I spoke to the doctor today and in layman's terms my foot is seriously fucked up. It's not a matter of if I need surgery but when. The rehab requires 3 months of no agility so the best time to do it would have been 2 weeks ago since I have a 3 month layover between trials. But the earliest he can get me in to surgery is Feb. 25th which means I definitely miss the April USDAA trial (double snooker too, I was really looking forward to that) and probably the 2 May USDAA trials. It means Lola can't be in Regionals this year unless I drive 8 hours to Utah the week before Regionals and try to qualify her there. Or mayyybe if rehab goes well I can sneak in a run or 3 at those May trials. Or I can wait until July after Regionals but yeah, there goes my summer. Best thing would be to wait until October, then I wouldn't miss any USDAA trials except Nationals which I had no plans to go to this year anyway. Trouble with waiting is that the foot will get worse and I'll be worrying about when the terrible pain is going to strike next for the next 9 months. The main reason not to wait though is my health insurance. If I lose it in the next 9 months I'm screwed. Sure Jonny's will take me on but will they pay for this rather significant existing condition? I think not. Also with medical costs skyrocketing it seems a better choice to do it sooner rather than later. Plus I won't have to spend the spring & summer with it hanging over my head. I'm bummed though, this will put Strummer's training back and Cody will almost certainly not get his champ. title. He needs 3 Super Q's, 2 standard, 2 pairs and 1 gamblers and if he misses those 3 upcoming trials he won't have another chance until August and he'll be 10. And the next trial after that is Jan. 2009 then April, etc., the only way I could have a hope is to drive to trials 6-8 hours away and I don't care that much about a stupid title. Oh well. I don't want anyone else to run him either because I want to earn that title with him myself. If somebody else runs him and gets the Q's what's the point? The title is meaningless to me unless I earn it myself.
I meet with the doctor in person next week to look at the x-rays and discuss timing but they've scheduled me for surgery Feb. 25th just in case I decide to go through with it then. Ugh, I'm off to mope.
oh, gosh, I'm so sorry. and it's especially sucky when life gets in the way of our agility. But even an agility addict like me has to say to not put off surgery for agility. Take good care of yourself. the agility stuff will work its way out. All our dogs care about is the breeze in their face as they run with us, whether it's a tiny local trial, or a "big" one like a regional or a national. I *know* it's disappointing, but take care of yourself irrespective of the agility calendar!
ReplyDeleteI'm just full of advice, huh?
No, seriously, I'll be thinkin' about ya!
Wishy
Crap. Crap. Crapity. Crap. Crap.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear the foot news and about its impact on your daily and dogly life.
Have yourself a full-on wallow tonight. You've got good reason.
Didn't you just go through a bunch of health crap? Leave some misery for somebody else, will you.
ReplyDeleteHere's to swift healing (again).
Ditton on the crapity crap.
ReplyDeleteI try to remind myself at times like these that we should be grateful to live in times when there *are* solutions to the problems, no matter how onerous. Was hard for me to deal with for knee surgery, but then, I also talked to people who'd had the equivalent surgery 20 years earlier and mine was a piece of cake in comparison. Fifty years ago? Heck, the response mighta been, "sorry, lady, your body hurts when you get old."
-ellen
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletethat sucks- but just think about how much faster? you can run with feet that don't hurt!
ReplyDeleteTake care of your feet!
ReplyDeleteDo you have an agility friend who can work with your dogs while you are convalescing, just to keep them going? That could help so that when you are able to run again you can pick right back up.
Oh - Sorry to hear that. :-(
ReplyDeleteBeing in Canada, it was interesting to hear your perspective on health insurance coverage being a major factor on deciding when to get it done. Fortunately so far I've been relatively healthy so my experience with our health care system is very limited, but I think in Canada something like that would be paid by the taxpayers. Problem is, could be months and months before they could schedule it.
On the bright side, having it done sooner rather than later will get it over and done with once and for all...
Oh sure, rub it in about your free health care. Damn Canadians. :-) Seriously though my mom lives in Canada and needed her knees replaced. The govt. would pay for it but it was a 2 year waiting list for the surgery. She ended up having to pay for it because she couldn't wait that long. I think it was $19,000.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I am grateful not only that there is surgery available to help me but also that I have insurance and can afford to pay for it. Lots and lots of Americans with much worse health problems do without medical care so yeah I do realize how lucky I am. But I'm still disappointed about the stuff I'll be missing. This will be my 3rd major orthopedic problem in 4 years and it's getting a little tiresome.
Having someone run my dogs at the practice field is a great idea. I've already got one person lined up and I'm sure I can get others to help me. The problem will be getting to the field. I'm not sure if I'll be able to drive or not. Of course it's my driving foot that's gimpy.
2 years!! Oh my. But yup, that's what I was suggesting: it may be free, but the waiting, waiting, waiting can be just awful so lots of people hop over to the States or find some private clinic and pay to have the procedure done. So the Canadian system is far from ideal, though we do go on bragging about it, on blogs and elsewhere. :-)
ReplyDeleteOh that sucks, you poor thing! When you see the Dr, maybe ask if there is any chance you could be put on the waiting list, just in case there are any cancellations earlier than Feb 25th?
ReplyDeleteMichelle