Epics Results

Well Wednesday Epic had her followup xrays. It's been one month since I first discovered her boney lump, just below her carpus.

We took several views, so Rebecca (radiologist) would have multiple to compare with her originals.

As I'm totally impatient I again dropped them off at her house.....went home and waited for the phonecall.

My mobile began ringing at about 9.30pm. I took a deep breath and answered. One of the things I love about Rebecca is that she has such a calming voice, so within seconds I was relaxed and felt like I was going to be able to deal with whatever she was about to tell me.

So here it is.............................

Rebecca is confident that the lump hasn't grown. OMG YAY!!!!!! If she was going to be HIGHLY critical, then there is the smallest chance that it may have grown by around 1mm.....BUT she is more confident that it is the actual positioning of the recent xrays, compared to the originals.

She has said that she thinks "short term" continuing to train and trial her won't be detrimental. And it was here I asked what did she class as "short term??"

Rebecca has recommended that we take followup xrays in 6mths, so that she will again compare them with the originals and give me a better prognosis re the "short term vs long term" question. At this stage she still can't rule out DJD vs trauma so it's just wait and see :-(

She has given the all clear to compete with her at the Nationals, but has recommended a rest afterwards. And she's basically said to "treat" her clinically at this stage, so if she's not painful and not lame continue as we are.

I'm still going to Deb Nook and Charlotte Stead as I really feel Epic is benefitting from both. And I just ordered a special carpus icepack to put on her leg to reduce any possible inflammation that may occur after competitions.

It's 7 weeks till the Nationals and I'm a little behind in my preparation. I've started to retrain my running Aframe to have her come down lower into the contact zone to reduce the "impact" on her carpus, but there is a HUGE list I had really wanted to work through before the Nationals arrived. Most is based on teaching her extension.....though she has started knocking the first bar in competition.....so now we have to fix this too. LOL!!!

I'm so happy that Epic and I still get to play and have fun in agility and I'm hopeful that longterm, she's just going to be a "special" dog that has a weird boney lump on her leg LOL