Maya Papaya and 4 story Terrace

If anyone knows our Maya Papaya, you know she is the spirit of adventure. She’s a one year old beagle/boxer mix who travels the country with my husband Derek and I While I perform with Wicked the Musical’s national tour. This passed Sunday, January 13, 2019, Maya and I were relaxing on our very large terrace on the 4th story of our Airbnb in Hollywood. Maya and I spend many mornings out there relaxing, but this time something caught her attention. Before I could even blink, or yell for her to stop, Maya dashed away and jumped clear over the wall of our terrace, down four stories onto jagged cobble stone stairs and spiky bushes. The moments after we’re horrific and traumatizing for both Maya and us. She had landed in the other complex, where at first we could not get to her. Her screams went silent, as mine grew more and more hysterical. I thought she had died. But with assistance from angelic neighbors, we were able to get inside the gate and see that she was awake and alive. She had scratches all over her body, and was clearly unable to move. After several minutes of panic and dismay, we were able to stabilize her into her dog bed and get her to the emergency vet right away. She was going in and out of consciousness, lightly moaning from pain. At this point we had no idea what the damage was. If she was bleeding on the inside, had broken ribs and legs, a concussion, we knew nothing except that she had fallen and was very very hurt.  When we arrived, the vet techs swooped her from my hysterical arms and began work on my terrified broken girl.  After hours of every body scan, x-Ray, blood test you could think of, they were able to tell us that through some miracle, the only serious damage was to her right back femur. No concussion, no bleeding, no broken ribs. She must have landed in such a way that she saved her own life and put all of the impact on her hind leg. While this news was a great relief, knowing she will live, the reality of the injuries at hand had set in. She completely shattered her femur, with very little bone to save. The surgeon had to lengthen her leg by essentially recreating her femur with rods, metal plates and bone graft. She will one day gain mobility and be the same young adventurous dog, but that will be after months of physical therapy, countless check ups,  x rays and round the clock care. She has been in the hospital for the passed two nights and three days being watched and taken care of by the best vets in Los Angeles. My husband will be staying off of tour with her in our home town, to ensure she gets the best treatment for her leg in the coming months. The risks are high with bone grafts, there is a chance the bone will be rejected by maya’s Body. We pray this is not the case, but if so, she will need to go back into surgery. I know Maya is a strong girl and we are keeping hope that she accepts the bone graft and heals completely and steadily. 

We are very blessed that we were in a position to make the quick decision to have the surgery and give her the bone graft, which the doctor had to choose to do during surgery because there was so little bone left to use. We can’t thank God enough to have me working at a place where we had enough savings for the emergency at hand. However, almost 10,000 dollars later and still many many visits and payments to go, we have run ourselves a bit dry. We (I particularly) really struggle with asking for help, but in the name of my baby maya, I have no choice but to ask my friends and family for any kind of assistance at all. A dollar, 50 cents, WHATEVER will make a difference. We now have to find a place for Derek and Maya to live, near the hospital while Maya makes frequent visits over the next few weeks, while I stay on the road and pay for housing in each city. There’s now expenses for medicine, additional x rays, physical therapy, and of course the basic survival essentials for our dog that will amplify our spending to an amount that almost seems impossible now that we have spent everything we had. We wouldn’t take anything back. We would sell the shirts off of our backs if we had to to save our dog. As any dog parent would. She’s our baby. We can’t thank everyone enough for the kind words we have received during this traumatic time. We must be strong for our girl. She comes home tonight and will be on bed rest and confined to a 4 by 4 space for the next few weeks, and knowing maya, that will be quite hard for her. But we are ready for the challenge. We are ready to be her rock. I will keep everyone updated on her progress with pictures and videos. Thank you again for reading this saga and helping to support our family. We love you and God Bless you all.