My Dachshund’s Disc Surgery

*I have posted the stages of a dachshunds disc surgery on lucas’ page…

Lukes’ page

–My Story–

I finally have some time to write a little. I’ve been very busy! My thanksgiving was hell, just like I thought it would be, but I never expected what happened, would actually happen. I told everyone that we should just stay home this thanksgiving so everyone is safe and don’t have to worry about everyone being on the road. I had a feeling something bad was going to happen, but no one ever listens to me. I’m not going to sit here and say that this is anyone’s fault. There are a lot of what ifs, and whys. What if we didn’t go to my sisters for thanksgiving? What if I would have been watching him there, then this wouldn’t have happened! Why does this have to happen to a perfectly good natured dog. I have mentioned Lucas a few times in my other blogs. He is my baby. This past year, I went from mother to acting like we were brothers and sisters, fighting all the time. We would blame each other on things. He would hate when I would boss him around, try to act I am still the boss of him and try to control him. He loved that he got more attention from my parents then me, we would compete. Lately he just would never listen to me. He got so disconnected from me being the boss of him, he was like an out of control teenager. Doing whatever he wants and pleases. It just caught up with me and him.

On thanksgiving day, Nov 22, he was fine, I didn’t notice anything wrong with him. We reached my sisters apt and he was exicted, ready to get out and pee and meet her. I let him climb 2 flights of stairs himself cause I was carrying a load up. It was in the back of my head, should I just carry him? ‘meh he can do it, he climbed more stairs then this before. ‘ We waited for other members of the family to arrive and he met him like always. I made him a plate of thanksgiving food and it seemed like he wasn’t interested, like something was wrong there but again, I just put it in the back of my mind. I got him excited about the food and he ate it fast like always and came begging for more. After resting for a few hours, we were back on the road to my grandmas. That night he threw up and I thought he just has a little tummy ache from eating too much. I thought we should just go to bed and he would be better in the morning.

Nov. 23, we went outside to poop, and I thought yay, the food is out of him, he shouldn’t have any more tummy ache. But I was wrong. He still seemed like his tummy was hurting. He still passed a lot of gas, and I thought okay this has happened before when he was a year old, he just has gas, it will be gone in few hours. All it seemed like he wanted to do was sleep. I woke him up every 2 hours to take him outside to get exercise and to maybe poop again. Looking back on it, this just made it worse. Stupid me. Finally I was getting so worried, all day he just was not himself. I went to walmart to get him a new toy to maybe get him excited, but he really didn’t care about it. That’s when dad was like okay we are taking him to the vet, this isn’t normal. So we got ready and took him in and the vet took x-rays and blood test. He came back and said everything was “normal”, he just had a little gas. Uhm, I could have told him that. So we were just sent home with some heartburn and tummyache medicine. I gave it to him right when we got home and 30 mins later he threw it up. I finally said we are just going to bed, and then tomorrow morning were leaving for home. I took him outside, and he peed normally, then went on to bed.

Nov 24, I woke up at 4 in the morning, which was really 3 at the place I was. So, I just watched Lucas sleep for next hour. I woke him, and he seemed like he didn’t want to move. I picked him up and said lets go outside to pee pee, so I put him down on the floor and I noticed his back legs was different. I got in front of him with his toy and said come on, and he didn’t move. He looked back at his legs and then back at me with his puppy dog eyes wondering why he cant walk. I began panicking. I woke up dad and said something wrong with lukes legs. He sat down on the floor and called him over, and he did the same thing again, looked back at his legs, then again at me. I just wanted to cry. I told dad his legs are paralyzed! What do we do?!? He called the vet at 5 in the morning and we told him about his legs, and said he would meet us at the clinic. He took out the x-rays and then pointed out all lukes bad disc. He said there are a lot. He said he didn’t want to say anything last night cause Lucas was acting normal, jumping all over the place, and trying to get in my arms. The vet told us he is paralyzed and everyone just started crying. My knees became weak. I just sat down in shock. I knew he was paralyzed, but a vet to actually tell me that, I didn’t want to hear it. Dad asked what do we do? The vet said put him in a crate for 6-8 weeks and they should heal on their own. He didn’t think surgery was necessary at this time. We asked for steroid and a sleeping shot for him to make it all the way home 3 hours in a car. Lucas was so drugged he didn’t know where he was or what he was doing. He was in so much pain that he started chewing on my sweater, I had to scream his name to wake him up and tell him to stop. He would start digging on my arm, then biting it. I couldn’t control him and didn’t know how I was going to control him when I put him in a crate for a month. I told dad in the car we should go to our vet and see what they think. So he called our vet and asked for appointment that day. We got there at 10 and our vet wasn’t in, of course! So we got a nurse and she didn’t even want touch him. I asked should we go to Purdue University? (cause I remembered thats where my dads cousins paralyzed dachshund went and thats where my coaches paralyzed dachshund went. I knew they were very smart and have the latest everything there, if they couldn’t fix him no one could.) She said yes, he has too many bad disc for his age and said they will prolly want to do surgery. She told us to go to right away, she would make the appointment and everything for us, she just said go now. We started driving another 3 hours to Purdue. We didn’t know where we were going or where anything was on Purdue’s University. All we had was a horrible map. Thank god I listened in geography class, only thing I actually listened in that class, was how to read a map. Give me map, even a horrible map and I’ll still get you there without getting lost. The campus was closed because of the holiday so no one was there. The town and campus was basically just dead. The hospital is like a real hospital. The smell, the rooms, the coldest, the doctors, the nurses, everything. No doctors were in at the time we arrived. Just an intern and a student. They talked to us for a long time telling us what happened to Lucas back. They wanted to do surgery on Monday if Lucas could wait until then. So we left Lucas with them and starting driving another 3 hours back home. It wasn’t more then 30 minutes, the cell phone rang and I picked up. It was a young lady with a British accent. She said she is the surgeon there at Purdue and heard about Lucas and rushed to the hospital to look at his x-rays. She wanted to do emergency surgery right away. I handed the phone to dad for him to give her the “okay” for surgery. He was in surgery for 3 hours. It was the longest 3 hours of my life. Around 8:30pm she called and said the surgery was a success and we could pick him up next week. He was in ICU for 3 days, with his nurse, Brandi that was with him 24-7. (I proudly recommend this hospital to anyone. They are professional and know what they are doing. Brandi called us twice a day with updates with lucas. Dogs have it good…The surgeon told us to call her night or day if we needed her for anything…what ‘human’ doctor ever does that? )

We picked him up on Wednesday Nov 28. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know if I would be ready emotionally to take care of him. I was sitting in the waiting room, excited and nervous at the same time. Me and dad started becoming so impatient we started walking around looking at stuff on wall. Then Brandi came out in the waiting room holding him. He was so excited to see us. He looked good far away, then I got closer and closer and then I saw his staples and wanted to cry. It looks so painful. Mum started crying and I tried to stay strong for him. We went back to a room and talked to Brandi for a few minutes then she left and I was so nervous. I didn’t know what to do. How do I hold him? Will I break him? I wanted her to come back. Lucas was nervous too. Finally I just pumped myself up, remembered what Justin told me and just picked him up and sat down and relaxed and started talking to him like normal. Asking about what he’s been through and if he met any new girl friends. It made him relax too. We were with him for about 1 hour until the doctor got out of surgery. She was so nice. Lucas likes her too, which made me relax. Usually he’s scared of doctors and places like that. But I think he knew they were taking care of him and helping him. The doctor had good news and bad news. Good news, She thinks he has a 99% chance of walking again, she wouldnt know why he wouldnt. The bad news is in 6 months, or whenever he will be able to walk as good as he will be able to, he will need another surgery to fix the other 3 disc. They have a new technology out that only one other Animal hospital in the world has. Which is in Oklahoma City. Its a laser that will now fix disc instead of cutting open the back again. Purdue is hoping to get it in 6 months and Lucas is first in line to get it. If they don’t have it in 6 months to a year, we will have to drive to Oklahoma for it. Anyways, we came home late that night and went to sleep. I had to manually express his bladder that night and I told him to relax its okay to pee, and from then on, pee is everywhere. It’s been 11 days now since his surgery. He’s doing really well. First few days, he was having trouble holding his bladder, but now he is waiting until we get outside. Yesterday he tried to stand up on his own. He’s kind of like a baby just trying to learn to walk. He will crawl around, then try to stand up then fall back down. Today he’s been trying to scratch his back and biting on his legs. I scratched his leg for him and then he stretched his legs himself. All this is so good and exciting.

I have therapy that I do with him 3 times a day for 10 mins. The first therapy I do is the manipulation, which is doing the “bicycle” motion. I do about 40 each leg. Then I do the balancing, which is just keeping his back straight and moving his back legs side to side. The last motion is the pushups, which is keeping his back straight again but instead of moving side to side, I move up and down. I try to do 10 minutes but he gets so tired and always wants sit down. After he get his staples out, ill have to add the hydrotherapy, which of course doing therapy in the warm water. The improvements he has made so far by trying to stand up and scratch his ears with his back legs and try to scratch back there are such good signs. I just can’t wait for him to get up and finally take those first steps and know everything I have done paid off. Visit luke’s website. I try to keep it updated every day or every other day for family and friends. http://lukepaulin.wordpress.com/

This all happened so fast. I wasn’t expecting this would happen to my Lucas. I know Justin didn’t think this would happen. I know he was mad at first when I told him. Everyone was mad and/or sad. He was expecting me to come home excited to talk to him and tell him how much i was missing him and for things to go back to they were. But maybe this is exactly what we need. I know we aren’t talking all that much like we used to, 24-7. But when we have kids, this will how it will be. I’ll be nursing our baby and getting up every hour in the night to take care of them just like I am now with Lucas. I might be busy with Luke a lot, but I always find time for us to spend time with each other. Which I promised myself and him I would do that everyday. God will always be trying to test us, through our lives. We just have to take what situations he gives us, good and bad and accept them and deal with them and hope you will have someone to support you through the way. I know we will be okay and get through this together. I’m glad I have you to talk to about this and for you to always being here for me. I didn’t think you would be so supportive like you are and so patient with me. It makes me fall in love with you even more now then I was before. I know I haven’t said this, but I know you know. Thank you for being here. Thank you for letting me forget all the bad when I’m with you, even if it’s for awhile. I need it. You make me laugh even through the hardest days. I love you very very very much!