Intratrochanteric and vestibular... two words that gave a scare

What a week the past week has been.

First, I learnt that my brother -- 12 years my senior and hence, if you are familiar with the Chinese zodaic system, a fellow Tiger -- fell and suffered a hip fracture. He is a stroke victim, paralysed on his left side. He had felt dizzy and fell on his left side. That was on Wednesday.

Was that better than if he had fallen on his right side?

Yes. Especially since the fracture, an intratrochanteric hip fracture, can be treated surgically by fitting in a metal plate and screws to hold the fractured part/s in place for healing to take place.

Since he did not fall on his right side, his already limited mobility is still preserved with, of course, physiotherapy, albeit this will be a long process. If he had fallen on his right side, he might have become permanently wheelchair bound.

The operation was done on Saturday. "Hip, hip", hurrah for modern medical science. And he's now a "metal" Tiger.

 Then yesterday (Sunday) morning, my 13-year-old beagle Brady started to be nerng kar (Hokkien for weak in the knees). He was wobbly and moved like a drunken dog (okay, that's not fair... like a drunken man). But he still had an appetite and could do his business. Given that it was Sunday, and also that our vet's opinion was that it was not an emergency, the earliest we could schedule a trip to the vet's was today.

And so, I came to learn yet another bit of medical terminology within the space of one week. Brady has "vestibular disease", for which the vet gave him an injection.

The vestibule system, working through the inner ears, on signals from the brain, gives a sense of spatial stability. That is, we humans -- and animals with such a system -- walk straight and steadily and can negotiate around objects, and are not disoriented or become dizzy when there is movement around us, thanks to these sensors linking our ears to our brain.

Brady's system went wonky. The exact cause is unclear but it seems likely to be age-related, as dogs aged 12 and above are prone to this usually non-life threatening disease. Brady -- at 13 -- is. after all, senior dog (Killer, my mini schnauzer, at seven, is just dog. Maybe a position of dog mentor could be created another time).

I think the injection will help to bring the system back into sync. It may take a while, the vet says. Meantime, Brady is both in low spirit (he looks sad as a result of his condition) and at the same time he seems to be in "high spirit" (he looks drunk). I can't wait for him to be his old self, and chasing Killer around our furniture-strewn house.