A Long Awaited Update

Hi All,

Just a short update to let you know bracken is doing well on her 3 legs. She still has her paralysed one, we still haven't removed and to be honest, she is happy as Larry with.

I will not go over and over old ground, we still take her to the hydrotherapy pool at ARC every other week and will do for as long as she is with us, It keeps her supple.

Below are a few recent pictures of her:

I hope that for all of you who follow this blog, all is well and that you are of good health, Slim, Jaida, Dillon, Sheena, Pat and Mark to name but a few.

Nearly Christmas Again!

Hello All,
Just thought I would take some time out to update the blog a little now that I never seem to have time. Bracken is doing great on her 3 legs. There's not stopping her at all, Lesley dad has now retired and is walking Bracken nearly every day for us and when I say Walking I mean Walking, a 3 hour hike seem nothing to him and Bracken is loving every minute of it. She hates it if I work from home as Lesley's Dad sees that as his day off and doesn't go for a walk with Bracken, Bracken then ignores me for the whole day and takes a strop. If I take her out for a walk, its never far enough for her.
We still take Bracken to Arthurshiels Rescue Centre every fortnight for her Hydrotherapy Treatment, She loves that and its good for her, quite often I hear Tom popping her good shoulder back into place, she's never in pain with it, but we feel she needs to go every fortnight and it keeps her supple and fit.
Nearly Christmas again, which means come February it will be 2 years since her accident, how time fly's. I am just glad she's still with us and she is as happy as can be.

Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year.

Craig.

More Than A year Since......

Saturday 6th Sep 2008

Oh my, does time fly!
Sorry folks, it's been a day and an age since I was last logged on here and actually has the time to sit and update my blog. As I said previously, my new job is taking me from one end of the UK to the other and finding the time to stop and take time to update the blog is getting harder every week, month.....

"Bracken" I hear you all say, Bracken is doing fine, she, sad to say, is still no further forward as to using her paralysed leg albeit confirmed that the feeling is back and that she can independently move it. Looks like she will never use the leg again, but, as you all now from the dilemma I previously had, she still has it, tucked up under her chest, just in case as I say!

We still take her swimming every 2 weeks, she needs the swim in the hydrotherapy pool to relax the stress being put on her good leg, She tends to keep popping her shoulder out which Tom at the pool relentlessly keeps popping back in for her.

I received an email this week from Betsy's mom, Hi Betsy's mom, I am so glad this blog has given you hope since Betsy's accident and is I suppose one of the main reasons I am sat her tonight updating it. It gives me great pleasure in writing this blog when I know it is reaching people in the same boat as I. Day by Day, this is ho0w it has been, the ups and the downs, sadly I as said earlier, it looks like Bracken will never regain the use of her leg, in the end the muscle wasted so bad in the shoulder etc. that it was going to be impossible to get it back.


Time is what is required, and god knows, had I had buckets of it, I would have worked on that leg every hour of every day, to keep the muscle from wasting away. It would have been worth it too knowing now that the nerves and feeling have regenerated, but, hey ho so the story goes.

If you find yourself in the unfortunate position that myself and Bracken were in, please like myself, never give up, keep all hope, we were just unfortunate that the nerve regeneration took a long long time, and by the time it had, the muscle had gone.



"Radial Nerve Paralysis" Now we know what it is and I sure hope this blog can help anyway out there with advice and treatment suggetions.

I'll be back with more updates as and when I can, take care all and good luck to anyone unfortuante enough to have to take my advise!

Craig

Nearly a year Since.....

Thursday 7th Feb 2008 Wow,

I have 2 days off, a short break from work, and I suddenly realised the date. It’s almost a year since Brackens 'Bump' with our neighbour’s car. I didn't realise that so many people have been following our story, Thank you all for your kind emails and comment posts; I now know I have achieved what I set out to do and help others in the same predicament as us with advice and experiences.

I have been hanging off from posting our latest news, been hoping to try and getting some short video of it, but, Bracken can move her leg....! Yes, she can actually move her leg. I am however stemming my excitement as I am still not convinced she will begin to use it again fully.

Here's how it goes........

About 3 weeks ago I was sat on my couch watching TV relaxing after a hectic day, Bracken was lying on the floor in front of me, we had just been for a walk and she was tired and sound asleep. She started to dream as dogs do and was obviously running around in her dream chasing rabbits or pheasants.
All her legs and muscles were twitching back and forth and to my amazement, so was the paw of her paralysed leg. It lasted all of 30 seconds. I never at that point told anyone except Tom and Shona at ARC where we go for hydrotherapy.
I, like them was sceptic about it, there could be all sorts of reasons for it, muscle spasms etc......BUT. Just last Friday and for the first time ever, Bracken again was lying on the rug in front of me, Awake....! And was moving her paralysed paw back and forth quite freely and at her own will. I saw it, Lesley Saw it and my neighbour saw it.

It definitely was moving and it was no twitch, she was moving it. Were still keeping our excitement at bay though, I'm concerned, she may be able to move it a little, but I'm not sure she'll ever use it again. The muscle atrophy has been too great I fear and we will struggle to get it back to a condition that could sustain her weight.

The ligaments are all still in working order as you can see in my earlier posts where Tom got the leg movement back again. It’s just gone on too long, had she started to get slight movement 6 months ago, yes, she probably would have been able to get use of it again. There’s also the old Learnt behaviour, Bracken has learned to run, Walk and chase anything that moves on 3 legs and is happy with that. I think we would have trouble getting her to use the leg again.

Anyway, I do hope to get some video shots of the leg moving soon and will post it as soon as. I am still optimistic and ever hopeful that we may still see, well, what would be nothing short of a miracle and have Bracken back on all fours, but, my aim was, what may come, I hope this dairy has gone some way to helping others with the same problem or similar and can be used as a reference. I only wish I had been able to find similar information back in Feb 07, I know now if I had, I would have gave 1000% to keeping that muscle mass live.

Please remeber to read the comments left by others, there is also some real helpfull information contained in there comments.

Anyway, good luck to all, further posts too come soon, I promise.

Craig.

P.S. Good luck to Mark and Dillon in Colorado, Dillon is in the same boat as Bracken with radial nerve damage after a bump with a car. Also good luck to Susan and her 10 month old Lab, her pup had a bump just last Thursday and has nerve damage too. Please keep in touch and let me know how you get on.

Merry Christmas

Wednesday 19th December 2007

Hi,
Its been a while, Bracken is doing really well, still un-phased by the whole "On 3 legs" thing. She is still receiving hydrotherapy / physio treatment, in fact, we have just returned from a session tonight. Bracken is lying sound asleep now on her bean bag.
Not sure the treatment is doing much other than relieving the pain and pressure of her joints from all the scooting about on 3 legs. The feeling is back completely in her leg, all the way to her tipy toes, she just ain't moving it, she has had almost complete muscle atrophy of the shoulder and I'm not sure it will ever be any use. The main thing is, as I said, she's un-phased and as happy as a dog in a bath full of butchers bones!
I'm happy, Shes happy, what more could be asked, and the man in the big red suit is almost here.

So,

Merry Christmas Everyone and a Very Happy New Year.

Thank you all so much for your kind words and support over the past 10 months, it has been very much appreciated.

Hope your well Slim and Jaida.

Craig.

All is Well

Hi All,
It's been ages since my last post, Sorry,


I know that a lot of you have a genuine interest in bracken and it's unfair of me not to keep you posted more. Been very busy, had a job change. Anyway, there's not really a lot to tell, as they say no new is good news.

Bracken is still going for her hydrotherapy every week, we have managed to keep the ligaments from contracting although they did contract slightly whilst Tom was away in Australia. There was a gap of 4 weeks between her treatments when I last posted with the good news that we had managed to straighten the leg out.


Bracken still does not have complete feeling back in the leg, but, boy she feels it when Tom is giving her physio which is always a good sign, she fights with him in the pool, not literally but you know what I mean.


We are back at the pool again tomorrow night, it will be her 3rd session since Tom got back. He has started work on her wrist joint now to try and get it straightened out.

Sorry theres not a lot more to tell, I will keep posting as much as I can but its hard to post when not a lot has changed.

Times the healer I hope..........


;-)

Hydrotherapy session last night Unbelievable

Thursday 13th Sept 2007

WOW!

I am just stunned and speechless.......

Took Bracken for her weekly Hydro session last night. Bracken's leg was still stuck at a 90 degree angle due to the ligament contraction, well, after last nights session, all that has changed, Take a look.

Below, Bracken's contracted right leg. This was her leg more or less fully stretched.
















Now Look, for some reason the ligaments seemed to give last night. A Lot of it down to all the stretching and exercises, but, most of it due to the physiotherapy work Tom does in the warm water of the hydrotherapy pool.















And then.........















And a small video.......




Sorry about how short the video is, She was on her way out the pool and I had to run to the car for my mobile phone. I was present all through the session and I had no idea what Tom was about to show me. All he said was, "Now Craig, prepare yourself"........"Wait until you see this". He started to raise the hoist and I could see the difference right away, her leg was hanging a lot lower. It wasn't until he started to move her leg back and forth that I realised how much movement was back. There were 4 of us in the room including Tom, the other 2 are assistants and have helped with Bracken since Feb, I can't begin to type what they said when the saw the movement, I would be at risk of blogger deleting my blog.

I'm just stunned, not one to knock my vet, but, he had me believing we couldn't fix the contraction. Bracken is back on the protein powder every morning, we are going to give it our all now. Tom is off to Australia for 3 weeks so we have no Hydro until he is back. I hope when he does get back we have a surprise for him.

Good news all round with Bernie's leg and now Bracken's, our luck has changed and I'm off to get a lottery ticket!

Onwards and Upwards.

;-)

An Update At Last!

Wednesday 12th Sept 2007

Sorry,
I should have been on here before now to update you all on our progress, but..... just what is it with my family and legs?
Mummy has a horse called Bernie and he had an accident about 3 weeks ago, he caught his leg on a piece of tin from on of the lean 2 sheds and cut it very badly.
The cut was through the Coronal band, and for any of you who know about horses, this is not a good place to cut. The Coronal band is basically what attaches a horses hoof to the leg and Bernie had almost cut 40% of the way through. Anyway, the vet came and did all he could but didn't give out much hope.

?????? now where have I heard that before?

As usual there was a lot of talk about putting to sleep etc, but mum and dad being mum and dad said no way, we have to try and fix this. So, lots of bute and new bandages every other day, oh and some help of the good old "Echinacea" and Bernie is well on the mend, his cut is healing very quickly and the vet is over the moon.

Now for me,
I am still going to the hydrotherapy every week, in fact I am off there tonight.
Tom is really giving it all he can to get my ligaments stretched out, every week we go dad can see my leg getting lower when the raise me out of the pool. Dad and Mum still have stretching exercises with me every day. Dad is now thinking about putting my old boot back on me. He has talked it through with Tom and we have all came to the conclusion that it may be a good idea to put some weight on the boot. This way my leg and ligaments will be under tension if you like, we think it may help in stretching out the ligaments. Dad thinks that because he took the boot off when I started to lift my leg and not drag it, this may be the reason the ligaments contracted and if he had left it on it would have help keep the leg straight, you can see how it used to be in the earlier video's dad took in the field.

Anyway, all is still well, I still love to go for long walks and have a good old rummage! I'm not in pain, and oh......I still haven't caught my leg on anything, touch wood!

Dad is going to take some new pictures and video's when were out an about, he will get them posted on soon.