Gracie

It has been awhile since I blogged, but things have been a little crazy. Our most recent event involved our little, precious dog Gracie. She had an accident on New Years Day morning trying to jump on the bed to visit her Grammy and Papa (my mom and dad). She fell off the bed and either landed funny or twisted on the way down and slipped a disc in her neck. When it first happened she appeared paralyzed from the neck down, but after 30 minutes or so she started moving her back legs. Her front legs were a different story. We took her to the emergency vet because she could not move her front legs or put any weight on them. If we tried to stand her up she would just collapse and fall head first on the ground.




The vet (Dr. Smith) was great and very optimistic that Gracie would recover, but by the looks of her, we really had our doubts. Dr. Smith said this wasn't the worse case she'd seen and said Gracie should recover in about a month. They kept Gracie over night and we came back the next morning to pick her up.



Our instructions were to keep giving her the medication (steroids, pain killers, muscle relaxers, and an antacid) and to restrict her movements and come back the next day. Gracie couldn't do anything for herself. We had to hold her to eat and drink and assist her in going outside to use the restroom. This involved allowing her to walk on her back legs and holding her front half off the ground (it was quite funny to see myself and Dusty duck walking around the yard holding our dog and cheering when she went to the bathroom). It didn't help matters that Texas had the coldest temps in 10 years the week she was completely immobile. The temps were in the teens and 20's with single digit wind chills and our sweet little dog does NOT like the cold. She would shiver and was completely miserable.



We kinda had a routine down, but then the fun began. The medicine caused Gracie to have explosive diarrhea, and I mean explosive. This occurred hourly. My dear, sweat, husband stayed up all night with her taking her outside every hour. Needless to say, we went back to the vet. This one was just a normal vet office close to our house. He gave her meds for the diarrhea which was basically just 1/4 of an Immodium tablet twice a day. This vet wasn't as optimistic as Dr. Smith. He said that if she doesn't start improving soon, we should look and seeing a Neurologist and consider surgery. This option usually runs around $5000 and that just wasn't in our budget. He told us to come back in a couple days. We went back and he repeated what he said and we told him we were willing to wait this out to see if she improved. Surgery wasn't really an option for us because of the cost. We were going to try and rehabilitate her and even considered getting those wheels for dogs if that didn't work.



Well to try to make this long story a little shorter, this past Monday, Gracie turned a corner. She was starting to get stronger and was able to stand on her own and take a few steps out of her kennel. I took her outside and basically had to let go and see what would happen. Well, my amazing little girl started walking on her own. She walked like she was drunk, but she was still walking! It was a great sight to see. I called Dusty to tell him, but he really didn't grasp what I was trying to tell him. I knew he had to see it to believe it. He got home around 8 that night, and I immediately told him I needed to show him something. I got Gracie and took her outside. I set her down in the grass and she started walking. He was so excited and you could tell it was sinking in--she was going to get better!



So, it is now two weeks since the accident and Gracie is walking on her own. She still has moments of weakness and her balance and strength still need improvement, but we are on the road to recovery. For all of ya'll that prayed, we thank you.



I'll try to keep this current.