to me in bed when I desperately
needed to call for help due to a
flare up that rendered me nearly
paralyzed it seemed.
When Bunny Boy's abscess finally
returned four years later, Dr.
Welch had seen a new procedure
being taught in continuing education
at University of Pennsylvania
that veterinarians thought could
actually now cure these aggressive
types of abscesses. She humbly
told me that she did not know
how to do the procedure yet but
that she thought she might be able
to arrange for Bunny Boy to go
into the world famous Animal
Medical Center in NY to be considered
for the treatment where
they would remove the abscess,
part of the bone and implant antibiotic
beads directly into the bone
that would release slowly over
three months. It was cutting edge
medicine. Well I found myself in
the car at five a.m. the following
morning in the pitch dark, on my
way into New York.
There was nothing I wouldn't do
for Bunny Boy. Well, the interview
was something the president
of the United States would receive.
In the many years that I
16—iPain Living Magazine
had been so sick and visited some
of the top hospitals in NY, never
had a single doctor been so thorough
with me! They wanted to be
sure Bunny Boy would survive
the surgery and be in one of their
medical journals.
Bunny Boy underwent the cutting
edge surgery a week later and
thrived, but the post op regimen
was even more extensive than his
first surgery as the inspection had
sadly also spread to his hocks.
But my family stepped up to the
plate, all playing their critical role
in Bunny Boy's recovery, bringing
us all closer as a family and
our love for Bunny Boy grew
even deeper. Two years later I
woke up one day with a small
pimple size lump over my eye
tooth. Within hours my face was
swollen to the size of a baseball
glove. The doctors thought I
might have bone cancer. Bone
cancer! For three days as I waited
for the surgery, Bunny Boy was
camped out wherever I was, sensing
something was deeply wrong .
It was nothing short of a miracle.
When I woke from the anesthesia
and the doctor told me he had implanted
antibiotic beads that they
had just started using on humans,
the conversation was incredible
and he promptly called the AMC
the following day, intrigued that
our miracle rabbit had played a
critical role in rabbit/human medicine.
I was on methotrexate and
Enbrel at the time of my surgery
so I was quite immunosuppressed
and IV antibiotics might not have
gotten rid of the infection that
was deep in the bone. Bunny Boy
helped save my life figuratively
and literally.
For those of us suffering with
chronic pain, getting a pet can
sound like a lot of extra work and
energy that we just don’t have to
give anymore. But what Bunny
Boy taught me was that the extra
work of caring for a pet is not a
chore; you are actually on the receiving
end of pet therapy. Pets
make us walk to let them out, or
in my case chase them around the
yard like a NASCAR driver. They
make us stretch to clean their litter
pan, brush their silky fur or
snuggle. They stand at our feet
and wiggle their little noses or
binky across the carpet looking to
play, which requires exercise on
our part. What better therapy for
fibromyalgia? Pets also teach us
that unconditional love really
does heal where medical falters,
and love prolongs and improves
quality of life. I was so busy car-
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