I wrote a ten-page post about what’s been going on with
Martha over the last five days, but instead have decided to offer the Cliff’s
Notes version.
She started acting strange late Wednesday night and by
Friday morning was whisked into emergency spinal surgery. As it turns out, she has a genetic condition
causing the discs in her vertebrae to break down prematurely. When we visited the surgeon for the initial consultation, she gave Martha a 50% chance at full recovery. If I didn't want to do surgery (which by the way, costs about as much as small vehicle), the
neurosurgeon advised putting her down immediately as the compression on her
spine was causing intense pain and would continue to do so unless the pressure
was relieved. Slightly exhausted from a tumultuous prior 24 hours and
unprepared to make such a major decision at that
moment, I opted for the surgery in an attempt to buy some time, get some rest,
and clear my head.
Once in the surgery, it was determined that Martha’s case
was more severe than originally thought.
The surgeons assumed she had one ruptured disc; it turned out that she
had two ruptures and two more on the verge (her T-11, T-12, L1, and L2 for all you spinal nerds).
What was normally a 60-90 minute surgery turned into three hours. After the surgery, her condition continued to
deteriorate over the weekend (it was expected to get better immediately following), and the neurologist suspected that her spinal
cord had begun to die – a condition that would create complete paralysis in
every part of her body including her lungs and diaphragm, ultimately causing asphyxiation. But then yesterday night, the
downhill slide suddenly stopped. (Halle-freakin-llujah.)
She is coming home tomorrow, but the journey isn’t over
yet. Today, she is paralyzed from
the waist down and completely incontinent, or as I told her when I visited this afternoon, a shitting paperweight. Over the next month or so, we will do exercises to keep her muscles in
shape, turn her at regular intervals to prevent bed sores, share a few beers and some good times, and clean up a lot
of poop and pee while hoping that her spinal cord heals and she regains
sensation in the lower part of her body.
If she does not, then I will take her back to the neurologist and put her
down with the best drugs known to man('s best friend).
She is not particularly thrilled right now, but I can't say that I blame her. (Plus, she has no idea how much fun we're going to have in the coming days...bags upon bags of Snausages totally on the house in addition to lots of cuddles and kisses. Maybe I'll even catch her an almost-dead squirrel.) We'll see what the next few weeks bring. If anyone's got it in them to overcome something like this, it's Martha.
In the meantime, both of us are very, very tired, but on the upside, she licked my face today when she saw me, something I usually chastise her for but which today brought a great thrill.
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| Mostly she's just peeved that she can't scratch her ears. |
15 comments:
Fingers crossed for Martha and you =/
OMG
Poor Martha... and I am so so sorry.
HUGS coming to Texas for you.
Nothing but positive thoughts and good wishes to you both!
More positive thoughts headed to you and Martha. Although she can't scratch her ears, I'm sure she'll be especially glad to have you do it.
Hugs to you and Martha.
I'm so so sorry to hear about Martha. I'm so glad she has you as a mom and I know that the two of you will get through this with love, affection, and probably some cursing. I'm glad she is getting such good care- I don't even know that veterinary neurosurgeon exists in Fort Worth, and that you were able to move forward with the procedure to give you both time. Thinking good thoughts for you guys...
Thanks everyone for the well wishes. I am pretty excited that she is headed home today.
And LL - I did not know until last Thursday that doggie neurosurgeons existed either. It was a "ruff" (haha) decision, and I actually sat in an exam room debating the surgery for over two hours. Had the odds been high or low, the choice would have been much easier. I know she's just a dog and her life is limited, but at this stage she's only halfway through her normal lifespan, and if she had a chance at full recovery, I wanted to let her have her best shot. While the surgery was crazy expensive, I found that I did have the money in the bank due to my recent uptick in work. I figured my student loans could wait.
Initially I worried that it would be more difficult to put her down if her personality improved as she felt better, but her legs did not. My attitude has since changed, and if she does not improve, I think I will be really appreciative to have had another 30-45 days with her and have some really great final moments as well as the opportunity and time to really prepare myself for it.
But as long time readers know, she's pretty "dogged" and I also wouldn't be surprised if she suddenly popped up and started walking around like nothing had happened.
I am so sorry! It sounds like you are doing everything humanly possible to help her. Best of luck in the weeks to come.
Martha is a fighter! Briscoe and I will be thinking about y'all, and I'm so glad you are able to work from home and look after little M dog. I can't imagine making a different decision than the one you made, and now you just have to take it one day at a time. Lots of hugs.
That really really sucks. You guys are so lucky to have each other.
Best wishes,
Long time reader, TL
Oh my gosh, how awful. Martha will pull through because she's got a tough as nails doggie mama with a big heart. You'll get through it because you've got Martha, who's tough as nails with a big heart too.
P.S.- You should make a zzzzip (zipper) sound whenever you pet her back, like you're going to unzip her.
To E. McPan - the running gag today has been that every time I leave the room I turn to her and say, "Momma will be right back. Whatever you do, don't move. Stay. Stay. GOOD DOG!"
She doesn't seem to find it as humorous as I do.
Give it time. Maybe more than 30-45 days. My friend's basset ruptured a disc and had a similar progression, including surgery. He went through a few weeks of intense PT. After about 4 months, he has worked up to walking about 1.5-2 miles. Slowly, but walking. PT is the key.
Hey Ana, just went back and read your comment and it's making me want to relay a story I wrote out but then deleted in my first comment.
My parents had a yellow lab (mix) puppy they adopted three years ago named Chance. After about a year they noticed he was having serious problems with his back legs. A few x-rays and specialists later, it was discovered that he had pretty severe congenital arthritis and some other issues with his hips and a very expensive surgery might be able to fix it, with rehab and time, but he would still have a significantly shorter lifespan. The odds were something like 80-20 or 90-10 that the surgery would help and the specialist said he truly couldn't recommend either course of action, that it was something my parents needed to decide if they were willing to invest in and risk that it might not improve at all and even if it worked, they were likely only buying a few more years.
It was a difficult decision, they don't just have a few thousand dollars lying around, but in the end, it really wasn't difficult at all. They moved forward and he got the surgery. Unfortunately, it didn't work out as they hoped. He recovered and they had several more months together, but he was in pain again after only a few and they ended up putting him to sleep with peace and love in their hearts about 5 months after the surgery.
I didn't want to share it at first because it's not the happiest outcome, but I want to now because I know they felt very at peace with what happened because they knew they'd done all they could (or if not all, all that was appropriate for Chance; more surgery would have been painful and probably scary for him and would have only bought another short period of time) and they'd enjoyed every minute of the extra trips to the lake, petting sessions on the floor, and frisbee sessions after work. All of those felt like a bonus and not something that was stolen from them. On the day they put him down, they were very sad, but they weren't heart broken, and I think if they'd done it right when they found out about the problem, they would have been heart broken. The extra months bought them that shift and that peace and they don't regret them.
I hope that makes sense and if it's too soon to read, delete away. Thinking of you two!
LL - It makes perfect sense to me. It's funny. I find that on the days I'm focused on Martha's recovery I find myself bummed out that she hasn't made any progress. On the days where I consider her care to be more of a "hospice" style - those are great days. When she eats, it's amazing. When we enjoy time in the sun on the front lawn, it's amazing. When she cuddles up next to me, it's a joy.
It goes to show that the old cliche is true. You can sit around and be unhappy about the things that you don't have, or you can be happy and immensely enjoy the things that you do.
Putting her down last week would have been traumatic. Getting to savor another month or two with her and have time to(possibly)prepare myself for her passing feels like a wonderful gift.
Based on the surgery and her response a few days after, the odds of her recovery are very low, and her day-to-day care right now is quite intensive, but I wouldn't change my decision to do it. If it comes time to put her down, we'll both be ready.
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