[Dailydrool] Museum of Trauma Art

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

I'll donate the pellet that was removed from our Elsinore's back  
about four years ago. It's sitting in a jar on a shelf over the  
kitchen sink, along with the small piece of ear that basset friend  
Macy tore out of Elsinore over a disagreement about who was going to  
get a treat. Elsinore now has a little notch in her ear as a forever  
reminder of Macy, who died two years ago and is very missed. The  
piece of ear isn't eligible for the museum because its removal wasn't  
very traumatic. Dramatic, yes, because Macy was all about drama, but  
drama and trauma are two different things.

The actual pellet removal wasn't traumatic or even expensive, but I  
imagine the acquisition of that pellet was and certainly its effects  
have been. We have no idea how Elsinore came to be shot, but for some  
reason someone(s) in her past hit their mark with a pellet gun and  
also put a bb in her hip. About a year after Elsinore came to live  
with us, the pellet started shifting around in her back, bumping into  
her sciatic nerve several times a week and causing her to suddenly  
stop dead in her tracks and scream with pain. That was pretty  
traumatic for all of us, especially since we had no idea what was  
causing her such pain.

After the pellet was discovered and removed, scar tissue formed in  
the space it had occupied. A couple of times a year the scar tissue  
shifts a bit and aggravates Elsinore's sciatic nerve. This usually  
happens in the morning. She'll get out of her crate, stretch as  
usual, and then yark yark yark with pain. We give her a muscle  
relaxer and wait a very long half hour for it to kick in.

I continue to wish identical trauma on the person who shot her, and I  
hope that person gets to live with the resulting lifelong sciatica  
flareups just like our Elsinore.

Elizabeth