Trying to Ignore the Pain

So after a busted furnace and a temperamental carbon monoxide detector over the last few weeks, my string of strange semi-emergencies continued this weekend.

Andrea and I bundled up and took Abby to the dog park on Saturday afternoon to help her run off some pent-up energy and enjoy the sunshine, even though it was a little cold. Abby was excited, because there were at least 20 dogs at the park to play with, and plenty of mud after heavy rain Thursday and Friday. But after just five minutes, Abby came back to where we were standing, and was limping pretty seriously. We hustled her to the car and called the vet, who told us to rest her for the weekend and bring her in this morning.

For the next day and a half, Abby limped around the house, barely putting any weight on her back right leg, and making Andrea and I feel terrible every time she took a step. She struggled for a little while, but seemed to get used to her new gait, even mastering the best way to get on her favorite chair without pushing off her injured leg. She mostly slept all weekend, but didn’t seem to be in much pain, never whining or whimpering (the vet even told us to give her regular asprin, which I never really thought about).

Andrea took her to the vet this morning, and we’re waiting to hear what’s wrong. But her persistence all weekend was quite impressive. Unlike a human, who you can tell to sit down and relax when something is injured, it is nearly impossible to make a dog rest when she clearly doesn’t want to. She tried to go up and down the stairs, jumped on a visitor, and followed me everywhere around the house.

I tried my best to make her rest, mostly so I wouldn’t have to watch her try to walk (or even run) and feel guilty. But as I watched, I became more and more impressed with how she seemed to ignore the pain and adapt to the problem.

And that’s something we do here at DDA, better than anyone else (nice transition, huh?). At DDA, we handle so many different types of projects and so many different kinds of clients, that we are able to adapt to slow times in specific industries (and there are plenty of those these days).

Website design and development projects slowing down? No problem, we’ll just focus on the medical training and CME proposals that have been coming in. Noticing a lull in trade show displays and other print projects? No worries, we can create virtual trade show displays that will blow your mind. Not doing as much photography as we used to? That’s no big deal, because our video production crew is kept quite busy thanks to the wide variety of video projects in the pipeline.

The struggling economy is hurting everyone (wait until Abby’s bill from the veterinarian arrives). But thanks to our wide variety of services here at DDA, there is always something on deck and always something to keep us busy. Even just a week away from Christmas, in an epically slow economy, we have an assortment of great projects launching in the next few days and weeks. So, while the rest of American business is limping around (and asking for government bailouts), the talented copywriters, programmers, graphic designers, animators, videographers, and SEO specialists at DDA are rolling right along.

Entry by: Steve