Bailey

What a surprise it is to have spent most of the weekend at a doggie hospital. Thankfully, such a thing exists, but still this whole thing is a shock. After an extensive evaluation by a vet and a neurologist vet it has been determined that Bailey has a spinal chord injury. While running one of his discs in his back shot pieces of the disc into his spinal chord injuring it. There is no surgery that can repair this condition, just medicine, steroids, and a will to live- and lots of love. Bailey is currently paralyzed from the waist down, but has some feeling in his toes. He is unable to move his rear legs at all. The neurologist believes that he has a good chance of recovering to a decent quality of life- with that said his odds are 90% that he will walk again. After about 18 hours of IV steroids and pain medication Bailey is able to move his left leg slightly although I did not see this when I visited him today. MW did see him levetate his leg at one point. This is a huge advancement from yesterday when he had no movement. We visited him today and he seemed much more like himself and not quite as in shock as he was yesterday. His back legs are sort of just dangling and he is clearly confused or frustrated with the situation. As for us, we are trying to figure out how we are going to bring a dog home that can not walk. Amazingly, there are many devices available to assist with this. For us, we are going to construct a sling to hold up his back legs for him as he walks with his front legs. We are also going to try and create some sort of a wheel chair for his rear legs- We don't know how long it will be before he walks again. We were told 3-4 weeks to 3-4 months. We don't really know. For now this is a day by day situation where we are trying to determine what is best for our dog. For all you cynics out there who are reading this and thinking we must be crazy for caring so much for our dog there are a few realizations I have come to. (and you must not know me and my dogs very well if it comes as a surprise what lengths I am willing to go through for them) One, there are truly very few people in this world that I love more than my dogs. Bailey was a gift to me basically the day I moved out of my mom's house. I have never spent any long amount of time away from him - he has been a partner for exercise, a pillow for crying and most of all he was there in Germany while MW was in Bosnia, Iraq, or Graf. He has been a rock for me. The other thing- As a pet owner I owe it to my dog to give him the best quality of life possible. Until it is evident that I am unable to do so I will try. And lastly, money is no good to have in the bank if you have misery or sadness in your heart. The bottom line is Bailey is part of the family. We love him and will do whatever we can to help him heal. He has proven to be strong through many other trying times and we do not doubt him now. Bailey is expected to be released from the hospital tomorrow.