Man's Best Friend

Man's Best Friend

     
    I came home after they fused the knee not a happy man. I wasn't seeing any light at the end of tunnel and hadn't for a long time. I was still in a lot of pain and I was  starting  to worry about  the amount of pain medication I was taking. It   was a lot! My wife worked during the week. That left  my grandson and he was in school every day.     So that left me at home during the week pretty much by myself. About all I did was sit in a wheelchair messed up all day and wait on someone to come home to help me to bed. I couldn't even do that by myself. I wasn't leaving the house much except to go to the Doctor. I was very isolated and that was the way I wanted it. It had been this  way now for way over a year. There was a home nurse that came once a week. She was about the only person I saw other than my immediate family. My wife told me I was Depressed and I told her she would be to if she was in my shoes. I knew she was right through. She did try to get me to leave the house, but I wouldn't do it. It was just to hard. I wasn't eating hardly anything at all now and I had lost close to 100lbs. All I could think about was losing this leg. I just knew I was going to. 
     I look back now and I  see that all I wanted to do was feel sorry for myself. ...You think maybe Pain Medicine was involved... I didn't then, but I do now. But I was able to pull myself out of it with the help of..Man's Best Friend..
     One day the home nurse was telling me her dog had puppies and she was trying to find good homes for them. I'm a dog lover from way back so I had to know everything about them. Well guess what, she talked me right into letting her bring a couple of them out to look at. We already had one inside dog and I didn't think my wife would go along with us having  another one. But the way the nurse talked about them, I wanted one and I thought I could talk her into it. I told the Nurse that I didn't see how she could refuse a soon to be "one legged cripple", and I was right she didn't stand a chance.  
      That evening she brought two out to the house and that was it. My Wife and I, my grandson, we all three fell in love with  them. My grandson he wanted them both but I knew that wasn't going to happen and I was happy with just one. I knew one was going to be hard enough. Now there's going to be two dogs in the house and one is a puppy that's not housebroken. I'm thinking my wife works all day, my grandson is in school all day and I'm in a wheelchair with my leg straight out in front of me and  I'm in so much pain I can't even move. I'm wondering can I do this.              < Well Guess What >
      We named her, Ginger. Now we had two inside dogs, and the fun started. Our other dogs name is Major and the two of them got along great. They soon became the best of buddies and were right beside each other all the time. Guess what, Now I Had Something To Do. I didn't have time to sit around in this wheelchair all day feeling sorry for myself. I really believe they got me through that rough time right before they took my leg off. During the day when no one else was here Ginger would sit beside this wheelchair and look up at me and never move. Pretty soon she had Major doing it with her. It seemed like they would sit there for hours at a time. They would follow me from room to room, sit there and wait on me. They adored me and still do.
       I'm a type person that believe things happen to us for a reason. I believe those dogs helped me get out of the rut I was in and feel better about what was going to happen.
       My situation was bad and I was starting to believe that it could be worse. No, I knew it could be worse... It had been about six weeks now and the Doctor's said the bones weren't fusing together and  the infection was getting worse. So we made the appointment for surgery to amputate.
   ...I told the Doctor to save it, I wanted to make a lamp out of it...