups to the dog park for a little exercise.  As I was walking over, I caught up to my neighbor Gwen.



Max and Chloe



We headed over to the park and had only been there for a few minutes when Max and Chloe decided that they would square off against each other on opposite sides of a large tree.  Eventually Chloe made a move first and took off running.  Max took off after her, but he decided to try jumping over a fairly low rock to help him gain some distance.  As soon as he went up and over the rock, I could tell that it didn't look right.  When he landed, I heard a large yelp, and then he hopped off and laid down.  Gwen and I immediately rushed over to see what the problem was.  At first I thought that he could have landed on something, or just tweaked his leg as he was landing.

After getting a look at his right leg, I couldn't really tell what was wrong.  Max wanted to get up and move around, but I tried to keep him still and have him rest it.  Once he did manage to get up, I wanted to see how it was affecting him.  He would not put any weight on it at all.  In the past, he has tweaked his leg before and would limp for a little bit, but it was go away.  But he would always put a little weight on the leg.  I knew that this time, his leg was worse, but I didn't know how much worse.

This is where I was very happy that Gwen was with me!  I didn't want Max to hop all the way home on 3 legs, not knowing what the issue was, so she offered to walk Chloe, with her 2 dogs, and I carried Max back to the house.  I certainly got a workout that day!  We had to rest several times on the walk home, but we made it and I had him rest it that night and the next day while I was at work.  When I got home on Thursday evening, he didn't seem to be any better than the night before when he injured it.  That morning I had called to make and Urgent Care appointment at the vet, just in case he didn't get better.  The earliest that they could take me was late Friday afternoon.

Me crossing a log with Max and Chloe in Cashiers, NC

Max and I went off to the vet, with him hopping around.  He was getting used to only using 3 legs, so I had stopped carrying him around.  As soon as the vet came into the exam room, I think she knew what the problem was.  After a minute or so of inspection and physical testing, she said that he had completely ruptured his cranial cruciate ligament (CCL.)  I was stunned when I heard this.  I had no idea that it was going to be that bad of an injury.  She said it is the equivalent to a person rupturing their ACL, which I know usually requires surgery and a long, hard recovery.  I became so sad for Max, that I almost stopped listening to the vet.  She recommended surgery and said that we would need to go to a specialty center to have it done.

With the age that Max is, only 6.5 years, I think that surgery is the way to go.  I know that the cost and recovery are going to be tough, but I think it is the best thing to do for him.  The pups were headed back to Pittsburgh for a little vacation before this happened, and we decided to continue with this plan and have a specialty center in Pittsburgh take a look at him and give their opinion.  Since my parents will be able to give more regular care to Max, for the next week or so, he may have the surgery up there.  I feel so badly for my big baby Max...  But I am confident that he will be back to himself soon!!  Get well buddy!

Water - Blog Action Day

I think this may be the first time I have posted for one of these Blog Action Days.  I have read plenty of posts from others during these events about various issues that are important to them, but for whatever reason, I have not chimed in myself.  However, after seeing that today's topic is Water, I felt that I should help bring some light to this very important topic.  It is something that many of us take for granted, but there are lots of other people in this world who don't have the resources that I do in order to enjoy such a basic human need. 

I don't have very much first hand experience with not having clean water, but I will relate one experience that I had.  I was on a hiking trip in Kenya in 1997 and we were in a fairly barren area where the Maasai people live.  It has been a fairly dry season while we were there, and clean water was fairly sparse.  When we found springs to fill up our watter bottles, the water was not as clear as we were used to.  In fact I would hardly describe it as clean at all.  Plus, it tasted and smelled horrible.  But it was water, which we needed to survive.

One of the last days of our trip with the Maasai, it began to rain.  It was not raining like it was in DC yesterday, it was just a mild sprinkle, but this did not stop the Maasai from dancing around in the rain in celebration.  This made those of us fortunate enough to have ready access to clean water feel very lucky.  Ever since that trip, I have gone out of my way to make sure that I conserve water whenever possible.

Here is a little bit of information about Blog Action Day, which is sponsored by the website change.org.  Below is a video that they put together about Blog Action Day and why they chose the very important cause of promoting clean water throughout the world. Below the video is a link to sign a petition for the UN.

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

I hope that everyone who reads this will think twice about how you use water and will do whatever you can to conserve the precious resource to which we are lucky to have easy access.

Lawrenceville's Bicentennial Celebration

This past weekend, my Mom and I went back to my NJ boarding school, The Lawrenceville School, for it's Bicentennial Celebration!  This event has been 200 years in the making, and the school wanted to make sure that it was a blast.  It also coincided with a large Capital Campaign the raise $200 Million for the school, which would take place over the 5 years leading up to the Bicentennial.  The school was proud to announce that they exceeded their goal, which was a huge accomplishment, considering the status of the economy over the past several years.

Mom and I had a great time at all of the events and walking around spending time on campus.  On top of that, the weather was gorgeous!  Thursday night we went to a special Campaign dinner in the senior dining hall. Friday afternoon was the open Board Meeting and the House Parade, which moved right into a picnic dinner in the Bowl with the students, faculty, and alums.  After dinner, the headmaster sealed the special Bicentennial Time Capsule, which is digital and contained on an external hard drive.  Then it was time for the fireworks spectacular, where everyone gathered on a sports field and watched the show, with a wonderful finale!  Then, it was time for the kids to head back to their houses, while the adults went to the Field House to partake in beverages and socializing with a band!

Saturday morning we attended some classes by selected teachers, which brought back some rough memories of Saturday mornings from years ago.  The teachers essentially gave us a sample class that they teach and we acted as the students.  Both of the classes I went to were very impressive and made me realize the great value in the Harkness method of teaching.  After class, we went to lunch and then wandered around the gorgeous new library that opened right before I graduated.  Then it was time for athletics and we watched a little bit of soccer and then the football team loose in OT to the Hun school.  Below are some photos from the weekend!!

Tyler and Courtney



Me in front of Woodhull House




The House Parade




Sealing the Time Capsule!



Fall, A Busy Sports Time!

The cooler weather has kicked in and fall is officially here.  This is a very busy time in the sports world for me!

• Football season is 1/4 of the way through, the Steelers are a respectable 3-1 and Big Ben, hopefully a changed man, is coming back off of his suspension.
• Hockey season is about to kick off with the Penguins making some nice moves over the off-season and they are opening a great new arena in Pittsburgh.
• Baseball season is headed into the post-season, without the lowly Pirates, for the 18th straight year.  But I do have an adopted team to root for, the Yankees. 
• NASCAR is in Race for the Chase mode, but Tony Stewart isn't doing too well.  He started out about mid-pack, but ran out of gas while 1 lap from winning a few weeks ago, and he has fallen back.
• And basketball season is just around the corner from beginning.  I tend to stay away from the NBA, but on the NCAA side I stay up to date on GW and Pitt.

Is everyone else enjoying this time of the year?? Yay for sports!

My Bicycling to Work

Since my last post about the 2009 bike to work day, I have been doing a lot of biking to work!  It really picked up in the spring of 2010 when I was training for a big bike ride in June.  Then, I changed job locations, closer to home, so the time that I would be commuting decreased.  (I also lost the big hills that were helping my training...)  I am now based at the Navy Yard in Southeast DC, which is about a 30 minute, 9 mile ride from my house.  Enough to get a little bit of a workout, but not as much as I was getting.

If you have been paying any attention to the weather this year, you will know that it was a hot summer in DC.  However, I did not let that stop me from riding to work!  Fortunately, there is a gym at work that I can shower and change clothes in, so the heat didn't really affect me too much.  Over the summer, I rode to work 45% of the time.  This was low because of various ativities going on suring that summer where I needed to drive.  However, toward the end of August, I decided that I would ramp things up, and see how many consecutive work days that I could ride.

Starting on August 25th, I have ridden to work every day, which brings the current total to 23 days, including my ride in this morning.  About halfway through the month of Septemeber, I decided that a way to keep my streak going, I would have a goal of riding every work day of the month.  As the month was coming to an end, I was worried that I may not be able to complete my goal!  September was a pretty dry month, so I had great riding weather, but that all changed during the last week of the month when a ton of moisture from the tropics cruised up the east coast, passing right over DC.  After monitoring the weather, the only day that I was worried about was September 30th, the last day of the month!!

After coming this far, I knew that I could not give up my goal easily.  It wasn't a hurricane that was over DC, it was just a lot of rain, with some sporatic flooding.  There weren't any crazy winds, so I braved the weather and accomplished my goal by riding all 18 days that I worked in the month of September.

I want to give a little bit of credit to my persistent riding to my friend Emily, who has been writing a blog about being car free, Going by Bike.  Check it out!

 

*** P.S. There will be a big post coming soon about all that I have been up to since I last posted on the blog!  Stay tuned!!  ***