Moving Along

Our dachshund Li'l Girl is just about 72 hours out from her hemilaminectomy on 01/08/12 as I write this.  Potty trips are getting better.  No accidents inside since yesterday morning.  She's had a number of successful #1s and two successful #2s outside, one yesterday afternoon and one this morning.  Her back legs are wobbly and unsure, but we know this is normal.  It takes quite a while for the spinal cord to recover from being compressed by the extruded disc material.  She is actually doing very well for this timeframe and we're thrilled with her progress so far.
She is and will have to be in a limited enclosure to restrict her activity for six weeks while she heals, only coming out to use the restroom.  She had a regular wire crate, but we decided it just wasn't meeting her or our needs.  Getting her in and out of it was more physically stressful on her than we wanted it to be.  We considered an exercise pen (usually just called an ex-pen, for short), but my husband decided he could put together something just as good and cheaper too.  He bought three baby gates for $10 a piece at Wal-Mart and connected them together to form a rectangular pen.  Two whole gates make up the two longer sides, and he took one apart to make up the two shorter sides.  It works perfectly and is much less stressful to get her in and out of.  Because it's so lightweight, we can just lift up one side to let her out.  We have a mattress in there (a crate pad), covered by piddle pads in case of accidents, then covered by a fleece blanket (which can be changed out with other things and washed as needed), and usually another small blanket or soft towel to cover her up with.  She also has a water bowl in there and a couple of her toys for comfort, even though she's not ready to chew them/play with them yet.  I will post a photo of it soon.
She is acting pretty sad to be in the pen this morning, though... she keeps whining off and on and just acting defeated.  We know she's as ready to get back to regular life as we are, probably moreso.  I feel more than awful that she has to go through all of this - she certainly doesn't deserve it - but I'm glad that we are able to take care of her.  I have cried and cried and cried, thinking about complications and worst case scenarios, but I've finally pushed myself to realize that I need to be strong for her.  For other dogparents, I know you can commiserate.  For people who think it's strange to talk this way about a dog, imagine if your child was diagnosed with a spinal disease, had to have spinal surgery, with possible complications including infection, worsening of their condition, recurrence of the original problem, lower body paralysis, or even death.  Death related to IVDD is rare, but there is a problem that can develop that is so bad that I don't even like to say the word out loud or even in writing, feeling like I may give power to it somehow.  It starts with an M and you can find it on the Dodgerslist site under Recommended Readings.  My point is... our dogs are our children and every good thing in their lives brings us the same happiness as human children do for others.  Just the same, every bad thing in their lives brings us just the same sadness, worry, and sleepless nights.  I pray for/about them just as much as I pray for/about anything else.  I have experienced quite a bit of tragedy and hardship in my life, but God has always been good to get me through it all.  He will get us through this too.  I pray daily for her recovery, and to give us the strength to manage it all along with all of our other usual daily life demands and stresses.  We have to take it one day at a time, and save for her sadness about being in the pen, today is (so far) a good day because she is making steady progress.   
Signing off for now...

Sleeping in the new enclosure - don't have pad to fit it yet, but that's coming.

 

 

Closer shot of me in the new enclosure.