04 | September | 2009 | Snorkeling the ABC Islands

We took Max over to see his Dr , Dr Shawn Llewellyn at the Scottsdale Veterinary Hospital at 3:30 today for an assessment. Shawn checked him over, was pleased with his progress. He saw that Max was able to move his left hind, responds to pain stimuli quite easily on the hind leg, so it’s really good news. He’s not making big progress on his left front, but he’s still trying. The vet decreased his prednisone because we were noticing a bit of blood in his stool. Not good, prednisone can be so hard on the gut. He’s on sulcrate but it’s not enough so we are adding new meds to the regime.

Also we mentioned the pain med situation. He’s ordered tramadone I think the name of it is, and we are just going to give him one at night to help him calm and sleep as he seems to be more antsy at night. I think we are going to take him upstairs with us tonight to sleep and hope he has no diarrhea upsets and if he does, that we can take him in our bathroom as it’s got a vinyl floor. we all need to get a good night sleep and it’s worth a try.

Today is another day, and while we have not seen great improvements today, he’s holding his own. He did vomit earlier today, but the poor bugger had eaten some of my cooking, so who can blame him?

Good old Max…. he’s doing his best. Here is the thing: when he is bad, I despair for him; when he is good, I’m overjoyed. I have to realize it’s only been a couple of days. We can’t discern patterns yet. I need be a little less emotional, and a little more stoic. We’re just trying to roll with the punches.

We do know Max is a brave guy. He’s struggling with the front paw that won’t lay on the pad properly, but lately he’s been putting weight on it, even though it’s not flat. I’m worried he’ll break that ankle, but he’s just ‘giving her’ when I’m supporting him with the sling. I could barely keep up to him last night when he went for a squirt!

But here is the thing: we’re going to give him all the time HE needs. I see positive signs, and I’m not going to let the little setbacks throw me into despair. We just need to keep struggling on. The vet was very encouraging to us. Many signs we’ve seen she said can take weeks. So Max is obviously special! 🙂

The difficulty comes in December when we go to the Caribbean. Certainly Anne-Maria is not going to want to deal with Max in his current state. So there is our “hard deadline.” By December, he needs his mobility, enough to manage his needs.

So, bear that in mind with everything we say. We have a goal in mind. Max needs to be able to manage his needs by December.

I think he gets more sleep than Pam and I combined! lol

Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao